Knit Now 31 has 2 of my patterns in it; Biennial Jumper and Apples and Pears Stole.

(Photo (c) Practical Publishing by Dan Walmsley)

This is knit in an alpaca/merino mix, which means it’s lovely and warm and has great drape. The yarn is Rooster Almerino DK available from laughinghens.com.

This stole was a very easy knit, if large. The pattern is completely predictable and memorisable, there’s no shaping and it’s all stocking stitch except for the garter stitch border. The “stairs” divide the pattern into sections, so you can easily see how much progress you’re making. For some reason, I find that knits with clearly defined sections go much faster than knits that just say “keep going until it’s x long” – perhaps because I keep getting out the tape to measure it!

Here’s a pic of it blocking so you can see it full-length.

This is a great project to practise intarsia. There are a manageable number of yarns to work on each row – up to 4. The blocks are straight-edged, so there’s no worrying about carrying yarn or stranding, and if you have yarn to use up, there’s no reason you have to stick to the colour scheme given; you can put the colours in whatever order you like. Stashbust, anyone?