Remember that post by me about casting on Shipwreck with my hand-dyed llama yarn?
It wasn’t meant to be. I frogged the llama yarn and put it back the side of my desk. Llama yarn just doesn’t have the right elasticity for that project. I loved the yarn (from a dear friend’s llama) and loved the color.
I’ve ordered some wonderful blue silk from The Knitting Goddess. It’ll be perfect for Shipwreck. (Edited to Add: Blue Silk from The Knitting Goddess has gone missing due to the UK Postal Strikes.)
But while I’m waiting for the silk to arrive I needed (yes needed) something to work on. Socks weren’t doing it for me. After a few rounds late one night they went back into the designated sock bag.
I tried swatching the llama for a cowl. Wrong project for the yarn. Again.
Then after several days of no real knitting progress I had an AH HA moment! The perfect project for the llama yarn popped into my noggin and I even had the pattern, actually I had a magazine copy and a book copy of the pattern.

When the Icarus was initially published in Interweave Knits I was a rookie knitter. I’d knitted socks and scarves but lace was tantalizing me at every turn. At a spring festival I bought a skein of lace yarn but in my ignorance didn’t realize it was not nearly enough for the project.
Long story short – that initial Icarus (Icky as I called it) was frogged over a year ago. And that was a long past when it was completed.
Icarus is a lovely pattern and with my much improved lace skills it is flying on the needles. I’ve bought beads that I’ll use on the final chart or two. I’m now happy to be working on my Icarus Shawl (which shall never be called by that other evil nickname).
It was a very good lesson to keep in my mind, let the yarn decide the pattern. So until my Shipwreck silk arrives from across the pond I’m happily committed to my new improved Clear Skies Icarus!
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