Project update

After 3 weeks of pretty dedicated knitting, I finished the scarf made from Mrs. Montague's lace pattern designed for Queen Elizabeth I. Knit picks markets this pattern as part of the 3 pattern set called "Elizabeth I", this one is called "Dainty Bess". I blocked the scarf before bed last night and it was ready to unpin this evening. I used Cream colored Gems Fingering weight Superwash Merino yarn from www.KendigCottage.com. It was an easy pattern with a great yarn to work with, soft natural wool fiber, and even machine washable and dryable since I'm planning on using this scarf frequently. This scarf was motivated by Franklin Habit's lace knitting class that I attended, see the earlier blog post.

This is a picture of a few sections of the Shetland Style rectangular shawl I am spinning the yarn from the dyed fiber I bought at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival we went to a little over a week ago. The pattern is from the book: Victorian Lace Today, it's "Miss Lambert's Shetland pattern for a shawl" and is an 8 row repeat, every other row is purling so it's simple. It's difficult to visualize before blocking but I'm loving it so far. I've spun another bobbin of singles for the next skein of yarn for the project, I'm working on the next bobbin for the 2 ply yarn now. It'll probably take another small skein as well, so I'm continuing to spin. Spinning has gotten me enthusiastic about doing even more spinning and working through a little bit of my fiber stash.

I also got out all my wheels and cleaned and oiled the wood on them and checked to make sure they were all in good working order. I will try to get some more spinning done between finishing up some unfinished knitting projects that I'd like to have in the "finished" column prior to the end of the year.