Becky

I was in Minnesota a few weeks ago for a wedding, so I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit some yarn stores since the Twin Cities have so many!  I emailed Shelly who recommended a few stores I haven’t visited.  I made it to The Yarnery in St. Paul on Shelly’s recommendation and came away with an amazingly soft skein of Malabrigo laceweight in a softly variegated heathery purple.  When I got home, I wanted to cast on immediately, but what to make?  I flipped through my stash of magazines and came across the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits Fall 2006 which only requires 437 yards of laceweight.  I was planning to do a scarf, but I really liked the pattern and thought it would go really well with the yarn.  I’m thinking this will be something nice to wrap around my shoulders when it’s cold in the office, and I think it may still be small enough to wear as a scarf.  Here’s my progress so far:

I love this yarn!!!!  It is sooooo soft!  And I really like the subtle variegation of the colors.  It doesn’t take away from the lace pattern at all, but it does give it a little more depth than a solid yarn. 

I’m also trying out the Lantern Moon circulars for the first time.  So far so good - they’re not super pointy and I don’t think I would like them for more complicated lace that involved k3tog’s or anything, but for this simple patter that is only k2tog and ssk’s, the tips are pointy enough.  I have occasionally had trouble getting the laceweight yarn to slide over the metal joins, and I worry that will become more of a problem as the piece gets larger and has to move over the joins more.  Who knows, maybe I’ll have to pick up some of the Addi Lace needles if these don’t work