FOs: Thank you brain

FO#1: a large research grant, which is out of my hands and off to the lovely administrative folks at my institution to submit to the Grand Poobah of Federal Biomedical Research Funding (otherwise known as the National Institutes of Health). I am looking forward to reclaiming my very worn out brain cells and returning to the land of the semi-coherent sometime in the next week or so.

FO#2: the North Roe shawl in my own handspun...

Pattern: North Roe shawl by Odile Buatois-Brand
Yarn: 70% merino/30% mohair, colorway Verdant, from Hello Yarn, 5 oz/approx 650 yds
Needles: US 8/5.0 mm
Size: preblock, 60 x 26 inches; post-block, 70 x 36 inches.
Mods/comments: Loved the pattern, loved the handspun, even though I ran out and had to spin more. I even love how the striping came out, and I'm not big on striped shawls. Since I was light on yardage even before running out, I worked fewer repeats of Charts 1 and 2 (4 repeats and 3 respectively), and made it 8 of 12 rows into the edging before I decided that binding off was the better part of valor. Since running out again and having to spin more "laceweight" at 10:00 pm Sunday night would have dissolved me into a puddle of tears on the living room floor. This is my third lace shawl, and as with all the others, I am enamoured of the process of taking unblocked blob:

and turning it into this:

Chart 1

Chart 1 morphing into Chart 2

Chart 2 morphing into edging

Bliss.

FO#3: will have to wait for another day - I can't put all the goodies in one post now, can I?

A near thing

Last summer Ironman went to Peru and brought me back some alpaca. In fact, he brought back lots of alpaca. 30 balls. Fingering weight. Two colors. It's gorgeous stuff, but since I wasn't sure what to do with it, I stuck it in the closet to marinate.

Recently I've come down with a major case of startitis. Whee - a shawl!...oooo, look over there, pretty fiber! Hmmm, I think I need a new sweater project... Some of this may have been encouraged by the lovely, but unseasonable weather that has been lingering in the Houston area, and the rest of it by the Website That Shall Not Be Named. But I found a lovely, retro pattern that was appealing, and decided maybe it would be a good fit for my lovely alpaca.

To recap:

Alpaca sweater.
Fingering weight.
Black.
In a Houston summer.

Does this seem like a good idea to anyone?

Thankfully, I swatched yesterday, and have been deterred from my path of madness. The yarn is gorgeously soft, knits up into a nice stockinette fabric, but the cables are pretty appalling. As in, they disappear into mush. This may change after a bath, but I'm not optimistic. So I think the alpaca will disappear back into the stash closet for a while longer, although I've got some ideas about other uses for it.

Do you see a cable here? I don't see a cable here. Nope, nothing to see here.

The North Roe shawl is still a shapeless blob of bright green and brown, but it's getting larger. I'm well in to the second chart and am looking forward to the last.

Unfortunately, I've reached that stage in shawl knitting where the rows take forever (~3 rows/bus ride, not conducive to rapid progress), and it's starting to drag. This may also contribute to the startitis a bit - I'm not going to mention the other swatching action that is ongoing. Best not to confess to too much methinks!

FF*: Verdant laceweight

My first installment for Project Spectrum 3 - Earth. Finally, at long last, I'm done spinning the Verdant laceweight. This was my first attempt to spin laceweight, and it was more or less successful I think. But it took a damn long time!

I started with this gorgeous fiber from Hello Yarn:

70% merino, 30% mohair, Colorway "Verdant". I got 8 oz of this fiber in my double order from the Fiber Club, but only used 4 oz for this experiment.

I split the top in half lengthwise and then in half again. Each half (2 quarters) was predrafted in sequence, and rolled into a ball. My goal was to spin two singles with more or less the same color sections so the two ply yarn would be sort of self-striping instead of marled.

Spun each half on a separate bobbin at 15:1. I used a sample card with a sample of commercial two ply laceweight (Knit Picks Shadow) showing both the two ply and the single. I actually spun up a sample of the fiber before starting the whole batch, so the sample card also had a Verdant single, the unwashed two ply and the washed two ply sample.

I started off spinning this knowing only a few things about spinning laceweight: 1) thinner singles need more twist, hence the higher ratios so your knees don't burn out of their sockets, and 2) another way to help get enough twist was to keep the take up really really low. My initial takeup was so light that I felt like I was pushing the single into the orifice and it was going nowhere. So I increased the take up a little bit and it seemed to work ok. I had to keep adjusting it as the bobbin filled however, and that took a bit of attention. I spun from the fold, using a supported long draw, which I'm liking more and more as I get better at it.

I plied at 12:1, and the colors matched up pretty well. There were only about 5 points at which I had to wind off one single onto a holder to get to the next color in the progression. Those held singles got spliced back in at the end. It was tough going on the last few bits though - that was one full bobbin!

I finished the yarn by soaking the skein in warm water and hanging to dry. I didn't give it too much abuse, since I'm planning to knit lace with it. I also didn't want the mohair to bloom too much - fuzzy lace isn't my thing.

Final specs: 3.9 oz, 18-22 wpi, 520 yds.

My original thought was to let the yarn sit for a bit until I cast on with it, but I couldn't resist. I wound it up and cast on for this the day after it was dry. It's flying off the needles, and once again, I am almost overwhelmed at how much fun it is to knit with my own handspun.

* I know it's Saturday, but I was ready to write this post yesterday when my mouse went bonkers and refused to cooperate. So it's a day late. So sue me...