I wasn’t going to buy any more yarn but Milli at Tribe Yarns kept posting such inspiring posts on Instagram I joined her Mabel Cocoknits KAL. This is my first Tribe KAL and my first Cocoknits pattern, one of the reasons I decided to join is that this is exactly the jumpers pattern I need and I had stash I could knit it in. One of the special things about the cocoknits method is the way her shoulders and sleeves are done with out seaming. She also has a helpful sweater workshop sheet which once you read the patterns and write EXACTLY what they say makes an easy at a glance guide for increases. This is an at a glance guide for what I do with most garments I knit, as I always write out my rows with columns for increase or decreases. One of the good things about Mabel was the way it can be tried on at various stages and adjusted as necessary. This was a great help on the sleeves as mine are quite a few centimetres shorter than the pattern suggests. As I dislike knitting sleeves in the round once the body has been completed, I worked a few rows of the body then, completed the sleeves. This has enabled me to get perfect length sleeves. When purchasing my yarn Isager 3 for the KAL I decided to buy the sweater workshop book which comes with a few patterns as well. This was invaluable when first knitting it as it explained all the techniques and abbreviations very clearly with excellent photos, Milli explained everything in the weekly zoom meetings which were extremely informative and inspiring, but sometimes you need to just pick a book up and check. The only thing I did find perplexing was the increase abbreviations as I know them by M1R or M1L and these are almost in reverse, once I locked it in my head exactly which it was knitting progressed quickly. I would definitely do another Tribe KAL and knit more Cocoknits, will probably do another Mabel with more stash. I didn’t use the yarn I bought from Tribe Yarns as I wanted something that would be okay to undo and reknit if I had to as it was a new technique. I used Rowan British Sheep Breeds Chunky and a strand of a silk lace yarn both from deep stash, whilst sorting out the craft area for supplies for my granddaughter to take into schoolI found some glittery heart beads which I am randomly placing all over the front until I run out. When I knit another one I will make the sleeves the next size down.

This month it has mainly been knitting. I am still working on my Waltzer cape , which for some reason I keep calling Weaver and have decided to add some randomly placed beads to it. Not colours I would normally wear but with the green Fyberspates cobweb yarn and the beads it adds a bit of colour. Candy cane hat is coming along slowly, I think it’s due to the small tips on the circular, might need to swap to DPNs. The Anthology shawl is still on the needles and am finding I can only knit this when watching the TV as it is getting a bit boring at the current stage. It hasn’t escaped my notice that both these garments have a strong Brown colouring, I do not generally wear brown so am a little perplexed as to why I have so much in my stash.