One-Out/One-In Damson

First up - I hope you all had a very wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a few ups and downs relating to my grandma, but she is now doing well and we are again so thankful for the time we are able to share with her. However, the surprise quilt project my mom and I have been working on, is no longer a surprise. It would have made me so sad if she would never have seen what we'd been up to, so we decided to share our plans with her. We've been making good progress and I plan on sharing an update soon.

Anyway, I'm here to share a little FO with you! I'm calling this my One-Out/One-In Damson because while it was originally going to be a stash project, I ended up having to acquire another ball of sock yarn to finish it.

I knit this on the recommended needles and used an entire hank of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino in Moody Blues. I thought I would probably have enough yardage since the pattern calls for 440 yards and I had 420 in my Cherry Tree Hill. It seemed like Ysolda had made notes in the past if something was going to run close to the recommended yardage, but it was a risk I knew I was taking when I started the project. It just didn't work out in my favor this time around. I made it to the end of row 103 when I officially ran out.

I went stash diving again in hopes of finding something that would be a nice complement, but I didn't want to just make due. I'm not big on stash projects like that. I also consulted with my knitting group and it might have turned out that I could have traded something that would have worked, but we don't meet all that frequently and I really didn't want to stall out so close to the end.

After lots of internet searching and thorough perusal of The Loopy Ewe site, I decided on a solid navy to bring out the navy in the Cherry Tree Hill and the Cascade Heritage seemed to fit the bill. I had a few moments of second thoughts, mostly related to how the spin of the yarn would match, but when it arrived...it was perfect, so soft and smooshy. Not shiny like the Cherry Tree Hill, but since I was matching the darkest blue, I don't really think it matters. Plus there is a ton of yardage (437) for $12! I even have plenty left for another project.

I love the darker accent in the cute little edge loops, so in retrospect, I'm super happy that I ran out of yarn. Other than the yardage issue, this was a great project. Ysolda laid out the pattern beautifully with a chart and written instructions (although, the lace is completely memorizable, so you really don't need either once you know where the pattern is taking you) and as you can see by all the different versions on Ravelry, the pattern lends itself to different interpretations well. I think this would also be a great first lace project for someone. It is very simple lace, but very lovely. And I have to agree with the pattern summary, that the edging is deceptively simple.

Anyway, I am super pleased with how it came out and I'm looking forward to knitting another project from the Whimsical Little Knits 2 collection...most likely the scroll lace scarf (which doesn't seem to be listed on her website, but you can see it here (on Ravelry).