Thursday, January 15, 2009

We're Getting Close!

Here it is the middle of January already. The time for signups for my upcoming Spring Lace Club is getting closer and closer. I'm planning for signups to start in early February. If you're not on my mailing list and want to be added, just pop me an e-mail with a request (or send me one through an Etsy conversation message, including your e-mail address) and I'll be happy to add you. The mailing list folks will be the first to be notified when signups open.

Since the time is drawing near, I'll give you a bit more of a taste of what the club will be. It's going to be similar in format to my last sock club. There will be three shipments, one per month beginning on the first day of Spring. There will be three projects with yarn + pattern, with each pattern from a different designer. The lineup will be the same as the sock club: one original FF pattern, one by Tess Mattos of Polar Bear Patterns, and one by Anne Hanson of KnitSpot.

The three projects will all involve lace, but each will be quite different and each will use a different base yarn. The FF pattern will be a triangular shawl using FF Laceweight Merino. Tess' pattern will be a lace sock, using FF Tight Twist Superwash Merino Wool Sock Yarn. Anne's pattern will be a lace scarf using . . . drumroll please . . . FF Laceweight Cashmere. That's right! The cashmere is returning. The first taste of it will be for the sock club, with a general reintroduction of the cashmere coming not too long after that. I'm going to wait until the dust settles on the club signups before working on new colors for the reintroduction, since I want to be sure to set aside enough of the precious cashmere for all of the club members.

The club will be called the Whisper of Lace Club, with each of the three projects having one "Designer's Choice" color with a gentle, whisper of color theme uniting them. There will also be a few back-up color choices available for each project, so everyone can be sure to get something that appeals to them.

The patterns by Tess and Anne will remain a surprise, but there will be photos available at signup of the first project -- the Whisper Shawl -- that I'm designing. As some of you may recall, I actually finished the design, pattern, and had the test knitting done for this shawl quite some time back. Rather than releasing that, I set it aside with the secret little plan for this club already brewing. I am now just knitting the shawl yet again, so that I will have a version of it to show you in the actual club colorway. It's very close to the finish line!



The pattern is in three sizes and this is the large one, so what you see in the photo is just a section of one side. This baby's got a pretty large wingspan! In the photo above, the edging is all curled and bunched, but here's a little better shot of that:



It will, of course, transform considerably once blocked. It's rather nice to have this pattern completely done already. I have no lingering questions about how it will look when done and blocked. Been there. Done that. Just waiting to see it in this minty green "whisper" color.

On a completely separate note, I've continued to try to work on my spindling and have come up with a small quantity of pyarn number two. This second attempt is using a basic Australian wool roving that I dyed myself in a semi-solid dark blue. I did my best to spin this thinner and more evenly. Although the results aren't great, there is definitely much improvement. I then took the singles I'd spun and tried my hand at plying.



It's definitely not a work of art, but I'm getting closer to making that p go silent in the pyarn.



I think it was a mistake to dye the yarn in a dark color (it's actually darker than it shows in the photo), because it made it hard to see the twist and since I don't have a clue what I'm doing that made the process more difficult. I have another batch of this same wool drying now in some heathery shades of raspberry and gray that should be easier to see.

I've also got some superwash merino roving drying now that is my first experiment in applying some of my favorite dyeing techniques and my usual dyeing style to fiber rather than yarn. That's a really interesting experiment for me and one I'll tell you more about in a future post.

Right now, I'm off to whip up the last bit of edging on the Whisper Shawl. I should have blocking photos for you next week. I'm so looking forward to this club!

1 comment:

Stasia said...

Look at your beautiful handspun!

I TOLD you you could do it!!! YAY!