It’s fair to say that I went a bit OTT with the reveal of the finished Geogradient Shawl!

But where better to photograph a finished Westknits project that outside Stephen and Penelope in Amsterdam?!

I love taking part in the mystery knit along every year. I think I’ve mentioned before that the Speckle and Pop from 2017 was the project that boosted my knitting confidence and really pushed me out of my crochet comfort zone.

As usual, I was really undecided on colours this year – I’m happy to give colour advice to others all day long, but making a choice myself seems so much harder! Maybe there’s just too much to choose from. I knew I wanted to include the Deep Armeria colour and then added paler, pastel colours to let the pink be the main event.

I chose to follow Pink Queen Knits version of clue no 1 and it was a great way to see how the colours were going to play together.

Personally, I really enjoy the release of the weekly clues to help spur you on to the next stage. I didn’t ‘keep up’ every week this year (thanks advent season!) but loved scooting right to the end of those videos to see that completed clue!

I knew I had a trip to Amsterdam booked for a friends birthday in the middle of December and of course I wanted to visit Stephen and Penelope while I was visiting. As the trip got closer, my knitting got faster and I finally cast off that long i-cord a few days before I left. My non knitty friends were FULL of questions when I sat with a glass of wine and sewed in about 100 ends the evening before – nothing like last minute, Claire.

What an absolutely amazing city. We had such a fun night at Amsterdam Winter Paradise and a trip to Zaan to see some windmills. It was fascinating to see how dye pigments were ground up on the old stones. It was cold but crisp when we visited so there was plenty of opportunities for woollen wears, like my fresh off the needles Raingelt shawl and the Chocolate Chai Chunky Hat.

The Stephen and Penelope shop is situated in the historic old centre near Nieumarkt and there were lots of lovely independent shops nearby. It’s not very often that you go somewhere that makes your heart race but by the time I walked in, I actually felt giddy and my I think my friends were glad to leave me there while they got a coffee!

Wow, so many beautiful colours and it was SO busy – wonderful to see and be with my kinda people for 20 minutes! I chose a beautiful soft peach toned yarn from La Bien Aimee with no plans for it at all. Oops 😉

I then decided to go for yarns that I can’t necessarily dye myself and was drawn to the beautiful palette of West Wool Bicycle yarn. It’s a non superwash yarn with a gorgeous squish to it. I picked out a few colours and added a few bits and bobs like a pin badge, stitch markers and some labels.

I was chuffed when the girl behind the till offered me a free project bag. I chose the black one and left the gorgeous shop beaming and delighted with my indulgent purchases.

Again, I had no project ideas in mind for my purchases but you really can’t beat that feeling of filling your cup (OK, wine glass) with a little of what you enjoy ;-)