I have cast on for another birthday gift – there are 5 potential knitted gifts in my circle for January with one near the beginning, one in middle and three towards the end.  The middle gift has been completed and now I have finished the first and second ones.

My BIL is going to Japan during 2012 for a skiing trip and has flattered me by asking for a new beanie – he was given one a few years ago and surprised me by wearing it almost constantly during the colder months over the past few years.  I was going to use the caramel alpaca but, after his comments about ETTA and the black alpaca I decided to use it up in a beanie for him. I knitted the pattern Beanie No.212 which you can find here. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo and the gift has been sent so I am hoping he will send me one or two for the blog record.

For this fourth gift I searched Ravelry for another slouchy type beanie as my SIL made lots of noise about ETTA over Christmas.  I couldn’t really find anything else that I really liked so I am knitting another ETTA in handspun, hand dyed yarn.  Again this yarn is about 10 WPI so in between a DK and Worsted.  Here’s hoping it comes out well, if it does I might knit up another one in this yarn for Pete’s niece but if anyone has any other slouchy hat suggestions I’d be keen to look at them!

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This is Finn/Corriedale cross that I spun up quite a while ago and had sitting in the stash.  The fibre came from Fairfield Finns and I will be sure to buy some more when I get my own stash down!  I have dyed it with Landscape Dyes – Apollo Bay & Sturt Desert Pea at a 1:2 ratio – I initially wanted a deep red but had nothing of the sort in the dyes so purple/plum it is.

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