Wardrobe Wednesday: River Run Shawl

In my last post I shared my wonderful adventure at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.  

Today let's talk about the yarn and what I've been doing with it.

I picked up this wonderful yarn called Biggie from Dancing Leaf Farm.  I couldn't resist the colors.

I got home and opened it up and pulled out some coordinating Wool of the Andes - Superwash from Knit Picks.

I rolled all the different yarns into center-pull balls so I could get going on a project.

I had seen a sample knit with Biggie of the pattern River Run and I could not resist.  I started with a knitted cast on and got stitching.  I didn't get far in my first section before I realized I had made a bit of an error.  I ripped back and cast on again.  This may seem like a setback, but it really let me focus on what I was doing with each of the rows and why I was doing it.  

Here is my second cast on.  I figured out my misstep and got going.  The pattern is more of a recipe than a pattern once you get the first section done.  The second and later sections are improvisational.  Not an easy thing to do with knit, but I really like the effect.  

I recently discovered Orphan Black from BBC America and have been watching and knitting away.  In the last eight days I have watched nearly two full seasons of Orphan Black.  I'm going to have to change gears now, though since Season Three is still in production.  I'm sure there is something worthwhile to watch on Amazon.

I made good progress during the Wednesday night gaming session.  I think this would be wonderful in a self-striping yarn, too.  Or just some yarn.  Any yarn. 

I've been using the solids to break up the Mardi-Gras colors of the Biggie.  The needles are Options Interchangeable Plated Circular Knitting Needles from Knit Picks.  I bought this set with a gift card and I'm so glad I did.  I did order a longer cable for another project and am putting it to good use with this shawl.

The Biggie really gives this some amazing texture.  I'm learning about how much I want to work with the novelty yarns.  I like some of them much more than others.  

So far I've made it through section one and section two.  I've done the beginning of row cast on for section three.  I really like this project.  I'm excited to be working on it which is great!  

Have you started any new spring projects?  Have you discovered any entertaining podcasts or television shows that you watch/listen to while working?