I was going to make this for a christmas gift, but unfortunely I ordered the yarn, pattern and needles from theknittinggarden.com, which doesn't inform you during the ordering process if an item is out of stock, and low and behold the Rowan biggie print "mermaid" yarn I wanted for the Kyle pattern was...yes, you guess it, on back order. So waiting, waiting, waiting, turned into a 15% off discount if I was willing to change the yarn. I went for it, switched my yarn choice to "humbug" (feeling that vibe right about now) and I received the yarn about three days ago. Uh, eight days before Christmas, and not even a foot long into the scarf, I surrender. Perhaps I'll keep it for myself, or save it for a later gift to some unknown chunky knit lover I have yet to meet. Since the secret-ness of the project is no longer an issue, I'll be blogging my progress. Here's the lovely Rowan photo from big picture, and my starting photo below. I don't want to dis the knitting garden in any way other than saying how frustrating it was not having the option to back out since the site doesn't inform you when a yarn is back ordered. I think their site is easy to use and they have a good selection.

As an aside, I had a wee bit of trouble at the beginning because I haven't ever knit with a yarn forward, slip 1, knit 1, pass slip stitch over in the pattern. At first, I got mentally tangled thinking the pass slip stitch over would have me decreasing into no-where-ville. Took me a few tries (and a lame help email to Rowan, who were very responsive and actually helpful, thank you) to master the yarn forward which creates the increase and the pass slip stitch over which decreases, so all stays at the same number cast on. Phew. I'm good to go.