Here We Go Again...

What to do when a very nice friend gives you a very nice skein of yarn for your birthday? Cast about for the perfect pattern, of course, and here we have the beginning of Anne Hanson's Fernfrost. It seems to me to be perfectly paired with the lovely yarn, which is Buffalo Gold's Lux, in colorway Dakota Dawn. The yarn is a wonderful blend of the winter undercoat of pure bison down, mixed with 20% cashmere, 20% silk and 15% Tencel...just incredibly soft, and no doubt quite warm for such an airy, laceweight yarn.

The pattern is a bit challenging, mostly because I always have trouble reading the wrong side rows and reversing the knits and purls, hence the red markings on the chart to remind me to purl where it looks like a knit...anyone else have to do this?
I can tell already that this is going to take awhile to complete, but WHAT a fun knit! Just need to keep my attention really focussed. Not fun to have to tink back laceweight on 3.25mm needles! I'll probably start adding lifelines every 15 or 20 rows soon.

And here's an FO I'm really pleased about -- my finished Highland Triangle Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls book (Ravelry link):

Very hard to photograph because it's so large (78" x 43") and I don't have a photographer on hand today (so glad Ross will be home soon!). But you can get the idea, spread out on this settee:

The yarn is Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool DK in a color that's hard to describe...kind of an earthy, greeny-brown. Not everyone's cup of tea, I suppose, but I'm loving it.

Spring is definitely trying to arrive in the Southern Highlands, and I'm enjoying the warmer temps. May be time to hit the garden soon!