Package and Projects

The final Hemlis 4 package arrived on Friday. Look at the stuff!

A big skein of Grignasco merino-silk lace yarn, 1400 meters/1500 yards, enough for a sizeable shawl, in a beautiful deep blue. A ball of pure silk yarn from Louisa Harding, DK weight. Luxurious wrist warmers maybe? Six pretty stitch markers that my pal made herself, and a big bag of licorice. Yum! Thank you so much Ulrika!

Knitting news: I am chugging along on my February Lady Sweater. It is coming along nicely and grows visibly whenever I work on it, the yarn is so thick. I'm not quite sure how long I want it to be, about hip length I think. That means 19-20 inches (maybe 50 cm) I am a bad knitter, I didn't wash my swatch so I have no idea how much the fabric will grow or shrink with washing and blocking. It feels like it will grow a bit though so I don't want to make it too long. I love to be able to try the sweater on as I go.

Because I have sooo much time on my hands now that I have gone back to work (note: severe irony) I started another sweater.


Cobblestone in the purple Bendigo Rustic I recently got from Australia. This time I swatched properly, so I know that if I follow the stitch count for the 47.5" size I will end up with a 43.5" sweater, which is what I want. I will of course follow the length numbers of the smaller size.

With all the large project going on I felt (ha ha) the need for a quick project that Got Finished. Enter the Dumpling from Interweave Knits Fall 2008. Here it is pre-felted (OK, pre-fulled, but everyone else is using the word felting for this process anyway)

A really quick knit that took less than two balls (100 meters) of the pretty Sarek yarn I got in another Hemlis 4-package. Here it is felted and drying with a balloon inside to get a nice shape.

I have never felted anything before (intentionally) so I wasn't quite sure how to do. I sewed it into a pillowcase, put it in the washing machine with a pair of jeans and ran a short cycle, and then another one, because not much had happened. It was a bit more felted after the second cycle but I finished the job with hot water, detergent and abuse in the sink. Maybe I should have just tossed it in a proper 60 °C long cycle. Might try that next time. Anyway, now it just needs to dry and then it will get a magnetic closure.