Whew! March was a long month and yesterday was the first day in almost a month that I finally felt like myself again after battling a terrible cold bug. I was a flurry of crafty and kitchen activity all day and I'll share details with you on that later this week. Today I'm happy to share that I'm casting on a sweater for the Journey-along. This beautiful grey is going to be Inland and, from what I've heard, I'll want to live in it.

I've had yarn wound for this sweater for months and now that I'm getting ready to cast on, I'm super excited! The weather is warming up here, but it will still be cool in the evenings for quite awhile, so I'm sure this sweater will get plenty of use.

I'm working on ideas for the next Journey-along giveaway, so stay tuned... Many thanks (again) to the Journey designers, Shannon & Jane, for sponsoring the first giveaway with 2 eBook copies of Journey - congrats to Deb & Sandy on winning!

I've loved the enthusiasm for the projects in this book and our Journey-along Ravelry group is so much fun with both local and not-so-localknitters sharing in the fun. Since we're knitting through November, it's not too late to join the fun!

I'm off to cast on a new sweater and hoping to knit like the wind. Cheers!

Cover A few weeks ago, I posted my review of Journey with ideas for yarns we carry at Firefly Fibers for each of the 6 designs in the book. Since the November launch, I've been clicking away on shop samples - just as I did with Island the year before - and what I quickly realized is, the designs in Journey are just as addictive! This means samples for the shop and second projects for me, too!

I've been in planning mode - or scheming, whichever you prefer - over the last few weeks while waiting for new yarns to arrive for a few of the projects. Do you recall a recent mention that I had a little something up my sleeve with this book? Well, the new arrivals are now all present and accounted for and I would like to share the fun of knitting projects from the book with you, so let's have a Journey-along!

|| What's a Journey-along? ||

An inspiring, fun and casual Knitalong featuring the 6 beautiful designs from Journey

|| Dates ||

February 12th - November 19th

|| Sign Up & Details ||

In the meantime, join the Firefly Fibers Ravelry Group (if you're not already a member) as this is where the online Knitalong will be hosted. Feel free to chat away about your favorite Journey design, decide on your first pattern, gather supplies and swatch - yes, I said swatch... really, it's a good thing.

I can't say that I'll be waiting until the start date to cast on another project from the book - duty calls and I have shop samples to knit with the new arrivals, such as...

Last fall Rowan was kind enough to provide me with a sample skein of their upcoming Pure Wool Worsted. As soon as I tested the yarn, I knew exactly which Journey project I wanted to use it for:

Onward by Shannon Cook

Pure Wool Worsted is one of the yarns that I recommended for this shawl when I posted my review and I'm happy to report that the yarn just arrived at the shop in all 50 colors this last week! I'll post progress photos along the way on Facebook and Instagram so you can see what color I selected and how the yarn knits up. I'm really excited!

Rowan's new yarn would also be wonderful for Spate by Jane Richmond.

I've already knit a shop sample of these mitts out of Spud & Chloe Sweater, but I can see a second pair in the future. Maybe this is what I'll cast on to kick off the Journey-along? And those socks... I just *might* be working on an upcoming class for Climb...

If you don't have a copy of Journey yet, we just restocked at the shop - the print copy includes a digital download - and I have plenty of yarn ideas for you, too.

Are you inspired? Do you want to go on a Journey-along with me?

INSTAGRAMMING...

Alisa's "reading"...