Thursday, January 20, 2011

Goal post

All the casting-on of new projects does not mean I have forgotten promising myself to learn to spin on my wheel this year, or to knit an Estonian shawl with the laceweight yarn I love.

Here's my progress on spinning:

Karen got her first spinning wheel and after one day of playing with it managed to produce a balanced, beautiful skein of yarn. I read this and wanted to feel hopeful about my own prospects, but didn't. I am working on at least feeling inspired.

Helena suggested another training DVD and I tracked down a copy I can order, but I haven't ordered it yet because I am a slave to free shipping and can't quite think of another something I really want to order at the same time.

The shawl:

I don't know if you ever read Elizabeth Lovick's blog Northern Lace? Highly recommended. A few days ago Elizabeth posted a piece on how to knit nupps which I found rather timely, having just decided I would not fear them. Ha. Apparently this is a common mistake - one of many common mistakes people make when knitting nupps.

After reading all that I decided that I should work some nupps into my test swatch. It was at that point a very small swatch, worked primarily to decide which needles I should use (definitely the lace tips, though I find them so stabby on my fingers) and to find a rhythm whereby knitting with laceweight doesn't make me feel like a clumsy giant with swollen hands from some terrible allergic reaction that is coincidentally affecting my eyesight.

Yep, that's what it looks like now. And I don't see it getting any farther along either.

I think at this stage, I need to decide which is more important to me in this particular goal area: knitting up this laceweight, or knitting an Estonian shawl, because I just don't feel they are going to go together at all. I need yarn with a lot of elasticity for the nupps.

As far as the yarn goes, I'm thinking about pairing it with something heavier where it can use its powers of angora and cashmere for good, by which I mean softness and halo. I mean, seriously. I was going to knit my qiviut double with this self-striping yarn, but how perfectly does the laceweight match it?

or maybe I kill two birds (there must be some way to update that expression) by plying the laceweight with some other yarn, on my wheel.

1 comment:

Kate/Massachusetts said...

This might help! It's her nupp video but she actually has five different Estonian knitting youtube videos that are excellent to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xogKWf4sH_U&NR=1