Scollayalong Finished!

I made it by the skin of my teeth! Despite having to pull lots out in the early stages, running out of wool and waiting for more to arrive, and then my circular needle snapping and enduring another wait until a new one arrived in the post, I finished my Scollay cardigan just before last Friday's competition deadline.

I love the warmth of the cardigan. It will certainly be worn a lot, being a great barrier against the winter weather and looking oh-so-stylish too. The buttons are from a local sewing shop and I chose the colour to stand out against the flecked wool.

The lace pattern that caused me a lot of heartache looks pretty now, particularly around the yoke. It was worth the effort.

To see other Scollayalong participants' results, see the final Ravelry thread in the KnitBritish forum.

Here's me wearing my Scollay at a friend's vintage makeover party the day after I finished it. I whipped it out for the camera to wear over my vintage-style dress.

So what have I learned from my first online knit-a-long?

Firstly, don't rush. I went hell for leather at the beginning and made mistakes, meaning I had to pull a lot of my knitting out. I focussed too much on getting a head start and too little on the pattern. It's great to see how other people are getting on in the forum but don't take their progress to heart: they may ahead of you because they're speedy knitters or simply have more free time to knit with.

Secondly I found the forum was great for asking questions when I wasn't sure about an aspect of the pattern. Friendly, timely advice was the name of the game.

Lastly the deadline kept my attention fixed on finishing the cardigan, rather than putting it aside to work on something else for a while. It's marvellous to have a finished product for my efforts. As the Scollayalong was sponsored by BritYarn and KnitBritish I also had the pleasure of being introduced to British wool I hadn't tried before, namely Blacker West Country Tweed.

Fingers crossed I'll win one of the prizes up for grabs!

In October I'll keep the knit-a-long momentum going and join in BritYarn's Great British Socks knit-a-long. Click on the link to find out more and register yourself. The rules are that you must use a British sock pattern and British yarn. My yarn and circular needles are on standby for tomorrow.