dear diary,

After a summer filled with crochet I thought it was high time for a little knitting this week, and what better way to get into the mood than a day out yarn foraging with good friends.

A trip on the Welsh Light Railway, an old steam railway operating between Welshpool and Llanfair Caereinion, to visit Colinette Yarns was organised, and last Tuesday four yarn addicts set off for a day of colourful woolliness.

We had a lovely day of yarny goodness with a little nostalgia thrown in, and all came home with a little bit of ‘this & that’. Here is what I bought…

…well, actually I bought three hanks of this, but two have been made into something (more in a moment).

This is Hullabaloo, a 67% wool/ 33% black welsh aran weight yarn. Totally squishy and a joy to work with, it knits up 18sts and 25 rows using 4.5mm needles. It comes in 50g hanks at 75m per hank and is available in the usual array of colours that Colinette has become famous for.

My colour is called Dali shade – Sunflower Susie and I have knitted it into a shrug. The Larch – Zig Zag shrug from the Isis book to be precise. But, as you know me well enough now, I can never make anything following a given pattern, always having to change something…no different this time.

In the book the shrug is knitted using Colinette Isis yarn which I am not particularly fond of, so I changed it for Hullabaloo. As I had used it before, and fallen in love with for it’s beautiful softness and the fact that it contains Welsh Wool, I also knew what to expect when knitting it. I re-worked the pattern: Isis knits using 7mm needles and I wanted to use 5mm, I also wanted to change the arm opening a little to be slightly more snug.

Knitting started on the train ride back, continued over the last couple of evenings and I have enjoyed every moment of it. Holding knitting needles after a summer filled with hooky time has been pure bliss.

Tonight is our monthly knitting group meeting and two guesses what I will be wearing and showing off…

…can’t wait to hear what the ‘girls’ will say.

I hope you are all having a week filled with new discoveries, yarny or otherwise.

Tell me what you have been making, you know I would love to hear from you.

Whatever it is you are doing…enjoy xx