Hello folks hope your New Year started off warmer than mine! Mine started with extremely cold temperatures and snowfall during the first week of the year. Good time to stay indoors and indulge in knitting projects with a cup of coffee or tea of course.

I finished this custom seamless cardigan last month just in time for the cold weather. I learnt many new things knitting this cardigan. I learnt how to knit a hood, add patch pockets (I found Susan B Anderson’s and Tin Can Knits tutorial helpful), and make a crochet chain button loop (many tutorials on YouTube). I also hand dyed the yarn since the skeins I purchased had different dye lot numbers. Yarn used: Patons Shetland Chunky Yarn in the Aran colorway. After hand dyeing, the yarn color became a light charcoal.

Cardigan with Pockets and Hood

This year I will be following the square of the month knit-along by Hannah Wallace in Knit Simple Magazine, Holiday 2017 issue. I will be modifying the pattern quite a bit. The modifications will include a different yarn (I already have this yarn) and all the squares will have the same number of stitch counts and rows so for certain months the stitch patterns will be substituted for other knit and purl stitch patterns. I will post pictures of a square or two each month on this site and on my Ravelry project page.

January 2018 square (Yarn: LionBrand’s Vanna’s Choice® Yarn in the Brick colorway)

This is my first knit-along and the reasons for doing this includes:

• To work with the yarn I already have (The finished project will be quite interesting since it will be in several different colorways!)
• Do a little each month
• Sample new knit and purl stitch patterns
• Write some project details on my Ravelry project page,
• Have a deadline for the completion of this project.

This year will be a year to learn new stitch patterns, try different knitting techniques and take part in a year – long knit -along.

Thanks to all knitters and non knitters who read this blog.

∼Coffeeteaknits