Needlework Tuesday - Knitting and knitting

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

This week I have a quick update on two projects.

The first one is the shawl/wrap, Sand Layers, from my local yarn store, Wolseley Wool. I'm about a 1/3 of the way through. It's still not laying flat, but that might change once it's off the needles. 

Speaking of needles, I've been reminded of why I dislike knitting on circular needles. It's hard to explain, but I just can't seem to hold it the right way without it curling in a direction I don't want it to.  I'd love to buy an identical one and just use them as really long needles.  However, since this shawl has already cost me $85+, that won't be happening.  I'll just have to continue to fight with it. 

Other than this, I'm loving the shawl.  The pattern is really easy to follow with lots of straight knitting, which is great because I like to knit while watching TV.  It increases 2-4 stitches EVERY row, though, so it's getting quite wide very quickly. Now that it's growing, I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up with that number of stitches (+500 by the end). I'd rather not keep counting them all, so I'm going to have to come up with a system, but since the pattern adds stitches on both ends, it'll have to start in the centre. Hmmmm....

Anyway, here's a shot of the shawl so far, followed by a close up of the slip stitch and garter sections.
 

Notice the stitch marker in the first photo.  That's marking the right side of the piece.  It's something I picked up from a previous project.  Such a simple thing, but it never occurred to me to do this.  Since much of this project is garter stitch, it's really handy.   

I also have an update on the second temperature scarf (mentioned here in a previous post) that I started back in June of 2014.  Sometime in February of this year, I discovered that I wouldn't have enough orange to complete the project. Get more orange you say? Sure. If only it were that easy. *HUGE SIGH*

First off, I checked my local yarn store. They don't carry the brand anymore, so it would have to be special order and they couldn't just order one skein...I'll have to take and pay for 10 skeins...of bright orange yarn. That didn't sound right to me, but whatever. I wasn't going to argue.

Second, I figured I'd find some online instead, even though I don't shop online. Well, as it turns out, that the colour is discontinued. Not the end of the world yet because some websites still had a few (very few) left in stock. When I looked around, I discovered that the price of shipping was more than the yarn!!!! In fact, quite a bit more than the yarn.  Crazy!

I hummed and hawed for a couple of weeks unsure of what to do. I had already completed 5-6 months of the scarf and had lots of yarn left...just no orange. Darn! When I went back to a few of the websites, they were sold out. If I wanted to finish the scarf, I had to act fast. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and pay the outrageous shipping price. I went to a website where the price was the most reasonable, but when I tried to place the order, something wasn't working properly and it just sat there spinning. I contacted the website administrator, but didn't hear anything back. However, a week later, I did hear from my bank saying that someone was charging thousands of dollars to my credit card. Sigh. I can't prove it was that website...I guess I could have a virus on my PC, even though I have antivirus software installed. Luckily, my bank caught it and I wasn't responsible for any of the charges. Needless to say no more online shopping for me. And the scarf? Well, I'm going to rip it out and make something else.  ;)  

Next week, I'll have an update on a Christmas item I started last year....I just have to finish it first.
 
Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.