Beading time

I can't believe it's a week since I last posted, the time has really flown by. I think the most interesting thing to have happened (no, I don't lead a very exciting life) was the shopping expedition when I took the Swallowtail shawl to find beads. I came across some Jaeger beads designed for knit use which have purple, blue and red colouring. They were the best match I could find and I've finally got the technique for getting them onto the stitches refined. I had been tempted to try the nupps, but having calculated my yarn usage and finding that I should have ~5g left without them and ~1g left with them, it wasn't worth the anxiety. At this point I have four of the ten beaded rows done and it's going well.

This alpaca is turning into a marathon project. Having filled two bobbins with singles, I managed to get them plied yesterday. This is the first skein with the second half on the bobbin waiting for it's turn on the niddy noddy. It's a bit rustic, a bit uneven and a light aran weight, I'm guessing 4.5mm needles. There is nearly as much again to do but I don't think there'll be quite enough for a sweater, so I might blend some of this fibre with some of the brown alpaca I still have waiting from last year to make a contrast colour. Better yet I could spin some of the brown to the same thickness as well and have two contrasts. I may do stripes or colourwork, who knows. I'm determined to make a sweater or jacket from handspun sooner or later, and this might be it.

The crocheted circular ripple has grown a bit, but each round seems neverending. This may well end up a bit smaller than I first thought.