April Showers Bring May... Knits.

Spring is here at at last, when I finally emerge from my winter hidey-hole! The extreme cold and humidity here in the Beaujolais kept me inside, hibernating with only my coffee and knitting needles for comfort. Here is this winter's crop of knits:

I knit a Peruvian-style hat in stranded knitting for my son, Augustin,

and another stranded-knit hat for my other son, Cyprien, in the bright colours of Malabrigo Worsted's Pollen and Sunset.

Once I made the Clayoquot Toque the first time, I wanted to try it out again in another colourway based on the colour Tuareg, this time for my companion Paul.

I tried an initial attack on my stash, (hopeless task since it's joyfully growing beyond my life expectancy!) and my first project was to make an earphone pouch in a gradient colour scheme using Artyarns Sapphire Fade. 50 g of stash yarn used up, only 10 kg to go...

I also experimented to an extreme degree with Bristol Ivy's Illyria Hat, using different colours, yarns, materials, and techniques to see what difference each makes. In all I made 6 hats, only three of which I'm sharing here, but the rest are all visible on Craftsy. Talk about getting your money's worth out of a pattern! I tried solid and colour-changing shades in Malabrigo Chunky, like the above colourway Arapey.

Using intarsia cables for the cable section using Malabrigo Chunky in Dark Chocolate, and on a Noro Transitions background in Lemberries, and knitting flat instead of in the round, I tried to bring the tree out a bit more.

Finally, thinking of the sun, summer, and the beach, I made a summer knit-hat in 100% cotton using Debbi Bliss Delphi in Aqua. I can't wait to try it out on a beach soon! Côte d'Azur, Cinque Terre, Tel Aviv here I come!!!