The Featherweight Cardigan has been blocked. I still need to weave in the ends, and take a picture of course. It’s a little snug in the arms, but that’s to be expected, given that I made my non-preggo size and preggo-arms are bigger than that.
What’s next you say? Well, as much as I should be plugging away on the baby blanket (which is now somewhere in the 720+ stitches in a round range), I have decided I must cast on for something lace. I’ve decided on Ishbel, a lovely shawl that has 11,355 Ravelry projects. Whoa.
I started making this a couple of years ago and then quit on it for no good reason. I’ve chosen a different yarn, because I was previously knitting it out of some Araucania Sock that was a gorgeous color, but didn’t feel that great to knit with. Oh, and if you ever try to wind a ball of that stuff by yourself on a swift and ball winder…BEWARE. At the shop we’re always joking that it had to be put together by children. It’s a tangled mess. I even wrote the company about it once and got no response, after I struggled to wind three balls of the sock yarn and had to cut them in order to make them useable. I still haven’t knit up a single one of them.
Regardless, it seems I’m fairly long-winded this morning. This is the yarn I’ll be using for Ishbel.
It’s Lorna’s Laces Solemate. It’s color 310, Catalpa. The fiber content is 55% Superwash merino, 15% Nylon, and 30% Outlast. This is definitely more synthetic than I normally use in a project, so we’ll see how that goes. I was charmed by the color, and it’s definitely still very soft.
Since it’s a project with a good amount of lace, I wanted to check and see if the color changes would outshine the lace. An easy way to do this is check the color contrast in a black and white photo. I saw this a couple of years ago in the book Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns and was reminded of it again in this post.
From the picture, it looks like there won’t be hugely dramatic color changes, so I’m going to forge ahead.
Awesome tip with the b&w photo, thanks for sharing!
I’m taking a class on this very same pattern at my lys! I’m using Ella Rae yarn for the first time. I love the color of your yarn & can’t wait to see it finished!
Is it just me or does it seem that now that we’re in the home stretch towards baby-hood (third trimester, what?!) all I want to do is knit for myself? I think a shawl in this yarn will be lovely. And I can’t wait to see the finished Featherweight.
Most definitely! I feel like I’ll never get time to knit myself things again, and definitely not anything that requires an ounce of thinking. Ahhhh. I also want to make a Damask while I have a brain that’s not totally baby-focused and completely fatigued.
That’s a really neat trick! Handpainted yarns have always scared me because I prefer patterns with texture, and a texture+color overdose is a scary thing to behold…
I am jealous! That’s gonna be pretty! I haven’t knitted lace in years and I’m getting antsy!
I love the colorway- hopefully the acrylic content won’t make itself known!
I didn’t know that about the B&W photo. Great Tip which I will file away for future reference.
Meanwhile, I had a crazy skein a few weeks ago that doubled back on itself at least twice – if not more – and I managed to wind it using the swift at the LYS. All the ladies were teasing me though, they thought I must have twisted it while putting it up on the swift, but I assure you all, I. DID. NOT. I wish I could remember the manufacturer, but it escapes me right now.
I’m happy to hear that I’m not the only one who had a dreadful time winding a skein of Araucania! Between knots, terrible tangles and the strange system of tying it off, I’m a bit put off from buying any more.