WIP: Orchid Cowl

It feels like forever since I had a real project on the needles. I've had this one planned for a while, but I kept putting it off. First it was because I had to finish my mother's mittens, then it was because I didn't have the right needles, then it was because I had lost the right size crochet hook for the provisional cast-on... Excuses excuses! I finally just decided to cast this one on for the RRG2014 on Ravelry (TEAM MEEN REPRESENT), hoping to at least get halfway through the pattern before the end of the Olympics but alas, no dice. I didn't even make it through the first lace section! I did, however, learn to do a provisional cast-on flawlessly. Casting on 3 times before making it through even the first repeat without mistakes will do that to you.

The lace part of the pattern is really easy to memorise, but despite that I keep messing up! Sad, really. I can't even pay attention to a pattern for 42 stitches a row. I blame the speed skating. Was way too exciting. I'm now done with the first lace section and can begin the stockinette and garter stitch sections now. So I should be able to speed things up a bit now! 

The yarn I'm using is Cascade 220 Heritage in maroon. It's soft, squishy, nicely saturated, smooth, and doesn't seem like it's splitty at all! I originally bought it, along with two skeins in black, for a cardigan to wear at my wedding, but that plan sort of fell by the wayside as 8 weeks was a little short on time for me to learn how to knit lace, not to mention a garment with armhole shaping, waist shaping and buttonholes, all things I hadn't (and still haven't) done before. So the yarn has been in my stash ever since, and I've been trying to come up with plans to use it for different projects. This should take exactly one skein, so one down, two to go!