Happy New Year

You know what "they" say about the best laid plans ... well let me tell you, I had some great plans. I was going to ring in the New Year with my last finished object of ought-seven and wow you with gorgeous pictures of Branching Out. We could have given it an artsy name, Branching Out: In Nature, In the Wild, In Use on My Neck. It was going to be great. But. But when we got "on location" there was some black ice and some slipping and a booboo and some more snow and um, not so many great photos. There were still lots of photos, of the mediocre kind. To wit:

Scarf in snow ... looking unblocked, washed out and not eye-popping green:



Then there was me, trying to be a model ...



Unfortunately, after watching Boo almost bite the dust, I took two steps out of the car and bit the dust myself. So my modeling was overshadowed by this ...



Which, as an aside, sucked extra special since I was wearing my wonderful snow boots, snow boots that are suppose to prevent these types of things from happening! And the whole damn thing was compounded by some of this ...



The snow messed with our camera's ability to focus, as well as my cameraman's ability to focus, so my grand plans went out the window and I instead played with this ...



The dog and I were quite busy, so we got a whole lot of pictures of this ...



Which turned out just fine because when we went home to have a late breakfast and relax, Baby Girl was tuckered out and relaxed too ...



In the end we had a lot of fun, and Branching Out got some real "it's cold out, I need a scarf" use, so there yah have it, a mediocre but fun filled photo-op.

As for the scarf itself, well I totally enjoyed knitting this scarf. A lot. I didn't find the pattern memorizable. Nonetheless, it was easy to follow and it made sense when I was knitting along. I used a row counter, but even without it I would have been able to figure out which row in the pattern repeat I was on as I found it easy to figure out and follow from looking at the work. So, if you are looking for some easy lace, I would say this is a good place to start. This yarn is also a nice yarn to use. With one caveat, it sucks to rip out. When I was futzing with needle size, I ripped out two or three attempts and it was like ripping velcro. So though the pattern is a great beginning lace pattern, the yarn might now be the best starter yarn. If you don't think you are going to have to rip back, then by all means, use this yarn, it is soft and yummy and delightful to knit.

Also delightful and yummy are the things I have cooked today. Things which I will tell you about later on since this post is getting long and, um, it's not easy being green!



Yarn: Artfibers' Kyoto, 2 skeins (220 yards/100 grams), color 38
Needles: Susan Bates Circs, size 5.0 mm (US 8)
Pattern: Branching Out
Modifications: None. Not really. After blocking, my yarn gave me fifty-seven inches of length (two inches shorter than the pattern) and seven and a half inches of width (half an inch wider than the pattern specs).
Time: 8 days.
Care: Hand wash cool, dry flat.