Spin A Yarn for Ewe

Lace update. I finally finished chart A and its 13 repeats. I am now on to chart B. I would of probably been farther along but wine + lace = no no. I started on it last night and promptly dropped a stitch. I found it, fixed it and then stopped. I tried to get a better picture of the color with the beads I am going to use.

I think you can see the purple bits and these are new beads that I got yesterday. I am not sure that I will use the green one but I really like how they look. They came from the Beadwrangler along with the right size hooks to put them on. I was sceptical that it would work but it pulls the yarn through no problem. They are so small I can not imagine crocheting anything with them. I hope to have at least one repeat of the B chart done this weekend with the beads maybe more plus I plan to finally spin up the March Spunky Club fiber as the April one is already here.

I spun last night and got the singles done for the Crazy Egg batt. I plied this morning. I didn't get as much yardage as I hope for but the yarn is fun. Here is how it looked before I started spinning.

Here is is all spun up.



I guess I could of done a single to get maximum yardage but oh well. It is more of an accessory yarn any way. It was fun to spin up and just let it go. With these mixed batts it is hard to get to precise on the yarn or at least it is for me.

I look forward to next month.

I finished the Cherry Baby from the Sweet Sheep club. It is a really great red yarn with lots of different shades in it.

I ended up with 241 yards of 2ply. I have no idea what to do with it but I am sure I will find something fun.

I am still plugging away on the lace. Every repeat is taking longer and longer as it gets bigger but I now have it totally memorized so I can just knit away on it. Spinning tonight so I can see the "egg" in action.

I got the pictures. Finally. This is called Crazy Egg and the name really does mean exactly that. The colors are wild and the fiber content is bamboo, romney, mohair, alpaca and "snow".

You might want to click on this one to make it bigger.

This one shows the iridescent "snow" in it. I love how this batt looks and I can not wait to spin it up. It is for sure next after the Cherry Baby. I am curious to see the colors as well as how the snow feels. It has a fairly thick diameter so I am not sure if it will be soft or pokey. This is month one of my newest fiber club. I love these things as I get something in the mail when I least expect it. It is from HollyEQQ that I found through Gina.

I also got a feeble shot of the Spring Things Shawl. It is not fun trying to pin it out still on the needles but you do

get an idea of how it is looking. I will have to get outdoor shots of the colors as the little hint of purple and charcoal really add to it.

This weekend was busy with lots of running around but I did manage to start the Spring Things Shawl and do some spinning. First the shawl really looks like a big black blob right now so no shots of it yet. The lace is going well and I have been able to almost memorize the pattern on the first chart. I still have a few more repeats of it to go but I am more than halfway there already. Here are the beads I was thinking about using.

I am not sure if they will work with the heavier yarn but without the right size crochet hook I have no idea. I have a size 10 hook (1.3mm) but it is too big. I mean the thing looks like it should fit but it is not even close so I am going to find a 13 or smaller. If I end up having to order the hook then I will probably order some other beads to compare to these.

On the spinning front, I got the first single done on the Sweet Sheep Cherry Baby roving done.

It is turning out nicely with lots of shades of red. The BFL is also a real pleasure to spin. I haven't spun any in quite a while and I really like it.

I also got something else in the mail that is tons of fun but you will have to wait until I have time to photograph it. Hopefully the sun will be out tomorrow so I can get some good shots as it really needs to be done outside.

So, since I got the pattern and have swatched some of it and think I can now handle it, I have to pick out some yarn. I went to my LYS and looked at what they had and nothing really called to me. I wanted something that was fairly plain but had just a touch of color in it. I left empty handed and came home to search the stash. I had bought some undyed yarn a while back and found that this was fairly close to lace weight or at least close to some lace weight. It is 20 WPI so closer to fingering but I am counting on someone to help me figure out when to stop if it gets too big. Since it was a nice off white I decided to dye it myself.

It is now mostly black with some areas of charcoal and some purple thrown in for fun. I think it should make for a great looking shawl especially with some iridescent beads I have thrown in.

Here is the other side of the skein.

Wish me luck on the lace adventure.

I finished Spring, otherwise known as the Easter egg dye roving. The yarn turned out nice and the colors are very muted. I like how it turned out. I got 301 yards of 2 ply at about a DK weight.


Gina and Loribird thanks for the lace tips. As a newbie to lace I sometimes get intimidated by it. The pattern I was talking about is Spring Things. I just love how this looks so I finally just bought the pattern and looked through the charts. I was slightly confused by the repeat part but I think I have it down now after swatching with some yarn I had. I had many a "duh" moment with it but the "aha" moment finally came. I try to over think stuff and end up getting myself all turned around. Now to just decide on a yarn and a color.

Thank you all for such nice compliments on the sweater. I really do like how it turned out. Now for the ribbon/cord dilemma. I decided against the i-cord as somehow 40" of i-cord sounded like no fun to knit. I did make some cord per Loribird's suggestion. I like how it looks since it matches exactly but somehow I don't think it is enough.

I also have to say that making 40" of cord like this requires arms as long as a Orangutan and for sure a cordless drill. Without the drill this would not even be an option.

So I went ribbon hunting today and came up with 2 options. One is a very close match in color but has more body then the cord.

Or there is the multi-colored one that I think wins out. When Miriam said to go for a totally different color it got me thinking a little more and I thought this worked well.

Let me know what you think, worst case I have 3 options for it depending on my mood.

I have a question for all you lace knitters out there. I found this shawl pattern that I really like and would like to try but wondered what would happen to the size of it if I used a fingering weight yarn vs lace weight? Would it grow so huge that I would be swallowed alive by it meaning I would have to alter the pattern which I don't really want to do since I have never attempted one before. Anyone know?

First, I want to say thanks for all the great comments. I love hearing from everyone.

Second, I finished my sweater. I said I would and I did although the sewing up part really gets to me after a while. So here is Georgia.

It was written for a cashmere yarn but I made it in a much more San Diego friendly cotton blend from Rowan called Luxury Cotton DK. I scored this yarn on EBay for next to nothing and I really like how it knit up. The gauge was a little off stitch-wise so I made a size smaller to compensate for that and it fits great. Here is another shot.

I know that it is missing the ribbon but I haven't found anything the right color. Maybe I could just do a matching i-cord one for it. Any thoughts on that?

Since Georgia took most of my weekend up the Spring yarn is not quite done. The second bobbin is well on its way though so I hope I can ply it tomorrow evening.

I started spinning the Spring roving(that's what I decided to call it) last night. I knew that the colors would change dramatically since it had a lot of white in it and so what once was a tie-dye explosion is now a muted spring colored yarn.

It should be very pretty when it is plied which I think will also make the colors a little stronger but we will see.

I also have been working on the sweater front more. I finished the eyelet bottom and I am on to the top section closing in on the armholes.

I was thinking about making the neckline a little lower but I really don't want to have to fool with it so I am doing it as is. I am setting a goal of having it all done this weekend. I really hope I can pull it off so I have something to photograph on Monday.