Noolie, Rolags and Lace...OH, MY!

(Okay, I freely admit that I've stolen this title idea from Laurin. Thanks, LaLa!)

It feels like I've been a lazy lump lately when it comes to blogging. With the kids home for April vacation this week (and the weather being so rainy and cold), we've tried to get out of the house as much as possible. Tim, Mike and I went to the movies on Monday night together after buying sneakers (Tim wears the same size as Ian now!!!), which was fun...and I tried to take a picture of us sitting in the very last row of the theater (as teens must do)...with a seat separating each person....wouldn't want to be caught dead sitting next to your knitting mom! (or at least I assumed that...)

Tuesday, we met up with Jackie, Lora and the kiddies at the library, which was fun. Anything to get out of that rain!! You should've seen the three of us sitting at the little kids table knitting and chatting away....very funny : )

Yesterday, we spent the day at the Planetarium in Concord, NH, which is soo much fun! Ben actually sat through the hour show called, "Black Holes". It was GREAT! Even better than a movie, I think. I always love sitting there looking up at the "stars"...with no bugs and noise to distract me. If you haven't seen one of the shows, you should really go. They're amazing!

So, now I feel like I can finally talk about what happened in my knitting life since the last post. (This IS a knitting blog, I think!)

VISIT WITH NOOLIE & CHICKS WITH STICKS!!!



Super Fun Julie Noolie and lovely Patti, owner of the Yarn Sellar, came to visit the ManchVegas Knitters on Friday night (two weeks ago) while I was working at The Yarn and Fiber Company. This was their second visit to see us (woo-hoo!) and it was so much fun! It worked out well that we were also having Jackie's birthday party that night because we were in the partying mood and very lively (aka loud, obnoxious and silly). I got to fondle Julie's lace (which is even nicer in person) and talk about Clover....and catching up with Patti is always great. I know we'll be planning on visiting the Yarn Sellar this summer and Julie promised me that I could hold Clover (I have witnessses!). I love getting together with their group....I think we get along well together - and they put up with our craziness!



Look at us surrounded by yarn! Mmmm.......cozy.


ROLAGS!



This is my recent attempt at hand carding fiber and creating rolags. I have to admit that, though I feel like I have the technique down, I'm not sure how much I like it. It was nice to be able to create different colors and shades with the fibers...and I think this technique will truly come in handy when blending in shorter staple fibers or sparkle (yes!), but I just didn't enjoy the spinning process as much. I think rolags are more suitable for the long draw method than the short draw method, which is what I'm used to.

I spun up the rolags...



and then plied the two bobbins together to make this yarn: (which is kinda rough and not so great)



I think I'll stick to batts and rovings.....


LACE!!

I'm still working on THREE lace shawl projects -

1. The Leaf Lace Shawl (in the "Lipsticks" Prism Wool Lace): no update here. I can only work on it at night after Ben goes to bed and, again, since the kids are out of school this week, I've had much less time to knit overall. (and the yarn is so damned THIN!)

2. The Forest Canopy Shawl (in the "Red 56" Silky Wool): it's about 2.5 skeins of yarn done. I'm attempting to make this much bigger than the shoulder width/length since my other one was too small for my ah-hem bust. I'd say that I'm about halfway done or more. I'd like to use up the 4 or 5 skeins of this yarn I have so I can wrap the shawl over my back, arms and shoulders. We'll see....I'm trying to find out how many more repeats to do of the main lace before starting on the edging. Any ideas?



3. The Swallowtail Shawl (in "Rainbow-EQ" Kauni): Okay, I'm definitely copycatting on this one. After I saw how beautiful Jackie's came out, I just had to knit one for myself. I tried some other shawl patterns using this yarn before trying this one, but none of them seemed right for the weight or color of the yarn. I've started this shawl with the blue and hope to send with blue, but (with the way the ball is looking), I think I'll probably end with orange. I'm aiming to use up as much of the ball as I can (I've got 660 yards) and I'm using a size 7 needle instead of the size 4 that it calls for. The main lace repeat calls for 14, but I'm on number 18 now and might even go to 20. I'd like this one to be bigger as well.



I know some people love wearing the rainbow and some are freaked out to even consider wearing it. What do you think? Can I pull off wearing this with a pretty solid colored summer outfit/dress without looking weird?