Fibery Updates

We have lace, people! :)

My finished Wing-o-the-Moth shawlette. (I've decided it is much more of a shawl than a scarf, but since it is tiny, it is a shawlette.) To recap, this is one of Anne Hanson's beautiful patterns, and I made it out of ShibuiKnits Silk Cloud in the Ivory colorway.

It's amazing how quickly I can knit things when I decide to dedicate myself to one project at a time! I started this shawlette on January 8th and bound off the morning of January 17th. Nine days! I'm even impressed by that, considering I have never completed a lace-weight lace project before and I have a dismal track record in working with fine, silk-mohair yarns.

Here she is just off the needles...

I think she really does look like a moth here!

And here she is while pinned out blocking...

I have to say, blocking this was a pain. I futzed with it for at least an hour (can't imagine how long it would take me to do a full-sized shawl!). I never did get it blocked to the size I thought it should be. Indeed, despite doing more repeats of two of the charts than the scarf-sized pattern called for, it blocked out smaller than the scarf dimensions in the pattern. Nor was I able to block out the Corona edging in a discernably scalloped way as I've seen it done on others' projects.

My problems were two-fold, I determined. One, though I made a distinct effort to bind off loosely, I should have bound off even more loosely. My blocking efforts were largely inhibited by the limited give in my bindoff edge. Live and learn. (Sigh.) Secondly, I think the yarn itself was an issue. It clearly did not have the same give that a wool-based yarn would have had. But it's so soft and fuzzy and pretty, and by golly, it is warm for a little nothing! Just having it laying over my shoulders like that while we took pictures outside had me feeling quite snug! Amazing. :)

These things aside, I'm happy with how it turned out. It is not error-free, to be sure -- my center line looks very loose and wonky to me, not tight, well-aligned YOs like I see on other lace shawls. But for my first lace-weight lace project? I'm pretty darned proud of it.

Part of my motivation for getting WotM finished up quickly (besides that it was for a January KAL in the Loopy Spring Fling Rav group) was that I was dying to cast on another shawl using my newly spun up Sanguine Gryphon batt that I'd divided up into five of it's main colors and then spun them one after another and Navajo plied them so I could have five distinct long stretches of color. I've seen this done before, and it really is a neat effect.

I decided I'd knit Kate Flagg's Multnomah with it, as I really wasn't too up for another fussy lace pattern right now. (Though I do think it is ironic that I'm now doing a second project inside a month that is largely constructed with feather-and-fan...I've avoided f&f for so long because it drove me crazy to see it all over the place, and now this. :}) I just hit the fourth color stretch, which will also be the largest color stretch. And honestly, I'm not sure if I'm liking how it is turning out or not! LOL I'll post a picture once I buy a longer set of circs for it today...no way I'm going to get all those stitches on a 24" needle.

I also spent some time last weekend catching up on my soaking. I had a bag full of handspun from the past several months that I never soaked to set the twist, so this is what my sink looked like one afternoon...

And then this is what is what my window looked like later that day...

Such pretty colors in the winter sunlight! :)