Lake of the (Ninja Turtle Barf) Woods

I've wanted to knit Ilga Leja's Lake of the Woods from the moment I first saw it - same colourway (Nova Scotia) and yarn (Fleece Artist Silk Stream). When I went in search of the yarn, I was dissappointed to discover that it had been discontinued.

When looking around on Ravelry, I learned that Fleece Artist had produced a "Very Special Limited Edition" yarn for Knitty-Noddy (Merino 3/6) that would be a perfect substitution. When I went and checked it out, they had it availible in the colourway I wanted, but the photos of the yarn looked darker than those on Ilga's pattern. I went with it anyways, thinking "such is the nature of hand-dyed" and that it would still look beautiful.

Merino 3/6 in the Skein

From the time that the yarn came in, I had a bit of an uneasy feeling about this project, so I let it sit for a few months. I finally decided to get to it, and this is what I got:

3" into it - Chart A

Close-up - the blue is more vibrant/bright in person

The funny thing is, while I was knitting, all I could think was "Ninja Turtles", and when I showed this to DH...

Me: Can you come look at this? I want to see if you see the same thing I do.
*DH comes in*
Me: Is it just me, or does this look like...
DH: Yeah, it looks like Ninja Turtles

I didn't even have to say it. I don't know about you, but I don't think I want to walk around looking like the blue Ninja Turtle exploded all over me!

I will definitely knit this pattern with a different yarn, but this one is off to the frog pond!

January Knits

I really don't feel like I've knit much this month, especially when compared to how much I churned out last year. At the beginning of the month, I lost my knitting mojo - I actually went a week+ without knitting a single stitch! It was weird, but I think I just needed a bit of a break from it all to focus on some other stuff.

The break wasn't really bad - I finished unpacking the last of the boxes from our move back in July - and 7 months to unpack everything is a new record for us (by a long shot!). I also used the opportunity to go through and get rid of a lot of stuff that we weren't using and hadn't used in a looooong time! All in all, 8 large garbage bags of stuff went (or is going - there are still bags of clothes that need to be delivered to their recipients). So really, not a bad thing!

Anyways, here's what I managed to finish:

1. The Emergency Mittens
2. The un-blogged (before now) Selfish Socks (which, IMO, are kinda fugly, but comfy)
3. 11 Repeats of my Branching Out scarf
4. What was (hopefully) going to be a mini-scarf/neck warmer out of some of my handspun (but isn't long enough and needs to be frogged)
   

I suppose it's nothing to scoff at, but I still wish I had managed to get more done (like actually finishing Branching Out). Perhaps February will see more knitting time!