Miss me?
It's been awhile, huh. I'll spare you all the ins and outs of the complications of life and just launch into showing you some of the fibery things I've been doing. Sorry, no nature pic to lead things off today. It's getting to be scary cold out there and everything just looks white (as in snow) anyway.
Fell in love at first sight with Nancy Bush's new book, Knitted Lace of Estonia. Wanted to cast on nearly every design right away but Miralda led the pack. And, I had the perfect yarn for it sitting on the shelf--Jade Sapphire Cashmere/Silk.
It's a fun pattern to knit. Lots of unusual stitch patterns that combine texture with lace.
All my shawl notes are listed in my Ravelry Notebook so I won't repeat them here. Interweave has listed errata for the book here.
Second shawl on the needles from the book is the Crown Prince. I'm using some Yak/Silk and size 3mm needles. This one will be a long term project.
Wanted to show you this fun little spindle basket I found at the WI Spin-in last October.
The basket holds roving and there's a special spiral on the front to hold a spindle. It feels sort of like a spindle holster.Haven't been spinning much, but since October was breast cancer awareness month, I broke into the Superwash Merino dyed in Violet's Pink Ribbon from Lisa.
I was aiming for a fingering weight 3 ply and missed the mark again. Last time I tried it, I ended up with more of a sport weight. This time...lace weight--974 yds measuring 38 WPI from 4 oz.
Nice and springy but too lightweight for socks. Being superwash, it won't hold a block so a lace shawl is out. So for now, it's on the shelf.
More of a success is this little Niebling doily. Burda has begun publishing an English version of Anna and is including one Niebling design in each issue. This is the first one called Lily of the Valley.
Lots of nice little touches in it and it was quite fun to knit. To start the center I used Thom Christoph's circular start as shown in Gathering of Lace. Very nice. It's similar to Emily Ocker's start but doesn't use a crochet hook.That's it for now. Hopefully posts will begin to show up in their usual weekly pattern.
posted by Vicki @ 2:34 PM
9 Comments:
Can't you double the laceweight for some socks? There's plenty of yardage . . .
Well, doubled, it ends up being a tad too thick. Plus, one of my aims with this was to get a pair of matching socks from handspun and I carefully split the top so both skeins would be the same. One skein has about 100 more yds than the other, so obviously that wasn't too successful. So, I guess it just needs some time in "time out" til I'm not so disappointed with it.
The shawls are just gorgeous! You really flew through them, too!
The yarn is really pretty, that is a LOT of yardage. I have seen a couple of pretty patterns lately for cardigans out of laceweight, it just isn't coming to mind right now exactly where...Maybe you could make a shrug.
Yes, you were missed. Where else to go for such eye candy. Beeyoutifull lace!
I missed you, too. But then I haven't blogged in months so maybe it's something in the air? The "Violet's Pink ribbon" is lovely. Maybe it's destined for a less complex shawl that doesn't need major blocking to show off its intricacies. A simple prayer shawl or cuddly wrap instead of a lace tour de force?
All beautiful, of course! I love the shawl and doily, and it's heartbreaking that the Pink Ribbon won't be right for socks, but I'm certain the perfect project will present itself one day.
Yes, I missed you a bunch! Miralda is simply gorgeous, as is the little doily.
Your laceweight is really something. It's so perfect, and it's mostly pink - what could be better?
Oh man, Vicki! You rock girl. So, does that mean that Crown Prince will take more than two weeks?? Lord! You are so prolific, but in such an enormously good way!! Love the spindle spinning too. I think you must not sleep, or I sleep too much! lol :)
what beautiful lacework! :)
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