Spincerely yours,

I was going to start this by writing, “A long, long, long time ago when I worked at the lys,” but then I realized it wasn’t so long ago, it was just last spring!  So, last spring when I worked at the lys, I had a favorite display garment to wear on chilly days.  It was the Debbie Bliss Cathay Shrug that looks like this:

I never made one for myself because I could not get myself to spend the money on the pattern book and the yarn.  I can’t remember how much exactly, but at the time with sale prices and/or employee discounts, I think the lowest combined price for both would have been $66.00.  Recently, I found that the pattern is free online and some of the yarn colors are deeply discounted.  I bought a bag of 10 balls for $35.00  (at Little Knits) in a nice pretty spring green color:

So with pattern and yarn at half the price as last spring, I cast on for the shrug.  I knit through a ball and decided that my tension just sucked!  The yarn is so soft and smooth, I think I was just knitting too fast and rowing out all over the place.  I ripped and cast on again.  This time I was going to combine knit (ie, wrap backward on purl rows and knit through the back loop on knit rows).  This was better, but I still would not have worn it.  I just can’t knit cottony yarn in stockinette stitch!  This shrug is not meant to be for me.

I’ve finished a couple of projects recently. As you know, my TYC is done, and I also just finished my Boomerang Socks.  All of a sudden, I’m without a knitting project.  Not good.  After way too much time on Ravelry and a big search through all my knitting books/patterns, I think I have a found a sweater for my Cathay!. I have just started swatching, but I think I am going to make Premeire Butterfly Lace Cropped Cardigan by Classic Elite.  Here is the pattern photo:

It is a very simple lace pattern; easily memorized and without large expanses of stockinette to row out on me.   I can’t wait to start!

I also purchased a roving on Etsy from Freckle Face Fibers for my next spinning project.  It is called Peaseblossom and it is 100% Bluefaced Leicester.   It is so soft!  It arrived in a braid like this:

Then I unbraided it like this:

And I discovered that it was not variegated like I thought, but it was actually 3 sections of color like this:

I was very surprised that it was just the 3 sections of color, but after adjusting to this 3 section stripy-iness, I think I am going to split the roving into 3 or 4 sections lengthwise and then Navajo ply to end up with a yarn that stripes.  I think that will be fun and pretty!  And if I change my mind, I can split the roving to make the yarn more variegated.  The 3 section dyeing actually gives me more options!

Apparently, when I make rovings into “Braids,” they are actually “Chains.”  (I searched on this in the Ravelry forums yesterday and found a lot of posts.  Apparently, a lot of people are confused by the difference.) I make roving chains by starting with a loop and pulling other loops through like finger crocheting.  Chaining this roving would have shown the 3 distinct color sections.  I’m not sure how the braiding starts but I guess I will play around with it as it makes the roving look pretty too.  So, lesson learned — be sure to check if roving is braided or chained before assuming what it looks like undone.

Anyway, did I say that this fiber is really, really, really soft though?  I bought it because I like the colors and because I want to try spinning some BFL.  I hope I have time to start today!  Today, where I have to work on 3 class lessons, start my new spring sweater, do laundry, do a little at-home-project for work, pack up some Etsy orders to mail, clean the kitchen, come up with a dinner idea, and take care of 2 sick children? Also, I really want to do some dyeing as I have not had a dyeing day yet this week.  Hummm….  I better get moving!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 8:56 am and is filed under knitting, spinning.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.