Finch

We had a lovely weekend in London and with a few pennies in my pocket, I made a visit to Loop.

I came away with yarn mainly for knitting socks.

There's some Madelinetosh Sock in Neon Peach, Blue Moon Socks that Rock in Firecracker, a couple of balls of Lang Jawoll Sock yarn for some stranded socks and 2 hanks of Quince and Co Finch in Apricot. They kindly wound one of the Finch for me in the shop, so I could get started while I was in London. 

I started a Flax Light by Tin Can Knits. It's a super easy pattern and I whizzed through it. Ravelry project page.

I didn't do any modifications as such but I used the Estonian Cast-On at the neck - my tutorial for it is here. 

I used TechKnitter's Fake Tubular Cast-Off for the cuffs and the bottom edge. It's a really easy cast-off and gives an interesting finish. 

1 x 1 ribbing is not my favourite type of knitting, I really dislike the open knit stitch and I just feel like it doesn't look good. I worked the neck and the bottom as normal but on the cuffs I worked the ribbing with a combination purl and though it hasn't closed up the knit stitch, I do feel like it looks a bit neater.

The yarn is Quince and Co Finch and it was lovely to work. It has a lot of body to it and the stitch definition is superb - the garter stitch is really shown off well.

The jumper is for a friend and I don't know the sex of the baby, so I went with a unisex colour. Perhaps not the most baby friendly colour as it's stronger than some would prefer but I always knit what interests me. I wouldn't say I was a process knitter per se but I want to enjoy what I'm knitting and not be bored with a non-descript colour.

Loop

On my birthday trip to London, last week. I did manage to squeeze in a visit to the Loop, Islington.

I had lots of plans but managed to narrow it down to a reasonable amount.

I received Fair Isle Style, edited by Mary Jane Mucklestone from Mr for Christmas. There's lots of patterns in there that I'd like to make. 

The first one is Kulli Cowl by Ysolda Teague. I'm not normally one to go with the exact yarn that the pattern calls for but since I was going to Loop and they stock the yarn. They ended up at the till with me. Though different colours to the original.

Incidentally, I seem to have ordered the yarn from Jamieson's of Shetland to knit the Babsie Bird from the book too. I really liked the colours.

I bought a skein of Wollemeise Pure 100% in Silberdistel. An unusual colour - a cross between a pine colour and a deep teal. The plan is to make an Imagine When shawl by Joji Locatelli.

I got Juju's Loops book too. The patterns are gorgeous but what really enticed me was how beautifully published the book was (on top of the pile).

So all this adds to the stash issue (the other 3 skeins were gifts mentioned last week). Hopefully they won't stay there very long!