Shawls and spinning and possible projects.

It was a bright and sunny first day of spring, with temps above zero. It was nice enough to venture outside in a button-down shirt and wool cardigan, rather than my winter coat. I’m sure I’ll need the coat again, at intervals, for the next month or so, but temps are rising enough that it’s time to start steering the knitting toward summer accessories. It’ll soon be too warm for the winter ones.

I’ve put a moratorium on sweater knitting until the fall (I appear to be shrinking–how fabulous is that?), so of course that’s mostly what I want to knit right now. Instead, I’m trying to turn my attempt to lightweight scarves and shawls, short socks, and sun-friendly hats. I have some silks, bamboo blends, and cottons in the stash that are begging to be used.

I’ve started a shoulder shawl with some pretty BFL singles I spun last week. The second skein is much more purple than the first, but rather than alternating skeins I’m just going to let the colours do what they want. The darker blues will be at the center top, and the purples will be along the edge, which should look all right.

The yarn is both squishier and fuzzier than I thought it would be. I’ve never spun singles before and left them as singles; they looked like bad spiral perms fresh off the wheel and I thought I’d arsed them up, but after being washed/whacked and hung to dry unweighted, they were fine. Possible crisis averted. I hope. I’m still kinda paranoid that something crazy is going to happen to the yarn during blocking.

Sometimes it’s nice to come back to a pattern after a long while and see how different it feels. I knit a small Forest Canopy as my first lace project; I remember having to concentrate on the chart and double-check stitch counts at the end of each row. Almost three years later, I’m knitting another one, but this time in front of the TV with the lace pattern memorised after the first repeat.

Speaking of TV, there’s a Star Wars marathon on tonight. I haven’t really been watching, per se, but I’ve been listening to it while spinning the first bobbin of a pink merino from handpaintedyarn.com. The colourway, Damask Rose, doesn’t appear to be on their website anymore. It’s been in the stash for ages, though, as leftovers from my disastrous attempts at drop-spindling.

There’s a pile of pre-drafted fibres on my bed, and they’re so soft I could sleep in them.

I took a nap earlier, though, so chances are I’ll be up for a while. I haven’t decided yet whether I want to keep spinning or take a knit break. I have my shawl to work on, but I’m also very, very tempted by some of the lovely things in Knitted Lace of Estonia. I have a skein of Malabrigo Sock in Tiziano Red that would make a gorgeous Triinu scarf. I have some black Alpaca with a Twist Fino that would make a striking Madli’s Shawl. And let’s not even discuss the amount of pretties I have that would be appropriate for either the Peacock Tail & Leaf scarf or the Lily of the Valley scarf.

Can anyone lend me several hours and/or days? I promise I’ll give them back when my pattern queue is shorter.