Thursday, August 9, 2007

Finally On the List!!!!

I am so happy to finally get on the KAL for the Bee Fields! I had originally planned on doing the triangular shawl and will still probably do it - I ordered the kit in Buckwheat but I love the stole as well and may actually make that one first. Which one would be the easier of the two for a novice lace and intermediate level knitter overall? I tend to get to knit very early in the morning along with my first cup of coffee and as such the caffiene has not always kicked in making even simple things a challenge at times :) I may wait for the WW yarn or have on hand some Mini Maiden in a moss color that is beautiful as well as a more varigated green and purple which I know is not "beeish" but would make for very different looks for the 2 patterns.

OT a bit: Has anyone else had trouble winding Blue Sky Alpaca Silk? I hand wound the first ball which was very sloww going, then said to myself, don't be lazy get the swift and ball winder and this was an alsolute disaster! I have such a mess and I was very careful to put the skein on untwisted. That skein is still there. I have done some spinning and skeining myself in the past and know what to look for, but this was all catty-wampus in the skein. The next skein I used the swift and my nostepinne and still had to unwrap/untwist sections; it took an hour this am of good knitting time. I think I will take the remaining skeins back to the store and let them wind them at lunch tomorrow and move on. It is beautiful fiber though and is making a nice Kiri.

2 comments:

annmarie said...

I don't have any experience with the Blue Sky Alpaca Silk, but I've had similar experiences with other yarns that were a mess in the skein. If I see that, I don't even try to use the ball winder. I put the skein on the swift and hand wind. :/
As for whether to knit the shawl or the stole, I'd say the only real difference is that the stitch count of the rectangular stole only varies slightly whereas the triangular shawl keeps increasing consistently throughout. That might make the stole an easier knit, though not necessarily since you still have increasing and decreasing going on within a row. Not very helpful input, right? Markers are your friends no matter what version you knit. :)
Now, as to the color - hey Vanessa test-knitted the stole in black. Any color that you love works. ;)

Carrie said...

One of my Wooly Wonka skeins is a mess, although I think that it's totally my fault, not poor skeining at the source! I've been avoiding winding it, because I'm afraid it will have to be done by hand and will take forever. Luckily, I'm not far enough into my shawl to need that skein yet!