New Year, New Knits

I cast on two things right after the start of the new year. The first was a GAP-tastic cowl by Jen Geigley. This has been in my queue for a while, and I love the yarn I paired with it, which was a total surprise. I'm knitting this out of Cascade Yarns Covington which is a wool-acrylic blend. Its soft and squishy but also feels durable. Instead of knitting the cowl on us size 13 needles I went with 10.5s. I like the fabric I'm getting, and I feel that the fabric would have been too loose on 13s anyway.

The pattern is really easy, and this has been my TV knitting. If you have some bulky yarn in your stash, I highly recommend this pattern!

The second thing I cast on was the Dark and Stormy sweater by Thea Colman. This sweater has also been in my queue and favorites for a while, and I finally got motivation to cast it on when a bunch of knit alongs sprang up! My friend Kims was planning on knitting it, so we decided we would start in January. Then I found out the Knitting Samurai Plus 1 podcast decided to do a knit-along starting in January too. I swatched and discovered I needed to go up a needle size (surprise surprise) and other than a few tink backs the sweater is going pretty well.

I'm knitting this our of Cascade 220 Superwash in the purple heather colorway. I'm not a huge fan of purple, but I've been told I look good wearing it and I'm trying to branch out from neutrals for myself.

Did you start any projects with the new year?