Scarf done, new yarn is here

Two good things:
1) I finished the holey scarf
2) My birthday shipment from patternworks arrived yesterday :)











Scarf is good, I quite like it, but might have made it one pattern repetition slimmer in order to make it longer. Still, pretty good for one ball.

New stuff is all hairy and soft. Merino Stripes (blue jeans) and Kid Merino (red cinnamon), both for shawly-type things. And it's really great having the packaged delivered to work. Nice big cardboard box on my bench pretending to be gels of chemicals or something, but it's far more exciting to open it up and see 11 shiny new balls of wool in there instead of dry ice and chippings. I'm not patient enough to leave it sitting there in ball form until everything else is finished so I cracked one open last night and started the merino stripes shawl. The first square was done in no time, and after a bit of confusion about which was the front/back and how to pick up stitches from the side, the second square is now well on the way. First ball nearly finished already and I went to bed far too late last night! It's done on fairly big needles, and initially the stitches looked pretty loose and holey but actually it's turning out quite well like that. The garter stitch makes it seem thicker than it actually is, but it still stays nice and soft and drapey because the stitches aren't very tight. Pictures coming soon...