Bye-Bye January!

Hi! I'm here to kick off my intent to get back to the Mon-Thurs posting schedule I tried to start back before the holidays. First the holidays put a clinch on that and then my mom was here almost all of January for a visit. I took a little more time off for that, and now here I am holding onto the back bumper of January to get a post in. I hate seeing the zero next to any month in the archives.

Lots to tell!! I hope your 2011 has gotten off to as great a start as mine.

The first knitting story I want to share with you is my adventures with Ysolda Teague's Orchid Thief Shawlette from Brave New Knits. This was one of the first projects I have done from someone else's pattern in about four years. I know! It was about time I tried out some of the wonderful patterns out there. What better way to start than by knitting up something from Brave New Knits? It's a fantastic book! And I would say that even if my Global Cable Coat weren't in it. More on that later--I'm almost done with another one of those.

But I have wandered from the topic of Ysolda's beautiful Orchid Thief. I had a glorious time knitting this shawlette with Pagewood Farm Denali sock yarn in Camo...

...until I got 22 stitches from the end of the last row. Yep, a knitter's nightmare happened to me, folks. I had tried to choose a skein in my stash that had plenty of yardage to complete the shawlette, but I must have knit it extra loosely or something. I searched my stash and then ventured to a couple of yarn shops buying skeins to try and match it, but if you look closely at the photo above (see the lighter edge peeking at you in the lower left corner?) you will see my failed attempt. Guess where I finally found a bit of yarn to finish the project. Yep, deeeeep in my stash where I had not looked quite diligently enough. Here is my little yarn hero friend. A tiny bit of Cascade Heritage left from a sample of Red Rover Socks I made about two years ago. I couldn't believe I went looking for weeks and trying other yarns and he was there the whole time. Tip: know your stash.

Here is the Orchid Thief in all her glory. She now resides with my mom, keeping her shoulders warm in lovely Pagewood-Farmy-Ysolda-y goodness.

I wish I had time to make another one. Let me know what's been one of your favorite knitting projects lately. I don't hear enough from the lot of ya!

See you Thursday!