Happy Outcome & A Lesson Learned

As I am working my way through my stash, I am challenging myself to make something with each skein I pull out of the box. My last selection was a sizable skein of white acrylic which I had planned to use for a baby item. However, after making a gauge swatch I found that it was scratchy and I could never give anything made from it to a baby. So I somehow came up with the idea of mixing it with a skein of Bernat Frenzy (which is a novelty yarn) . The result was a bulky but very soft yarn. I started to make a shawl but the bottom started to curl and about halfway I decided I didn't like it, and came up with the idea of making a sweater for my dog, Jazz.

The first attempt was too small, so I ripped it out all over again and added 10 stitches here and 10 rows there and here's what it looks like:

And I also learned something. I took a break from knitting to talk on the phone, and while I was talking I was playing with the spare needle when all of a sudden *snap*. Yup, it broke. Wah! And I had several more rows to go. This was a 15mm needle and I didn't have another set! So I finished the sweater with one 12mm and one 15mm needle and tried to knit as loosely as I could. Lessons learned: big needles are hollow and needles from a second hand shop my be brittle and knitting needles should not be used for things other than knitting (although I know we're all guilty of using our needles for other things - especially sock needles, am I right?).

Now to pull out the next yarn for another challenge.