Extreme cast-on!

When RoseRed first mentioned her 'Grand Plan', I was immediately swept away with the excitement of it all. Her plan was to cast on one new project every day with the added bonus of them all being knit in Wollmeise, one of my very favourite yarns. It was so exciting! So extreme! So extravagent! Straight away I knew that I would struggle with the idea of having so many projects on the go, but I seriously contemplated challenging myself just to see how I would cope. In the end I decided that I wouldn't commit to anything (typically!) and vaguely decided that I'd cast on a 'couple' or maybe a 'few' new projects just to try to add a bit of spice to my somewhat ailing knitting mojo. I'm pretty confident it worked! I cast on 3 new projects starting with the Bramblewood Vest in Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in a bright spring green. This got tossed aside after day 2 due to the lack of an 80cm knitpicks cable, which I know is attached to a hibernating project around here somewhere.....

Secondly I cast on this gorgeous Baby Surprise Jacket. This is the second one I've knit and it really is an enjoyable pattern. I couple of modifcations I made this time were to change the double decrease (sl1, k2tog, psso) to (ssk, k2tog) around a centred marker. I also made it a bit shorter, which I think look better. The yarn was my real inspiration to knit this. After digging it out of the stash for Jack to use to cast off her Ishbel, I decided to keep it out and use it up. Luckily I caught up with a friend I haven't seen for many months who is now 4 weeks away from having a baby, so the fact that I now have this unisex little pressie for her newborn-to-be is definitely kismet!

Lastly I cast on a shawl in one of my most prized sock yarns. It is the first time that I've used Socks That Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and I think it could very easily become my new favourite (shhh... don't tell that to my Wollmeise stash...)The colours in the Raven Clan series are just amazing, I'm currently knitting with 'Korppi' and I will definitely stock up on some more of this once I've knit down the current stash a little. I have visions of a very cool jumper in the Ravenscroft colourway.... next year of course!