Marching toward spring

Lots of time to knit in March, with spring break in the middle.  It's also usually the time that I participate in the Annual Yarn Challenge at a LYS.  This year the yarn was Briggs and Little Sport, a rustic wooly sport weight yarn.  I chose to knit a warm hat, since the Polar Vortex rushed down on us in Southern Ontario for the last bit of February into March. 

The pattern is by The Petite Knitter, a designer who lives on an island in Nunavut (far north), Canada.   I chose the hat for a couple of reasons.  First, it's an awesome hat that will be warm and cozy that lends itself to a big pompom (Bernat faux fur).  Second, it's a Canadian designer.  I want to support people who live Canada, especially those who forge ahead with their small business in this current economic climate.  She has new patterns out right now - the Tundra sweater and matching hat.  Maybe next year, I'll knit one of them.    She also has a pattern in the Mason-Dixon March Madness bracket (knitting bracket similar to the NCAA basketball bracket - all fun, found here!)  It's the Iqaluit Shawl.  Iqaluit is the capital of the territory Nunavut, if you're wondering about the name.

I also knit my third pair of socks for the Grocery Girls Sock Bash.  The theme was movies/tv/books, so I knit Hermione's Everyday Socks (Harry Potter reference) in some stash Dream In Color yarn.  The yarn is almost too variegated for the texture pattern, but I enjoyed knitting them.  My LYS has 1.75mm circulars on order for me - hoping they will be easier on my hands and easier to use for my next pair!

Next month's theme is 'from far away' - yarn from another country.  Off to dive into the stash and pattern library for April!

post-Mayhem Plans

This spring, I'm renewing my commitment to knitting from stash, and knitting patterns I already own. I strayed from this plan in late fall... and it became a slippery slope of purchasing, planning, but not necessarily knitting.  To get back on track, I'm revisiting my queue with this renewed goal in mind.

For inspiration, I'm turning to the MDK March Mayhem bracket.  The final winner is a yoke sweater by Isabell Kramer, Humulus.  Turns out 3 of the 4 'finalists' were patterns I voted for.  Only the mini-skein pattern was different (I chose Luminosity hat by Tanis of Tanis Fibre Arts).  Many of the patterns, however, are not in my library.  While I'd love to purchase many of them, I instead looked for patterns I own that fit these categories AND the yarn is already in stash.  I'm considering:


YOKES:
Indigo Frost by Isabell Kramer - same designer as the Mayhem winner, I own the pattern and have the yarn in stash , with gray as the main colour:

SWEATERS:
I have the yarn and pattern for Winterly  by Suvi Simola in the first issue of Laine Magazine.  My yarn is Classic Elite Alpaca Sox, and will be a bit more colourful than the original:

OR

I have the yarn to knit Wolf River by Melissa Schaschwary that I purchased quite a while ago.  It's bulky yarn with a lace pattern and should knit up quickly (or more quickly than a fingering weight sweater!)

MINI-SKEINS:
I bought a Sweet Georgia Party of Five Mini-Skein set to use for a gift project for a colleague.  I'm leaning toward Talinum by Tabitha Hedrick, a cowl designed for Sweet Georgia Yarn.

This one needs to be done by end of June (end of school year) so it'll be cast on as soon as I'm done my current cowl project. 

SHOULDERS:
I have lots of shawls and big cowls in my queue.  Most will mean a yarn purchase - while I own the patterns or book that they're in, I don't have the yarn ready to go for most.  I do have yarn for Sharman,  which is a shawl/shrug garment.  I own Bristol Ivy's book, and Harjo was included in the MDK Bracket this year.  This category is the one I will likely leave til later... I like to knit shawls but don't really want to cast another one on at this moment.  Maybe in the summer. 

These four categories are organized in my queue on Ravelry, so I'm hoping to knit one from each in the next few months to play along (sort of) with the MDK KAL while also using things I already own.  Lofty goals, perhaps?!