Another Lace Shawl Design

I started this design in April and finished it completely - pattern and all on June 24. It's being test knitted now on Ravelry - yay! It's called "Lush" for the big green leaves, acorns and smaller leaves making up the border.

Here's a close up of the stitch pattern - my favorite is the viny branch that winds it's way up the pattern.


I used acrylic to make it, since I was designing and experimenting with different methods of decreasing and increasing and tweeking the shape. I had to undo/redo lots and don't like to put that much stress on nicer yarn.

So I used Red Heart soft touch which is a light worsted - I'd call it DK and it has a great sheen to it which really shows off the pattern. After washing it was so soft and drapey! I'm surprised how well the Red Heart did. And it's so light too!

It's 5'8" long and 21" wide unstretched. In a natural fiber, stretched a little it could be huge!
hmmm what should I work on next? I'm considering a cardigan in this stitch pattern... we'll see.

Spinning from Roving

I decided to put my teasing and carding of raw fleece aside for the moment and try spinning from a prepared dyed roving and what a difference!

Pictured below from left to right:

Pencil, 3ply, 2ply, loftier 2ply, drafted roving

So for a newby like me to get finer consistant yarns, consistant finely drafted roving is almost vital. So there you go newbies like me... you CAN do it.

When the roving is drafted out this fine, it practically spins itself - no kidding! I don't even know what weights these would be. The loftier 2ply is about a baby weight and is spun at about 7 twists per inch. This means I treadle twice for each 2 1/2 inch section on my wheel that works at 6 1/2 twists per wheel revolution. I hope that makes sense. The higher twist 2ply is obviously finer than the baby weight

Sorry I used black to illustrate this, but it's what I had. :D

Doin' the happy dance..... de de de deeee