Moths and Azaleas oh my!

I finished the Wings o'theMoth shawl on Saturday!

Just a quick WhooHoo with me everyone - Whoo Hoo!

The lace gods did indeed try to smack me down a bit. I had to do the section between the Twin Leaf Lace and the Corona Edging 3 times before I got it right, but I did perservere.

The BBE and I went to go visit an old friend of his who lives a couple of hours away on Saturday. I (of course) took the Moth with me to finish in the car while passengering. We had to stop 3 times for directions (I guess that trouble does come in threes doesn't it?).

At the third stop I went into the gas station and bought my man a California Map. Really helps having one in the car!

Anyway, we had a nice visit with the BBE's friend and his sister, who by the way lives in Maryland, and has offered to put us up *if* we might just want to take a trip out there... In maybe May?? For those not in the know (if you spin and you read my blog - you'd be in the know) but the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is only supposed to be the biggest festy around. I wanna go!! Now whether or not I'll have the funds come Spring to be able to pull it off would be the big question.

Anyway - the Moth - she is beautimous. These pictures were again taken in front of the Mexican restaurant in the last rays of the sun - so came out a bit warmer in color than all the other pictures you've seen. I'm pretty pleased that you can see the variation in the colours at all. I'm especially pleased with the way that the point looks.

However, I didn't get to show it off at the guild meeting on Sunday. I am ashamed to admit that I overslept. We didn't get back to my house til about 1am - and of course, I couldn't go to the guild meeting with an unblocked shawl... I had time! It was the weekend! We had Deadwood to watch on DVD. I blocked it, and then....










I blocked the Azalea shawl too!
This is one that I finished back in early September - I have been meaning to block it for ages! And if you're already crawling around on the floor with sodden lace - well, you might as well really get down to it, right?

I dyed the roving with Easter Egg dyes in a long colour progression - just like this, but in silk way back in the Spring of '05.

I spun up two bobbins of the silk and plied it in the normal way. I decided on yet another variation of the Azalea Shawl from Marianne Kinzel's First Book of Modern Lace Knitting, this time using only 2 repeats for a triangular shawl.

This one has an amazing drape (well, duh - it's silk!) and I'm totally in love with it. I mentioned before that I thought I'd hang this one on the wall over my bed - and that is precisely where it is currently residing.

Isn't it just amazing what changing one thing in a room will do to the feel of the whole place? Everytime I walk through my room I am just so pleasantly surprised by that!

Unfortunately I did not get to show off my work at my spinning guild meeting on Sunday. I overslept. I guess that's what happens when you are up to all kinds of trouble till the very wee morning hours crawling around blocking shawls.

And why is the spinning guild meeting at 11am on a Sunday, anyway? Wouldn't something more reasonable like 2 in the afternoon be a much better time? I like to sleep in on the weekends - I like to take my time, have my coffee, and then have a nice leisurely packing up, and driving over to the East Bay.

In other news. I spun up a bit more of the yarn that I need for my Caramel Swirl on Sunday. I didn't need much, and no - the missing ball has still not turned up. The Camel Down that I bought from Little Barn is quite a lot different than what I had before. The first stuff was baby camel down, and in roving form. This is adult camel down which has been carded - so it's kind of like a cloud. I've found that the best plan of attack for this stuff is to pull several staple lengths worth out - and they're short - pull them apart a couple of times, and then diz them. I'll try to get some pictures up next time - I don't want to overload everyone. I'm so close to being done with the cardigan - but I'm having that nagging feeling that it won't be "right". I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the fitting measurements - just decreased around the waist for a bit, then increased for a bit - then decided to start the V-neck. The sleeves are just about perfect though.

I'm also ready to wind off my second spindleful of the Optim, and will be able to ply that shortly. So stay tuned - more FO's - more spinning - more disasters in the making to be coming shortly.

Till then - have fun y'all! I leave you with a photo of a moth that I took on Saturday - the first time that we stopped for directions. Of course, I shouldn't complain - he is at least very good about stopping for directions when he feels it's necessary.