Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Hot AND Lucky

COLORBOMB 'Hottie' closeup

Do you remember this fiber? My hand-dyed bamboo in 'Hottie'? Yep, it was waaay too Velma to sell, so this one went into my stash. Bamboo Pigtails porn!

COLORBOMB 'Hottie' Bamboo Pigtails™

3.9 ounces of citrusy-TANGY-goodness in tangerine, clementine, ruby grapefruit, and lemon. OMG, I swoon!

Bamboo yarn porn 147/365

I spun it up -- it was easy-peasy! -- into this Singleton singles that ranged from cobweb to a heavy fingering weight, for a total of 290 yards, ~20WPI.

COLORBOMB 'Hottie' Singleton handspun yarn

See? I TOLD you it was gorgeous!

Hottie Hole 158/365

My original plan was to write a lace shawl pattern for it. You know, the hat trick: dyed, spun, designed, & knit by ME (I guess that's more than 3; what do you call that? A hat-and-scarf trick?)

Proto-Shawl 159/365

But as it turns out, it's a wee bit arrogant to think that, having NEVER knit lace before, and NEVER made a shawl before, that I could just whip out a lace shawl pattern. Not to worry, though, I found the best pattern!

Hot Luck Shawl-in-progress

Bonne Chance, by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks and Pie Bird Design, is almost exactly the look I had in my head when I was planning my own design. Knit from 1 stitch that gradually gets wider & wider (so I could just knit 'til I ran out of yarn), open & lacy, with diagonal ribs - just the ticket!

Hot Lace 166/365

Look how nicely it shows off the sheen of my fiber! And drapey! Did I mention how drapey it is? Just divine.

Hot Luck 33 1/3 Shawl - closeup

I can't stop showing you closeups of the texture, I love it so much!

Hot Luck, Blocking

Despite the fact that bamboo has no "memory" to speak of, I decided to block it lightly, if nothing else so that I could compare how Bea's blocking wires performed in comparison with my yarn-stretching method from my blocking tutorial. Thanks for the loan, Bea, they worked great! SO much faster than running yarn along the perimeter, & easier to get a straight line. Totally worth the investment; it's on my list.

FO: Hot Luck 33 1/3

Ta-da! I knew you were waiting to see the real deal. Knit in just under 3 weeks (VERY fast for me) on US8 needles, I did a couple of mods to the pattern: I knit only 3 rows of garter at the end, rather than 4 (I was running out of yarn), & I did a K2, YO, knit to last 2 sts, YO, K2 pattern on those rows; oh, and I used Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off because I was worried about it being too narrow - LOL! Definitely NOT too narrow; it measures 56" wide and 34" deep. It's in my Rav projects here.

Hot Luck 33 1/3 Shawl

Plenty big, and so wide that I don't absolutely need a shawl pin because I can tie the ends together in front, it is so light I hardly notice it's there! I think I need to bust out my little black dress and my push-up bra and have Cole take me to The Pearl for cocktails.

Silly Velma in her new shawl

Or I can just rock the babuschka look. ;)

11 comments:

  1. This turned out FABUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!! Ya done good, Velma!

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  2. That's amazing! The yarn looked like the sun in that picture with it wound up on a ball :)

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  3. Sen-frikkin-sational!

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  4. ----------------------------
    hot fiber, hot yarn,
    lucky babushka

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  5. I love this - start to finish, it's mouth watering!!

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  6. Those colors make my mouth water. Delicious!

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  7. This is fantastic, I adore those colors.

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  8. That looks so totally scrumptious!

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  9. Love it! It's simple but elegant. And your yarn is gorgeous (as always).

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  10. oh my gosh i haven't been on here in ages and Im ready to pass out b/c this is ridiculous! LOVE

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  11. This is gorgeous! Gorgeous! O.ô

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