Winter project link party - March

For the past few months I have written about Sam's quilt. It is now finished and I am waiting for a break in the miserable weather to take photos. In the meantime, I have two projects that I am working on. One quite enthusiastically so, the other one not so much.

You have seen the beginnings of my v-stitch scraps blanket already. I really enjoy working on this despite saying frequently that I don't like to crochet much. This project is fun to work on, each row is made with a new colour, which adds to the fun and breaks up the tedium of endless rows. There is of course the issue of thousand ends to sew in but I have to let you in on a secret: I noticed the other day when I was sewing in some that I actually quite enjoyed this. I wasn't drinking or taking any hallucinogenic drugs or anything, it just seemed quite therapeutic. I am not saying that I'd happily sew in the ends of all your projects so please don't put then in the post just yet! I'll let you know when I have reached this step.

There is another confession I have to make. I noticed early on that I didn't actually have enough scraps to make a whole blanket. Maybe I need to rephrase this slightly. I had enough scraps of some yarns to make a great many rows but only just enough of others to make one single row. Needless to say that these latter were the colours that I really liked, that's why there is so little left. I didn't want to make a blanket with largely colours that I had acquired for balance. You can guess what happened next. Indeed, I bought more yarn. I 'needed' that variety of colours, the burst of sunshine mixed with paler and darker shades. Luckily, the Drops Karisma range is not expensive and I have maybe spent £18 (not including postage) on yarn. The astute amongst you will notice the flaw of argument, full economic costing would reveal the true cost of the blanket: all the yarn was of course purchased at one point or other but the other purchases were in different financial years so really don't count, yes? 

Before I get myself tangled up trying to justify the purchase of yarn, I'll move on to the other project. I am determined to finish this knitted Polaris jumper. I started making it during our summer holidays in Switzerland in early July 2016, it flew of my needles as if my life depended on it. Then, all of a sudden and without prior warning I fell out of love with the project and it has remained dormant ever since. The jumper has a very clever front gather detail that I like very much. The wraps that you see are knitted in the rounds that follow and shape the waist beautifully. If you ask me, the designer is a genius. The pattern is easy to follow and explains every single stitch and would be achievable for a knitter with basic skills but little confidence to tackle something a bit different. I am using Drops Alpaca for this jumper. It is very soft and smells lovely, too. I bought it several years ago, on a whim when it was on sale. I am gathering enthusiasm to get the project out of its bag. I just have the sleeves to make, it really shouldn't be that much of an effort.

What have you been working on lately? I am going to see if you have added your link to Jennifer's Winter Project Link Party, where I have added my own post, too. Thank you Jennifer for hosting the project link-up. I read it is the last one already, I am a bit disappointed actually, I'd love to have a year round monthly project link-up. Wouldn't you?

Thanks for stopping by and saying hello, it is lovely to hear from you! xx