Leon's winter set 2019 - the yarn and the KAL

Every year since the year we met (2008) I've made Leon a new winter set. Traditionally consisting of a hat, scarf and fingerless mitts. I've been doing this since the first year we met. His first set was made from cashmere! I must have really like him from the very beginning. This year I knew I wanted to use Australian yarn. I have become more conscious of where my yarn comes from and supporting MY local producers (I seem to be quite good at supporting Scottish local producers!) 

So, when Kate released the Alight Hat and Mitts I knew this could be a winner. They are written for a 3 ply, and I already had some White Gum Wool sock yarn in stash, in the very Leon colour 'ironstone". I bought it on special when I was getting needles from Skein Sisters. I might have enough for the hat and mitts in that ball, but I might not, and I really don't enjoy playing yarn chicken. Recently I started looking around for another ball,and everyone was out of stock. I panicked, but when I contacted Sunspun, it turned out they had a ball for me. They offered to mail it, but instead I got on a train and picked it up in person. Nothing extra came home with me, but it's such a lovely shop to visit.

I'm doing the scarf in 8ply (double knitting weight), which I bought directly from White Gum Wool.I love this colour, it's a bit different, but still on Leon's approved list. I should have enough left over from the 4ply to follow a new tradition, established last year, of making a pair of socks to match the set. By coincidence, Woolgathering is having a Kanga / Kiwi knit-a-long for six weeks, starting on the 1st of February.Ii'm very excited to be knitting a New Zealand pattern in Australian wool, and I think I can get a pair of mitts, a hat, a scarf and a pair of socks done in 6 weeks. Stay tuned, the next 6 weeks on the blog is likely to be nothing but Alight in Ironstone!