Thursday, February 8, 2007

Lace

After reading this today, I've been strangely inspired to work on lace. Well, perhaps not strangely, as I've been eyeing the forest path stole for long enough to have purchased the pattern, and did some swatching from the Barbara Walker treasuries I received for Christmas, but at least ill-advised, or ill-timed.
Because...For one, I do not like the laceweight yarn I currently have. (Not counting the alpaca which is promised to NotBeLace, I only have one skein) It is single ply, and I don't like the puffy-ness it gets. Very gauzy and unsubstantial in the actual thread, as opposed to distinct thread making a gauzy and unsubstantial object. Not to mention the color really isn't terribly good for lace either. Additionally, after hand-winding the unsuitable laceweight, I have resolved to NeverDoThatAgain. Which until I drop $100+ on a swift and ballwinder, limits my lace buying choices to a local store which will (hopefully) wind it for me. I have not been out to tell if this is a possibility, since all (2) of the local stores have hours which conveniently coincide with my work hours, and I haven't felt like making a special trip on the very cold weekend.

--the infamous laceweight--

--swatches of the infamous laceweight--

Even beyond that, All of my lace sized needles are stuck in things. I use size 0's or 1's for anything below a DK. I also tend to start lots of projects in this gauge and not finish them because they are tedious, so they still have needles in them. In fact, many of them have needles of larger sizes that I crammed in so that I could steal the correct size needles for something else. I do have concrete plans to buy more needles, but this requires planning and decisiveness that I haven't mustered yet (how many? what brand? what sizes & materials?). This is made more difficult by the fact that no store to date has managed to stock all the varieties of needles that I want.
So. No lace for me.
I will probably wind more yarn, or, depending, finish the darned socks.
winding yarn last night was not quite so smooth. Both hanks had knots in almost the dead center. For now I'm looking at this as a good thing, as I plan on alternating rows for even variegation, and smaller balls may help with that.

--M: "that's a lot of yarn" me: "it's a little under half"--

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