A parade, that is, of recently finished knitting projects!

I have been on a good finishing streak so this post is all about glamour shots of said FOs.

Who needs a cowl in Dubai? It might surprise you to know that it does get cold here, in the desert, despite over 360 days of glorious sunshine every year. Yes, we get an average of 5 days a year when the mighty Sun is obscured due to heavy fog or sandstorm, or heavens forbid we get rain! Out of the 360 days, about 60 of those are the actual proper “winter” when the temperature sometimes hits single digits. You can never go wrong with a cowl tucked in your handbag for the rest of the year because of over-zealous air conditioning everywhere. I mean everywhere! So yes, cowls in Dubai are a thing.

This one was a test-knit. It was more like a recipe because it’s brioche stitch and if you haven’t tried knitting brioche stitch then you are missing out on the fun, big time! However, the ever-talented Dieuwke has added an amazing twist to this cowl. See that braid of squishy goodness? Yes, that! Do you think you can figure out how to get that? Ha! Maybe you can after studying it and doing a trial-and-error for the next few weeks or months, but why bother when you can grab the pattern from Ravelry? I present to you my Experioche, knit in my own hand-dyed Dubai Knits Luxe DK. Well, the white yarn is undyed. I’m a bit partial, but I just love this yarn.

Next up, an infinity scarf. My favourite Irish girlie, Carrie Sullivan released an Irish-themed pattern just in time for St. Patrick’s Day so when an Irish-themed KAL was announced in her Ravelry group, I knew this was the pattern I have to make. Ring of Kerry is a fun knit! It has lace, ribbing, stripes and gives you the opportunity to play with colours. The pattern calls for aran weight but I was a little short of heavier gauge yarns so I bit the bullet and used sportweight yarn. I have plenty of Sundara Yarn Silk Sport and just know it would feel great in a cowl wrapped next to the skin. I chose very spring-y colours and was glad I had enough of both colours, thanks to the destash from Angela a few years ago. I just love the simple charm of the design elements and practicality of the cowl.

One thing I was not entirely happy about was the way the Green Tea colour bled into the Tickled Pink during soaking. My fault for letting it soak overnight in the bathroom sink. So you can see the pink has a tinge of yellow-green to it and lost a bit of its own pinky lustre. No matter, the cowl is great at keeping the chill of the office aircon at bay.

Show of hands, who here has a stash of leftover sock yarn? I see you. Yes, we all have those wee bits and bobs lying around, in the nooks and crannies of our IKEA bins and between sofa cushions. What do you do with those oddballs? I know some knitters who dived into the sock yarn blanket craze, but I’m too impatient and lazy to knit up a gabillion hexapuffs or mini squares to sew up to make a blanket. I was asked to knit up some Comic Con-themed projects and this is one of the easy ones that caught my eye: bow tie bookmarks because bow ties are cool! If you did not get that scifi reference, then I feel sorry for you. I have only made two so far, but the plan is to make a rainbow of bow tie bookmarks. Now if only I have 20 yards of TARDIS blue sock yarn…

In keeping with the Comic Con theme, I made my second pair of these fingerless gloves. Again, sorry if you don’t get the reference. I made my first pair nearly seven years ago and back then I could not read pattern charts. I wrote out the chart line by line and offered the instructions to the designer which is why you will see my name in the credit notes. I have since found out that there were errors in my transcription so I’m sorry if your mittens look wonky. I will contact Christina again to send corrected instructions. Anyway, this pair flew off the needles. That shows you just how practice makes things easier the second time around. Thanks, Ruth for modelling! Oh look at that tiny peek at your Hitofude!

That’s about it for now. I just realized I have at least two cardigans that have not been blogged about and the posts are gathering dust bunnies in my drafts folder. Ack! Must remedy that soon, but first I need to get some decent photos of the projects.