New Beginnings

Oops. I forgot to post for almost a month. I blame it on stupid Facebook games. Somehow I got sucked into both Farmville and Mafia Wars, and not much exciting has happened around here since. This weekend I plowed up the crops and I'm giving up the farm and the family (the Mafia family, not the real one) for Lent.

In honor of all the regained knitting time, I started a new project. Actually, this falls in the category of "Finish It Or Frog It". I bought some lovely yarn a couple of years ago from Shelly of Butternut Woolens. It's a 50% silk, 50% merino DK blend, in a gorgeous ice blue. Right after I got it, I cast on and started a ribbed scarf, got about 6 inches done, and just wasn't loving the pattern-yarn combo. So it has been stuck in a bag for a couple of years. This morning I dragged it out, ripped it out, and started something new.

Here's the old:

Here's the new:

The pattern is Baktus, and I'm doing a modification that has rows of yarnover holes every 8 rows, on a garter background. It's as simple as it gets, but will be a much better match for this lovely yarn. I will end up with a small triangular shawl out of this. The beauty of this pattern is that you can use any yarn. You start from one narrow end of the shawl or scarf, knit until you have used half your yarn, then decrease away to the other tip. It will be perfect for those handspun skeins. I read about this pattern over on Knitorious, go check out what Vicki is doing with sock yarn.

There are more New Beginnings, and one or two Finishings, but I'll save them for another post!