A Wooly Catch Up

Well hello dear reader!  How are we already into February? It's shocking how time flies lately!  Is it too far into the year to wish you all a Happy New Year?  I hope your 2024 has started out well.

Anyways, I thought I'd pop on here to share a project I fully intended to share as soon as it was finished.  An honest to goodness knitting project!  If you follow on Instagram, you'll already have seen it a few times, but for those of you who don't, may I present my Lately Pullover!  It was a new pattern release last summer from the talented Shannon of Very Shannon Knits.  

As soon as she released it, I was OBSESSED.  I was also completely obsessed with knitting it in my cranberry coloured Estelle Eco Shetland Worsted yarn that I'd purchased a year earlier at Wolseley Wool during a sale. Unfortunately I didn't have enough yarn.  I knew I would be at least a skein, possibly even more, short.  I checked Wolseley Wool, but of course they no longer had any in stock.  So I started scouring the Internet for the more yarn, because I just couldn't let go of the obsession of using that particular yarn for that particular pattern.  I found some at Purlin' J's Yarn Emporium in Ontario and decided to order another two skeins, busily trying to plan the best way to combine what would obviously be two different dye lots.

Imagine my surprise when my yarn arrived and it was the exact same dye lot!  What are the chances of that happening?!?  Two different stores, from two different provinces, bought a year apart.  I couldn't believe my luck!  Obviously my Lately Pullover was meant to be.

I started knitting it mid-July, crazily thinking that maybe I could get it done so I could wear it during our Newfoundland trip in August, but alas, of course I didn't get it done.  I knit quite a bit of it through football practices, but it's hard to knit a wool sweater outside in the blazing heat of summer.  So I changed my deadline and decided that having it done before the freezing cold of winter would be good timing.

I did it!  My pullover was finished in November.  It took me about a month to actually block and unfortunately it's not got as much wear as I thought it would.  Not because I don't love it.  I do.  I absolutely do.  It's because this winter has been mostly a non-winter. El Nino has definitely put a damper on wearing warm wool sweaters.  I mean, it was +5C in Manitoba in January last weekend.  That's absolutely crazy - not to mention not just a bit disconcerting environmentally wise!!!!

But my pullover is at the ready for when the temps dip and I do want a cozy, warm layer.  (At least there's been a few times I could wear it and not be at risk of sweating to death, but certainly not as much as I had envisioned!)

It did kick off a renewed love of knitting again and I've got several projects on the go currently and finished quite a few as well.  More on that another day... Right now I've got to get myself off the computer and down to the sewing room.  I have a few things on the go there too that I really want to get working on!  I'm taking part in the #FinishItQal over on Instagram hosted by Village Bound Quilts this month and I'm not going to get anything finished if I don't get at it!