But what if I want to wear my Docs?

Before Christmas I signed up to a mini-skein swap after listening to Leigh's yarn podcast.  

From L to R hand dyed yarn by Rusty Ferret, Ripples Crafts twice, Fyberspates, Ginger Twist Studio
 and The Border Tart

Yarn lovers love yarn so much they can seldom throw away what they haven't used.  Twisted into minis, or wound into little balls, these nubbins of leftover wool are irresistibly cute.  Somehow you can never have enough, and that's why we're willing to swap.

A quick trawl of my allotted swap partner's completed knits on Ravelry, the on-line organisational tool for fibre fanatics, revealed her love of jewel tones.  I searched my stash and found suitable candidates from primarily Scottish hand dyers as it happens.  After I'd located some pretty labels and paper bags I already had in the house, I wrapped each skein individually to add an element of surprise for the recipient.

With the inclusion of some local treats of soap and chocolate, my parcel was ready to post.  All I had to do now was wait for the postie to bring the parcel my swap partner had sent to me.  

Ah - the anticipation!

Clearly we had the same idea to re-use pretty paper bags.  I do love the postcard she sent - so me.

Revealed inside the packages were these glorious colourful balls of 4 ply.  

But what to do?  How could I use them together to make something lovely?

I cast my mind back to December 2020 when I'd gifted myself a scrappy pack from Henny Penny Makes and knitted the Simple Scrappy Advent Cowl using a different tiny parcel of yarn in the days leading up to Christmas.

I wear it a lot as it's so cosy and it goes well with all the pinks and purples I frequently wear.

But what if I want to wear my Docs?

I am the proud owner of these flowery kids Dr Marten boots thanks to my pint-sized feet.

Though I love them, orange is not a colour which features predominantly in my wardrobe.

So I sorted through my treasury of leftover yarn and gathered colours which complimented the blues and autumn tones I'd been sent but also matched my boots.  Here they all are, skewered together on unused knitting needles so I don't loose track of the order I want to knit them in! 

I chose the Land of Sweets Cowl by Helen Stewart from my pattern library.  The lace sections add textural interest as well as being fun to knit.  Not wishing to have to sew in eleventy million ends as I changed colour, I used the Russian join technique when changing colour.  

Can you even see the transition between the yellow and variegated brown yarn above? 

And here's the tah-dah moment!

A new neck cosy which used each colour from my swap parcel and looks great either way up.

My cowl got its first outing at the golf recently on this glorious, but still chilly, spring day.

But it also looks grand worn along with my favourite Doc Martens!