Boreal Forest Cowl and Hat

When I hear the term Boreal Forest, I think of Northern Ontario, where I grew up, and driving along highway 17 from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay. It's very nostalgic for me, and moreso now that I've been living in the Alberta Praries for the past 8 years.

Last year when I saw the first pattern released in Curious Handmade Presents Knitvent 2016 (Helen Stewart) was a colourwork cowl called Boreal Forest, I knew I wanted to knit it ASAP.

Boreal Forrest Cowl Designed by Renee Callahan.

It was just so pretty, plus I love stranded knitting, something about it makes projects fly off the needles.

Problem, I didn't have any pretty worsted weight yarn in my stash in the colours I wanted for this project.

Solution, I did have a couple skeins of bare Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash Worsted in my bin of undyed yarns, and a fearless aditude towards dyeing yarn with food colouring.

You can watch me dye this yarn in this video here (click the link to watch on YouTube).

And the yarn turned out beautifully!

I knit up the cowl straight away last winter.

Here's a shot of my floats, so lovely and even, you can kind of see the trees through them.

And had enough yarn leftover to knit the matching hat this fall.

Boreal Forest Cowl and Boreal Forest Hat project pages.

I did modify the hat a little to lengthen it (notes on my project page describe the simple changes), but other than that, I have a beautiful set ready to be gifted this Christmas.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned that it's only 71 days until Christmas? it seems like a lot (I mean it's not even Halloween Yet) until you consided how long my list of gift knitting is, and also that I have to finish writing my thesis by then (thesis update, 100 pages!!)

How far in advance do you start your holiday knitting, and do you still manage not to get everything done in time like me?