First of all, thanks. Second, yes, that's yours truly, displaying the shawl. My hair's not really that red, but the blue of the shawl is pretty much right.
And, to combine responses and answer Jan in MN's question, I used a wonderful yarn from Nash Farm Alaska (or so it says on the yarn band), called "Heavenly Alpaca." It's actually a blend, 70% alpaca and 30% mulberry silk (is that redundant?). It comes in 1 oz. skeins, and I used about 4 and 1/2 (I don't know what the yardage is).
I bought it at the New York State Yarn Fair in the fall of 2004, from the same lady whose pattern I used, Galina Khmeleva. Her book is the
*Gossamer Webs Design Collection: Three Orenburg Shawls to Knit*; I did the second of the three (though I made it a little longer).Claudia