Happy day

I've been concentrating on getting the Swallowtail shawl finished and I succeeded on Friday, but it has taken until today to get it blocked. I had about 3g of yarn left over, which was a relief considering that I did more repeats of the main pattern (19 instead of 14) than written. I also put beads on more rows than I first planned to. It measures about 54" across and about 27" deep, which is much bigger than I thought it would end up. The before and after blocking pictures could be of a totally different piece of knitting.

The sun came out in between the snow showers while I was taking pics, the pale stripe on the right isn't really there.

A look at the edge, click the pictures for the bigger version. It's still damp, and the colours will brighten up a bit when it's dry I think.

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.

Progress pics

I thought I'd better post some photos. This is the Swallowtail shawl as of today. The BFL handspun is lovely and soft and I'm really enjoying knitting with it. The lace pattern isn't disappearing too badly among the colour changes. This section of the pattern is easily memorised, so it goes quite quickly even though the rows are quickly getting longer.

The sock has enough done to warrant a photo now. It's my variation of the Charade sock. The original uses a 2 by 2 rib as the basis, I've used a 4 by 2 rib so that the herringbone pattern is more spaced out. I'm toying with the idea of doing a short row heel for a change, no decision needed yet though. The yarn is Swiss, I'll post the details when I find the label. I'm using my 2.5mm Addi lace needle, magic loop with 72sts cast on. In my efforts to expand my skills, I tried the Old Norwegian cast on using a 3.25mm dpn for this sock, transferring the stitches to the circular before knitting the first round.

On a totally unrelated note, one of my other non yarn hobbies is doing jigsaws and today I finished a 1500 piece puzzle. I had bought it about a year ago from eBay and was most disappointed to discover it had missing pieces. I accept this as a hazard of buying used puzzles, but the number of missing pieces took my breath away when I counted up the empty spaces.

~Would you believe 18?

A little bit of knitting

It's been a bit quiet on the crafting front lately. Recently on the needles is the swatch, oops, the sleeve of the Weekend pullover by Veronik Avery from Interweave Knits Fall '06. I'm getting gauge, so my guess about which size to cast on was correct for a change. I had to hunt in the stash to find something the right weight that also had the yardage, and I found some Sirdar Salsa in Cappuchino. It's half merino and half acrylic DK, and is very soft, slightly brushed, but it still shows up the patterns nicely. I've also cast on for a sock, but there isn't much to see yet.

On the wheel is some light brown alpaca which I got off eBay which is proving a challenge to spin. The staple is quite short and the rovings have a fair bit of VM. I am having to spin it a bit thicker than I really wanted to, because it kept breaking even with a lot of twist. Strangely, it seems to be greasy which I thought alpaca wasn't. I have one bobbin full and have started the second. I'm just going to have to dye some more of the BFL soon, I enjoy spinning colourful fibre.

Secret of the stole ii is going slowly, near to the end of clue 4 and it's still an easy knit. The Swallowtail shawl is also growing with 7 of the 14 pattern repeats done, before the border pattern begins. The border incorporates nupps ( increase to make 5 sts from one, and then purl them together in the following row) in the pattern which look pretty tricky, so I'm wondering whether adding beads might be a better option. Maybe I'll take it shopping and see if I can find some beads which go with the colours.