Connie in Let's Knit 51

The new issue (issue 51) of Let's Knit arrived a couple of days ago. The postie actually delivered it to my neighbour. Luckily my neighbour isn't a knitter and dropped it off at our house the same evening.

 My design in this issue is a gorgeous, soft, warm cabled sweater. The cables form a zig zag pattern on a reverse stocking stitch background. The sweater has long sleeves and a big cozy cowl collar. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Fez which is a camel and merino blend and is so soft.

 'Connie' makes the perfect sweater to wear for a chilly weekend. I wish I had one to wear today as it's gotten colder here. Pixie knitted this sweater and did a great job as always.

I'm doing a lot of knitting at the moment. I have 9 design deadlines before the middle of February. Yes, that's right! 9!!!! Two are done and will be posted next week. I'm working on 2 and 2 others are underway by 2 of my wonderful knitters and yarn will be posted to another wonderful knitter on Monday. If I'm not blogging as much as normal over the next few weeks, it's because I'm buried in deadlines.

Since it's all about top secret knitting here at the moment, I can't share any of it. And yes, I know you hate that. But I can share which project bag I'm using for one of my secret projects. I may even share a bit about the yarn I'm using next week as it's GORGEOUS!!! This gorgeous bag arrived from Three Bags Full last week and I love it.  I also got a Kindle bag, although I don't have a kindle, but I'm using it as a Bible bag. It's just big enough for my Bible and notebook.

I've also got a long list of patterns which were originally published in magazines and as the magazine exclusivity period runs out I want to self-publish. I'm very behind on working my way through that pile though. But this morning I did manage to finish one such pattern. 

The Trethawle Fingerless Mittens are now available as a pattern download here. I'll be listing it on Patternfish too. It'll also be added to my yarn shop pattern wholesale list.

These mitts were originally knitted in Artist Palette Smoothie Sock which is a superwash merino/nylon blend and it's the same base yarn as my Merino Plus. 

The mitts feature an interesting cable pattern which is easy to work. Perfect for practising cabling without a cable needle. If you want to learn to knit cables with or without a cable needle, why not book a space on my Fun & Fabulous Cables Workshop at Hulu Crafts in Modbury, Devon.  You'll learn everything you want about cables.

Back to the mitts. They come in 2 sizes. Size 1 is small/medium ladies and size 2 is large ladies/medium mens. The mitts have afterthought thumbs which don't interrupt the cable pattern at all. Pattern can be found here.

And some more good news: There is a big delivery of shawl pins on it's way from the US. Let's hope the customs & Royal Mail don't hold on to it for too long this time. I've ordered more of the ones I had last time plus a few new styles.

Enjoy your weekend. Next time I'll share my spinning progress and hopefully show off Em's new handspun hat. I'm casting on for that tonite.