Knitting amongst the vineyards

After talking with my mum this weekend, I was able to confirm that the project I had planned to knit for her for Christmas was going to be a perfect match. She was mentioning wanting something warm to wrap around her shoulders or a lap blanket on those cold nights watching tv or whatnot on the couch.

A month or two ago, I fell upon this pattern called the Vineyard Wrap and fell in love with the wrap and the colour of the yarn. I'm such a sucker for that olive-y, forest-y green. My mom likes similar shades of green too. Anyway, as soon as I saw the pattern, I thought it might be something she might like for a Christmas present. While searching for the same yarn that the pattern called for, I couldn't find the yarn in the colour I wanted and didn't know what yarn to substitute for it.

I'm pretty certain I'm the only knitter in the world who didn't know about this website, but have you checked out YarnDex? It's like a directory for yarn. The pattern calls for Classic Elite's Montera, which is a 50/50 llama/wool blend. Thanks to YarnDex, I was able to find a substitute yarn in a llama/wool blend with similar yardage and weight (Cascade Pastaza) - awesome!

So I CO for this project this weekend and so far so good. Except this was the first time I encountered a P2togB in a pattern...holy crap, that's definitely one of the harder instructions I've encountered in my knitting so far. I finally am getting the hang of it after doing 3 repeats of the pattern (thank goodness), but it's still a little slow going when I get to that part of the stitch pattern.

What??? You want to see photos? Ok, I guess I can indulge you with a few photos. They were taken this evening in bad indoor lighting - sorry.

The photo above shows the width of the wrap (hung over the top of a recliner). Here's a close up photo below for some stitch definition. I'll try to take better photos after a little more progress (and in daylight!)

So far, I'm loving the feel of the Cascade Pastaza yarn. It's soft, lofty and definitely warm. I think this will come out quite lovely, if I do say so myself.

Time to send this off, as I got some knitting I have to get back to :)