New Year Enthusiasm

Maybe it's the fact that New Year's Day fell on a Tuesday, making last week a short week, but I've felt that I've had more knitting time lately, and it feels great.

I received my finished Gatsby Girl Pullover back from Rene at Knits Finished, and she did an amazing job sewing this together.
I still like to finish my own projects whenever I can, but all of the crocheting and hemming involved in this one scared me.
The sweater is very form-fitting and I love it, I just hope it looks flattering.
I have about three skeins of the Rowan Cashsoft DK left, so I'm trying to figure out what to do with that--maybe a scarf, or a pair of wrist-warmers, mittens or gloves. Any ideas?

With holiday gifts behind me, I got back to my Retro Redux Shrug and will probably finish it tonight. This was a really fun and quick knit, and the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran is so soft and a lovely yarn to knit up. I'd love to use it again. I will use almost all four skeins for this project, so probably won't have the opportunity to make anything with the remains, perhaps a headband from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders, one of my new favorite books!

Another book I bought before the holidays and have been loving is Clara Parkes' The Knitter's Book of Yarn. I loved all of the up-front information about origins and uses of all the different types of yarn, and the patterns are wonderful. I've already tagged about 10 that I want to make, and I'm not even halfway through the patterns section!

Back to the shrug--hopefully FO pictures of that later this week! Then, the big decision is what to make next: a pullover or cardigan from the Naturally Noro Book using Noro Silk Garden I've had for over a year, or a shawl with my stashed Sublime Mohair...such decisions!