Another new project

When I cast off my socks last week, I was left with a choice of three current WIPs to pick back up: the Light of Earendil shrug, my Baskerville hat or the scarf I started as an antidote to the laceweight and beads. I was too ill to concentrate on the shrug, so that has stayed put on my shelves. Baskerville had caused me some problems, as I think I went wrong a few rows back from where I'd put it down. I was too ill to concentrate on that either, so rather than leave it and try to figure out what I'd done wrong later, I have frogged it for now and will start again when I have more brainpower.

That left me with the scarf, which after being left for a few days has lost its appeal. I love the pattern, but think it will work much better in a lovely squishy merino yarn, rather than the acrylic/wool blend I had to hand at the time. So that too has drowned in the frog pond!

I needed a new project. I turned to my YoP list and looked to see what yarns I had in my stash that had already been matched to patterns. I briefly considered casting on one of the other Sherlock Holmes inspired patterns I've earmarked for my Artesano 100% alpaca dk, but as the shawl and mitts are designed for different yarn weights it would involve too much thinking right now to figure out if they need modifying. Next to catch my eye was Ishbel in the gorgeous pink Knit Picks Capretta; I enthused about this long enough to get the yarn down from the shelf and start looking for the right needle, but fell short of casting on when I realised the needle I needed to knit it was in use already for the shrug!

This left me one last choice.

Zauberball in shade Deine Blaue

I bought this at Unravel last year, which means it has been sat in my stash for almost twelve months. I've always known what this yarn will be: Lazy Katy.

The ball started quite dark, alternating between navy and black, but without even noticing at first it suddenly changed to a rather startling bright blue. The body of the shawl is pretty quick to knit up; just a couple of evenings work had me at row 100 and ready to start the border! Finding the yarn a little odd at the moment; it's fairly uneven in thickness and the colour changes are surprising. But I think I'm going to love the finished shawl.