We were away last weekend on the Isle of Skye so here’s what I’ve been up to the last couple of weeks.

Acquisitions/Collection Curation

On our way to Skye we stopped at Bunloit Woolery near Drumnadrochit (near Loch Ness). My friend Alison sells the New Lanark yarns I love so much. As New Lanark have stopped spinning yarns I needed to stock up!

I bought 7 skeins of Aran in the colour Iris, the exact same colour my first Such a Winter’s Day jumper is knitted in…but I wear it all the time so when it eventually dies I’ll make another exactly the same 😂. The blue has hints of pink in it.

I also bought 7 skeins of a colour I think may be Kingfisher. It’s a turquoise blue but has a hint of purple in it.

Plus 2 x 50g balls of DK in Iris too for some gloves. I have a few other colours in their DK so some colourwork ones maybe. (I haven’t forgotten I already have 2 pairs of mittens in progress.)

Knitting

Jumpers/cardigans

My Winding Down jumper has been coming along well. It’s the only thing I’ve been knitting the last few weeks. I’m on the hem then just the arms to do.

Spinning

You’d think having all this gorgeous advent fibre opening I’d be spinning away, but I think my spinning mojo will return in January for our Guild’s annual challenge. One of my friends I spin with regularly now has a full time job so once she’s settled into a new routine hopefully we will have a slot for a weekly spin together again.

Weaving

Inkle loom

I gave my finished red and black band a soak but still need to run the iron over it and cut it and sew the hems, but I’m classing it as finished as far as my YOP list goes.

I finally warped my loom with the Minion colours (I bought in May 2022) to make a new tablet woven band. Ravelry Project Link has my initial pattern and yarn details.

Once I’d warped up it became clear I had purchased way too much yarn for the project, so I think I may be able to crochet a small minion with leftovers!

Anyway, I wasn’t happy with how the goggles look oval, so I’ve put a message to my Guild friends asking some advice. I think if I duplicate the 2 centre goggle rows this will sort it, albeit a faff to add new tablets to an already warped project. The elongated sections are where the cards start turning the opposite direction.

I had tweaked the original pattern I’d found to remove lips and add black for their hands as they wear black gloves. If I undo this and re-warp it to tweak the goggles I may tweak the arms and hands too, I think I’ll move the gloves down and add another yellow to make their arms longer. May as well make them perfect and I do have a lot of extra yarn! I’m hoping to have some time over Christmas to work on this.

---

Other News

It was wet and windy on Skye so we mostly stayed in storm watching out the huge windows.

On Friday we had our Christmas lunch out with work which was a lovely meal at the North Kessock Hotel. It was absolutely packed with people and other large Christmas party groups and yet the food was still absolutely delicious so I’ll definitely be going back at some point.

If you celebrate Christmas, or one of the other festivals at this time of year, I hope you have a happy one.

---

This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 14th year, but this is my 7th year participating. If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry, as you’d be very welcome to join us.

Year 14 list.