My brother had been wanting a new Aran sweater for quite some time - we started talking about it around this time last year. Come his birthday I offered to buy the wool for his birthday present and knit it for his Christmas present. My options were somewhat limited because he specifically wanted both pure wool and for it to be machine-washable. Early last year I had saved something from an Irish yarn store in my basket, but by August it was no longer available so I had to go back to plan B, which was an English company (Yarn Undyed) which sells an amazing variety of undyed wool - suitable for you to dye yourself. We were both tempted by the merino/linen mix, which is now on my own personal shopping list, but he stuck with his original wish for pure wool, and I got this finished just in time to send down for Christmas.
As a bonus, my sister-in-law has been doing a textile course in the Crawford College of Art & Design, and has been doing a lot of dying, so I sent her two spare balls of wool to experiment with.
I've been focussing on finishing off old projects, so I finally finished a lace throw that has been on the needles for (gulp) over twenty years. I went off the colour somewhere along the way, but kept going back and plugging away at it whenever I had nothing better to do, and the colour has grown on me again. It was originally a pattern for a baby blanket, but this is more the size of a full length wrap for a woman.
You really are a wiz with the needles! I bet it felt good to get those long-awaited projects finished.
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