Le Pouf is Le Finished, and other adventures

I am so happy with my latest cardigan, the Le Pouf by Beata Jezek. Using fingering yarn held double, it really did knit up quickly, but the stress with this project, oh man! The pattern is free and all in all a good pattern, but, it is a faded pattern and it does not advise exactly when to fade. My kitchen scales and I got very well acquainted while I was working on this sweater, fearful that I would run out of yarn as I was working on it.  Four of the skeins I used for this project I purchased from Knitter’s Frolics in years past, so buying more would be very, very challenging.

I kept my project notes on Ravelry full of detail, because as I was working on my sweater, other’s notes were very helpful for me. Hopefully mine may be of some use to knitters working on this sweater in the future. I will say, this pattern was a great way to use skeins of sock yarn that have been kicking around a stash for some time! Try it out, play with different colour combos!

On Saturday, while my cardigan sat drying, a few friends of mine and I went to Burlington to the latest yarn launch for The Blue Brick. My one friend in particular absolutely adores this dyer, and really, can you blame her? The Blue Brick’s yarns are all dyed inspired by photographs she takes, and they are typically tonal or ombre and simply stunning to see.

I’ve been working on the Samwise Cowl, designed by Shireen Nadir of Blue Brick, using her Luxe DK in Moscovy I bought back in the summer.  The fade is very subtle but it is indeed fading into the blue!

At the yarn launch on Saturday, I was good to my bank account and my stash (which I’ve resolved to be very choosy about adding to) and I bought one of the shawl cuffs she made; I’m in love.

As part of the launch, there were door prizes, four given away in total. A few guests who left early gave my friends and I their tickets, so I had three for the afternoon; I was off by one number for the second draw, and off by two on the third.  The final draw was a sweater’s quantity of yarn, an ombre DK sweater kit. This time, it was my number that was pulled! The day before was pretty low for me, so to have February start with good friends and winning yarn, it was a much needed pick-me-up. I am beyond thankful for this generous prize and cannot wait to start a sweater that will hopefully be worthy of this beautiful yarn.