We have a winner!

Finally, my TdF KAL project gets its victory lap around the Arc de Triomphe... the Hex Coat is finished!
I couldn't be more pleased with the result. The fit is practically perfect and having the weight and coziness of a knee-length hand-knitted jumper flapping round your knees as you go about your daily business is simply incomparable.
I finished it up late last night so I could wear it to work today. These photos are from an early morning, pre-commute, pre-coffee no less!, photo shoot. I had a bit of fun glamming it up in the kitchen.
Here are the specs:

Pattern: Hex Coat from Norah Gaughan's Kniting Nature. Honestly, every time I look at this book I find something new I want to make. I think next I'll make the Phyllo Yoked Pullover. There are numerous mistakes in the patterns in the book though, so it's worth checking the errata. This pattern was pretty free from mistakes, apart from the back armhole shaping.

Yarn: Tasmanian-grown Corridale, milled on the mainland, natural colour. Purchased from the Salamance Arts Centre, Hobart, on my honeymoon. (Collective ahhhhhhhh) Here is a photo of the ball band:

What is the significance of the 'IJ' on the sheep? Was my sheep called IJ? Is that what letter in the alphabet my sheep can recite to???

I used just about exactly 900g of yarn, and have about 100g leftover.

Needles: Addi's, 4mm for cast ons and 5mm for the body. 4.5mm for the hexagons.

Modifications: Instead of knitting a few rows of ribbing at the sleeve cuffs and bottom of the jacket, I cast on with 4mm needles, knit in double moss [aka moss] stitch for two inches with 4.5mm needles, then switched to 5mm needles. The ribbing seemed pointless (especially at knee length!) and double moss stitch doesn't curl, so I thought I'd simplify. Another slight modification, instead of dpn's I used circs and magic loop method for making the hexagons.

Project tip: I read a good tip on the Knitting Nature KAL which I used - for the two fronts, I placed a stitch marker 8 sts in from the edge to help me keep track of where I was with the increasing and decreasing. It doesn't make sense when you read it here but when you actually knit it, this tip makes perfect sense, trust me!

Start and finish dates: Apart from one sleeve (which I'd prepared earlier, celebrity-chef-style) the entirety of the knitting (and blocking!) was completed during the Tour de France, from July 7th to July 29th - 22 days. At about midnight on the 29th as I was furiously weaving in ends, I had to admit defeat. I'd enver finish all the seaming by the end of the Tour. The pieces sat around for a week until I decided I should finish within the month - so this project was completed on the 7th of August.

I still pinch myself in disbelief that I managed to knit all of this as well as blog daily on the Tour de France KAL. I didn't participate in the Knitting Olympics, so I had not really experienced the feeling of knitting to a schedule like this. It's fantastic! But now that it's over, I'm happy to return to my lazy approach to projects, nothing new has been cast on yet, but the thought process in advance of starting something new has been fun. In the meantime, I have my Deep-V vest to work on, and a Forest Path Stole to put out of its misery...

And now....what you've all been waiting for, the results of the blogiversary competition!

Firstly, thank you to everyone who entered. Of course I expected most of the stalwarts would put up their hands when I offered a prize, but it was fantastic to get to 'meet' so many new-to-me bloggers! I'll be sure now to frequent your blogs! I am trying to reply to everyone who commented but it might take me a few more days so please bear with me.

This evening over soup and toast, Fiver drew the winners names out of a hat. They were:
Lurkers prize: Mazhalai
Stalwarts prize: Polly

Congratulations!!

Interestingly, as I have described previously, Polly is largely responsible for my entree into the blogging world. For those of you who are already friends at All Tangled Up, you will know that knitting socks for Polly is a bit daunting - last year she managed to complete 52 pairs of socks!! (it was a race to the finish line to rival the Stage 19 time trial in the Tour!) I'll be inspecting Polly's FO galleries to see if there is a single sock pattern left on earth that she has not made already!

And to finish, a couple more gratuitous shots of the Hex Coat...