Hats Off

First things first, here's a picture of the Swallowtail finished and off the blocking board:

Apologies for the shockingly bad photo, but it has been really foggy here all weekend, and there is no light at all. The only way I could figure to get the lace to show was to peg it to out white radiator! Hopefully you get the idea.

Here's a close up of the beads:

They really did turn out lovely and sparkly.

I'm going to my nieces joint 18th & 21st birthday parties next Friday so I think I shall debut this to all the family and bask in their collective oohs and aahs. :)

Speaking of bad photos, I really should get some tips from John about how to take better photos. Other peoples blogs have some great photography.

In the meantime, I whipped this up during the week:

Pattern: Koolhaas Hat by Jared Flood

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes worsted, about 1.5 skeins

Needles: 4 & 5mm Knit Picks Options using a 120cm cable and Magic Loop

(See what I mean about bad photos?)

What a great pattern, really easy to do. Knit up like a dream. Only thing is it's a bit too big. I made the smaller of the two sizes in the pattern, but I think it would have fit better with just 4 repeats of the chart than 5. Ah well, at least my ears will be warm! It's not quite as pink as the picture either, more purply pink. Nothing too drastic for wearing first thing in the morning!

I've started my second Lace and Cable Sock from the toe up. Meh. I think this one might be a while on the needles, I'm looking around desperately for anything else to knit other than it.

I spent last night drooling over Victorian Lace Today, especially the Myrtle Leaf Shawl. *sigh*

I really have been bitten by the lace bug! Who would have thunk?

I have the perfect yarn for it too, some mystery laceweight that John got me in Marias Garn in Stockholm last year. I've no idea what it is, there's no tag on the skein. I think it may have some mohair in it.

I didn't even know how many yards there were, so I did some hinky maths last night in order to figure it out.

There are 12" in a foot, 3 feet in a yard. I reckoned 10 yards would be sufficient to get an accurate measurement, so I wrapped the yarn around a foot ruler 30 times and then weighed it. It weighed 1 gram. Therefore, using my bat powers of mathematics (calculator) I reckon there's approx 1050 yards in the skein.

Bearing in mind that my scales is probably not the most accurate, I knocked off 50 yards for safety. And, the Myrtle Leaf Shawl requires 950 yards. It's fate, I tells ya!

So, I think I may swatch for it in preparation for the Ravelympics. Swatching is ok before the events, right?

Good knitting!