Hat, accomplished

I finished a hat last week for son R. It's from Malabrigo, the yarn is called Rios. This is my first project in Malabrigo and I can report that it is soft and springy and a delight to knit; the ladies at Yarn Paradise in Asheville (purchased this summer) reported that it is machine washable (?).

 The pattern is highly adapted from Robin Russo's Earflap hat in Interweave Knit and Spin, 2011.

Do you know this recording about Malabrigo? I first heard it on Brenda's Cast-On and I'm passing it on from there..."taste the rainbow now..."  synesthesia, yeah

Weekend in Tallahassee

I was lucky to go to Tallahassee last weekend.  Lots of time for knitting, reading, and some computer work.

I took myself on a little yarn crawl, to Really Knit Stuff, which is in a little community of artsy places.  For a minute as I drove in I thought I was in old Christiania in Copenhagen!  

They had a nice selection;  I got some sock blanks for dying.  Very clever to have 2 strands to dye so that both socks turn out the same! Not quite sure how I am going to use this...well, or really, how to dye it...

Then on to Wooly Bully.

Ate some excellent Thai and Indian food this weekend.

On our way out, drove out thru Miccosukee Road in to the country

We don't have "canopy road" signs like this in SC but we need them; we have lots of roads with lovely live oaks

Heirloom Lace (the paint)

Oops, sorry if I've lured you here under false pretexts...someone I know is painting walls and discovered that the best for a dark hallway is called...yes..."heirloom lace."  Must be a woman working for Olympic Paints, could a guy have come up with this name??

It's on a sample board for color testing in situ...

Can't tell from the photo but it's a warm white with a yellow cast to it;  a little like a natural sheep's wool spun in to lace for knitting...like this

or this

Old Shale Lace Shawl

 As I see it, there are four or so possibilities:

1) A traditional shawl pattern in a traditional yarn  ( a single breed yarn that is traditionally used with that pattern)

2) A traditional shawl pattern in a nontraditional yarn

3) A nontraditional shawl pattern in a nontraditional yarn 

4) A nontraditional shawl in a  classic single breed yarn (as might have been used in 1).

I suspect that my latest FO is an example of 2).  It's Evelyn A. Clark's Old Shale Lace Shawl, also at her website here.  We know that this is a "half hap" and that the traditional version is a (normal) hap shawl, a square with the old shale lace around the border.  While the wool (Shetland) is traditional, the dying is not, which is why I'm thinkin' this is a nontraditional yarn.  You can help me out here, I'm getting confused...

It is my handspun, about 16 wpi, made from a Shetland wool bumps from The Wool Shed in Orkney, Scotland, purchased in 2009. It's pretty scratchy but very lovely, Pam Murray was the dyer.  You know, just because the wool bump is soft doesn't mean the yarn will be.  But heck, I LOVE Pam's colors and its just the right size for over a jacket, either frontwards or backwards.

At the border I pulled out the points a bit to emphasize the pattern.  As I was blocking it, I kept thinking how enticing the old shale is, (the changing color does it justice) kind of the way the ocean is enticing...

Once again, thanks Evelyn and Sharon Miller