It's been a while.
I've been keeping busy in the midst of several family health crises (I'm fine, thanks for asking) by knitting my heart out. And spinning too.
I'm nearly done with a shawl -
that right now looks pretty much like a blob. I'm using (so-called) 'alpaca dental floss' (see another project here) from a small farm in Ottawa. The pattern is the fan stitch half circle shawl from Martha Waterman's Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls. Its got over 300 sts on the needle at this point, being one of those sneaky shawl patterns that starts you out with a mere five stitches and grows until each row is an agony of tedium. [Yes, I'm a little tired of it, why do you ask?]
This shawl pattern is notable for having what I think is the world's most trying stitch maneuver. K4togTBL, K4tog:
Which looks like the above, if you can make out the globs of stitches there. Seriously, at first it was more trying than a nupp, but now ... well, its actually kind of fun. Mostly because the K4tog rows reduce the stitch count again for a little while.
To keep my life interesting - or at least have a break from the whiteness of the above shawl - I also started a scarf.
It's the "Raha Scarf" from Knitted Lace of Estonia, Nancy Bush's new book. I'd been waiting for this book since I first heard about it, and (believe it or not) casting on for this quick and simple scarf was actually a sign of self control. I'm using Punta Del Este "Mericash" (80/20 Merino/Cashmere) held together with Jaggerspun Zephyr, which is making a slightly thicker (and larger) scarf than the pattern calls for. I'm at the halfway point already, and started it just a few days ago. Definitely for the holiday gift pile, I think.
In spinning, I've finished up this:
Four ounces of cormo/silk blend from Alice Field. I've got a lot of yardage, laceweight, from the four ounces, but haven't yet taken the time to count just how many yards. It was gorgeous stuff to spin, though.
In spite of what I said a minute ago about exhibiting self-control with the new lace book, I've been doing some plotting. I sat down and made a list of yardage requirements for all the projects for the book, and went through one shelf of commercial laceweight yarns in my stash (yes, just one shelf's worth) and figured out what I had. Next up is to figure out what handspun laceweight I've got stashed, and in what yardage, and ... well, plot some more. I have a few favorites from the Estonian lace book ... its going to be very hard to choose the next project.
