Exciting title huh? I'm not feeling terribly imaginative today...

I finished the Touch of Whimsy Scarf!! Well, I've finished the actual knitting, I still need to weave in the ends and block it...

Here is the obligatory blob-o-lace picture...

And I pinned it out to get a better look at what the blocked scarf will look like...

The yarn I used was sport weight, Blue Sky Alpacas' "Alpaca & Silk" in "PLUM" which happens to be, incase you didn't guess, alpaca and silk! (you can tell they're as good at coming up with names for their yarn and I am at coming up with titles for my posts). It's 50% alpaca and 50% silk and soooo soft with a slight halo, but with a beautiful sheen and super strong (don't try to break it with your hands, it hurts!). Truly the best of both worlds. When I saw the color and felt the yarn I couldn't resist it, so I bought two skeins under the justification that it was for a Christmas present.

The yarn did leave a faint stain on the bamboo needles, chances are this will mostly wear off over time as is my experience.

Since the Touch of Whimsy Scarf calls for worsted weight and a size 8 needle, I had to go down a needle size (US 7). I was hesitant to go smaller than that, hopping to keep the scarf as wide as possible and get the most out of my yarn. I think in the end it knitted to a nice gauge, a little looser than I would knit it for a plain stockinette fabric, but with lace it was perfect.

I had trouble keeping my i-cord cast on from being too loose, so I finally went down to a size 5, which solved the problem. I think if the yarn hadn't been so thin for the needle size it would have been alright.

When I finished that I cast on for my first beaded knitting. It probably would have been smart to actually choose a beaded pattern... but I couldn't find one I liked so I chose some yarn to go with the beads I'd bought while in civilization, and went flipping through the Barbara Walker treasuries for a lace pattern I liked. I'd already decided to make a bracelet based on Perdita at Knitty.com, and after doing the Touch of Whimsy Scarf I decided to use the i-cord cast on and slip-stitch edge since it worked so well to keep it from rolling and looked so clean with the lace. The hardest part was figuring out where the beads went in the pattern and ripping out and re-threading new beads once I decided that the beads I was using were far too large for the yarn I chose, a recycled cashmere, luckily I had some other beads lying around from years ago, they weren't the same quality as the new beads, but they were a much better fit for the bracelet.

My spinning wheel is well on it's way!! It left Chicago this morning. The UPS webmaster is probably about ready to block my IP for bogging down their site with my obsessive package tracking... AAH! I can't wait!!