Saturday, May 16, 2009

Knitting obsessively

I finished my second shawl of the summer--just in time for the thermometer to reach 100 degrees. This is the fantastic textured shawl by Dark Trico, which is available for free through Ravelry. I knit it using a soft green hue of Ultra Alpaca, which I had originally used for my first garment project several years ago. I'm really happy with the way this turned out, and I can see myself loving this during winter visits back to Chicago. [Ravelry link]

I've also cast on for 2.5 other sweaters (the .5 is still a swatch, but will be my traveling project this summer). Above is Anais by Nora Gaughan, which I'm knitting from a large cone of sport weight alpaca I bought for $10 at a yarn sale. It's a really deep eggplant color. I'm thinking of trying to make long sleeves ('cause what good is an alpaca tank top?), and am also thinking of modifying the neck line a la Carrieoke. Although I realize that the lace inserts are the whole idea behind this pattern, I do think it makes quite a nice shape without them. We'll see.

The final project is that second vintage sweater from one of my previous posts--the one with the placket neck. I was nearly finished with the back of that a couple nights ago. I started winding a second skein of yarn when I realized that a colony of mites (insects) had decided to hatch their babies in the box of yarn. If this sounds gross, let me tell you, it was. The yarn got put in zip lock bags and was banished to the freezer for 3 days. It's currently defrosting (to give the remaining eggs a chance to hatch, if they haven't died yet) and will then go back into the freezer for several more days. After that, I'll vacuum the dead insects off, and try to forget about what happened as I knit up the rest. This freezing procedure is similar to what we do in museums when there are infestations (a fairly common occurrence). I've never heard of wool-eating mites, so I'm thinking they just liked the dark cozy yarn-in-shipping-box environment. Blech.

7 comments:

carolyn said...

I *love* that you can put museum de-infestation techniques to work in your own stash! That must have been a disgusting sight. :P

Kim said...

The shawl is lovely. I am having difficulties wanting to knit anything in alpaca in the 100+ heat, myself, but I'm not sure I could do alpaca in the AZ winter either...
Eww! about the bugs. I would have freaked and certainly not thought about sticking them in the freezer.

crochetgurl said...

Your shawl is lovely. I recently completed a Textured Shawl too, as well as your Shalom Cardigan. Just wanted to thank you for a wonderful pattern. I love how it's so wearable for everyday. :-)

Anne said...

Your shawl is really nice, I like the color... So many beautiful projects in store :) About the mites, I can tell you they adore wool. But I never saw one except for the hole they left in the sweater....

Hilary said...

What a pretty shawl! It may not be great for 100 degree weather, but I bet it'll come in handy on too-cold airplanes when you're traveling this summer. And 2.5 sweaters PLUS Anais?? That's a lot of knitting going on!

Good luck with the insects - ick!!

Teresa said...

Oh no! I'm sorry to hear about the yarn. I'm glad you have a good plan in place for yarn salvage.
Your shawl is awesome. It's going on my queue!

Linda said...

I hop eyou sorted the mites out! The scarf is lovely, I have that in my Ravelry queue.