Saturday, August 26, 2006

Not bad for a Mill End (Cashmere/Silk from ColourMart)















Not bad. Not bad at all. See above the Cashmere/Silk I purchased from ColourMart on E-Bay. (see sidebar for link). If you go to the site and click the Cashmere/Silk, you will see that there are still 4 colors left (White sold out). There is about 5,000 yards of yarn on each cone and it's very reasonable considering the cost at other retail shops for something comparable. This was knit on US 1 needles then washed/blocked. It holds it's shape well and once the "oil" was washed off, it still had a shine with a nice "halo" of cashmere. You can look above and compare it to the previous swatches of Cordonet crochet cotton, Shetland Cobweb and Silk I knit before and see that it's soft like the Shetland Cobweb but , in natural light, still has the sheen of the silk without that "crispy" quality that I was not fond of in the 100% silk. What did I wash it in you ask. You already know. I used shampoo because it's what I had around. This is not expensive stuff but I promise to use something better to wash it with if I knit a shawl with it.

I finished a baby sweater. Still have to sew buttons onto it before I can post it to "Janes Reality". Why even tell you I finished this since it's not lace? Because, I promised not to start another lace shawl until I finished something. Well, I finished something! Actually, I have to finish a shawl before I can start another shawl, but it makes for less clutter to have completed something. I've got this thing where I am loath to finish a project. I get real close then sometimes I stop knitting. If anyone else has this problem let me know. What do you do to give yourself incentive? Now that the baby sweater is done, I just have to finish the Mountain Pines shawl (it's the closest to being finished of the shawls.) My reward for finishing that shawl and this baby sweater is that I get to make "The Spider Queen" shawl! I must ask missalicefay what type of yarn she used on her's. It asks for US 3 needles. I tried swatching a gossamer yarn with the US 3 and it did not look good to me. It looked too spindly. I have some 2 ply cashmere, I have some cream colored Zepher. Heck, if it comes to that I have stuff from all over I could be using.(see past post for examples of "stash" of laceweight I have stock piled) Anyone have any suggestions? My own hand-spun yarn is not ready yet. I have a heck of a lot of spinning to do before I can use that for anything.

Now, my birthday is in the fall and my sister is willing to buy me whatever I might like to have in the way of knitting/spinning stuff. I will not have her buy me yarn or fiber because I have tons of that already so I'm looking at patterns, knitting software and knitting books. Now this is not to say that I don't have a lot of patterns and books. I do, but since I have so much darned yarn it is not unreasonable to want a few more patterns. I'm eyeing that "Victorian Lace" book but I really need to see it first to see if it is worth the money. There are two very nice patterns at Sharon Millers Heirloom Knitting site (see side bar) # 1 the "Unst Bridal Shawl" and #12 the "Spring Shawl" that I will ask for. I'd love to make them and since the "Princess Shawl" pattern will not be re-issued until possibly next year, these would be nice to do in the mean time. So many patterns, so little time! I just picked up "Legends of the Shetland Seas" from Blackberry Ridge by Hazel Carter ,as well as "Shetland Garden Faroese Shawl" by Sivia Harding Knit Design and the 'Shetland Lace Patterned Faroses Shawl" from Heartstrings (see sidebar for link). These are not as massive as the "Wedding Ring Shawl" and will be nice to knit as relief. If anyone has any patterns to suggest (I may be buying "Violets by the Sea" as well), let me know.

Hello I must be Going!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

ooh--pretty yarn! hopefully, you got my email about yarn for Spider Queen, etc.

as for incentive to finish a project... toward the end of Legends of the Shetland Seas, I just didn't want to work on that edging anymore, but I would make myself knit a few repeats every night and then reward myself with working on some fun and exciting new project after. (disclaimer: I am the type of person who finds doilies fun and exciting....)

Lacefreak said...

Dear Alice,

Yes! I did get your post and I want to thank you for the informaton. I actually cast on with Zepher last night but will not knit that shawl until I finish a shawl. It's great incentive to finish the other shawl:) Now, I don't knit doilies myself, but you can take some of those doily patterns and knit them into circular shawls but using graduating larger needles. Instructions for that were given in an old issue of Knitter's magazine. If you already have that info I won't bother to post the instructions, but if you don't have that information, I will post it next time. Just let me know!

Jason said...

Hmmm... being a Virgo, I like to finish things before starting new ones. Or I simply put them away until I forget they even exist, THEN I start new projects. LOL I find myself not wanting to weave in ends or block large pieces. Those are the reasons why I would put something down that's almost done. Larges pieces just take up lots of space to block. As for weaving in ends... I just have hard time deciding where to hide them. LOL

Hmmm... Do I want to get some ColourMart yarn on the cone too? It does look very good...

Lacefreak said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Lacefreak said...

Jason,

I checked the ColourMart site. If you want 100% Cashmere in thin laceweight, you might try size 2/32 NM size. If you go to the third page, about 2/3 of the way down, they have 3 nice colours in that weight. Pale Pink, Pale Aqua and Pale Yellow! They have other weights as well if you want to knit something else!

Lacefreak said...

Jason,

Had to delete previous post as had an error in it. I'm a Scorpio myself so its a matter of Hate it/Love it, when it comes to knitting. If I love it, like the WRS, I will persist in knitting it to the end. If I only "like" it, I'm more likely to get bored and stop knitting it! Once I finish a shawl, I get to knit "The Spider Queen". I've already cast-on the provisional cast-on stitches and will be using Zepher which is what missalicefaye used too!

If you buy that silk from ColourMart, you may have to work you way down to a needle size that will work with such a fine yarn. US 1 was what I used on that sample!

Anonymous said...

hmm. I don't have the information about making circular shawls out of doily patterns. In fact, someone just asked me about that this morning.... So if you wouldn't mind sharing at some point, that would be fabulous! Thanks!!!