My First Lace Yarn!

I am so excited, I finally finished my first really laceweight yarn!  I will put a couple of pictures up in the photo galleries if you want to take a peek at it.  It took me several weeks (of not doing much else!) - when I spin, I just fill my bobbins all the way, because if I'm going to do all that work, I want a bunch of yarn to show for it.  Also, I'm planning to make a shawl with it, so I wanted enough that I can guarantee no knots or splices for the whole thing.  Well, I am assured of that - my skein is 1380 yards!  I have to say, I'm impressed with how evenly it turned out.  I was afraid that, over that length, I'd unconsciously drift thicker or thinner in my drafting, but I really didn't.  I made a sample as is recommended by just breaking off about 2' at the beginning and letting it double up on itself, so I had a little 12" piece of yarn to look at whenever I wanted to check myself.  It's really simple to just stop, let the strand I'm spinning double up for a minute, and compare it to the sample.  It also helped  that I used some of the mill-made roving that I got processed this spring - it's so much more uniform than my own carding (I think I'm getting a lot better at it, but there's still some definite room for improvement!)  Now, my dilemma is: Do I start a shawl now, heading into the hottest part of the year, when it's so hard to work with wool (especially in a house with no A/C), or do I switch to cotton for the summer as usual, and save this for the fall?  Can I be that patient?!  Probably not...

I do have a number of other projects I need to work on first, though, before I start yet another shawl.  And I do mean another - I made a beautiful butterfly shawl over the last month, and meant to take a picture of it, but sold it the second time I took it to the farmers market, before I got around to the picture.  So, now I have to make another one!  I enjoyed knitting that one, I was already planning to make a second - it was an interesting pattern with very little monotony, but not so confusing that I had to read the chart every few seconds, like some complex patterns.  I like ones that, once the pattern is established, I can see the progression, and figure out what the stitches are doing, and going to do next - those intuitive ones are so much more fun to knit!  

Anyway - other projects.  I need to just spend a month or two using up some of my stashed small balls of leftover yarn, or spinning experiments, and churn out lots of baby slippers, hats, maybe some headbands, a stuffed alpaca or lamb or two... I found yet another pattern for the classic driving/golf/Irish cap, the third I've used and by far the best styled.  Again, it's complicated, but once I made the first one I could tell what the pattern was doing and it makes sense now, and I really like construction and fit.  I made one that fits Ewan (lucky coincidence, I chose the yarn for it's suitability, not specifically to fit him) and have started a second to use up the other half of the ball of yarn, and should make a couple larger ones out of some nice two-tone yarns I've had for a while (I really like the tweed look of those yarns for these driving caps).  I also want to knit myself a cotton lace tank top to go over an existing solid tank.  I keep making shawls that are so gorgeous, but fairly impractical for myself - I mean, where exactly am I going to wear a fancy lace shawl in the foreseeable future?!  I realized that a sleeveless shirt was much more usable for me, so that's my next big project.  After that, I'll probably do the shawl with the alpaca lace yarn, and then I am planning to make the boys and myself all sweaters for this winter.  We'll see how far I get in that!  So far, I do have the yarn spun for my sweater (a gorgeous dark brown 3-ply from our alpaca Hugh), and a pattern chosen, lots of cables, which is why I spun a 3-ply - I learned recently that 2-ply is better suited for lace since it kind of pushes the work apart, helping open up the lace, and 3-ply is better for cabling since it is a round yarn that stands up for better clarity of the pattern.  I have a pattern selected for Malachi's sweater, and it's even partly knitted, I just have to spin the rest of the yarn.  I have orders for a horse sweater from Liam, and have chosen colors, but still have to spin that yarn, and lastly, Ewan's should be the easiest, since it's the smallest and he won't care what it looks like :) 

I'll keep y'all posted about my progress on all things fiber - hopefully there's lots to report this summer as Caleb has so much more time off, which will hopefully translate to more time for me to do some spinning and knitting!