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August 18, 2008
Glacier Lake
While I wait for my completed (!) Icarus to dry, I offer you some photos of the project that resulted from my first sparkly batt.
This is where my sparkly fixation all started--the batt is called Glacier Lake and comes from the fabulous Butterfly Girl Designs Etsy shop. It's a 70% superwash merino, 20% bamboo, 10% nylon firestar blend with a bit of angelina thrown in.
Spun on my beloved Bosworth midi spindle, the yarn ended up somewhere between a heavy laceweight and a light fingering weight. I'm not a bamboo spinning convert yet--I thought it was a bit tricky--but I'll give it another try eventually.
And then I made up a simple scarf pattern using a motif from the Estonian lace knitting book Pitsilised Koekirjad. Shiny!
Posted by missalicefaye at 08:41 AM | Comments (18)
August 03, 2008
Sparkly
I didn't mean to be gone for so long, really. But now that the Long National Nightmare of my summer classes is finally over, we can get back to the business of talking about making stuff.
I have to admit right up front that the other thing I've completely neglected this summer is the Princess shawl. I finished the center and started the top border (the homeward stretch!) and promptly lost all steam. It's waiting for me patiently, and it will probably continue to do so for a bit.
Meanwhile, I've been spinning. And also experiencing some sort of personality shift where I now think that spinning sparkly, shiny, angelina-filled yarn is the best thing ever. Me, the smooth and subtle laceweight purist.
Take, for instance, the Enchanted Knoll Lady Starlight batt above. It's a fluffy, gorgeous blend of hand-dyed merino silk in a range of blues with sari silk strands and lots of angelina thrown in for good measure (sigh... the pretty....). I've been spinning a laceweight yarn on my spindle and started knitting it up this weekend.
I'm completely enamored with the colors and textures. And sparkles.
This is the beginning of Icarus, a striking pattern that nonetheless has enough stretches of plain stockinette to showcase the yarn, I think. In the past, I shied away from this pattern because I was afraid I'd get bored with that stockinette. But working with handspun seems to provide excitement enough on its own.
Posted by missalicefaye at 06:53 PM | Comments (19)
