Tuesday, November 15, 2011

A Long Story

Semele is a terrific design for which I specially spun the yarn. I wanted the ends of the shawl to be dark blue, fading to white in the center, which is why the balls are wound the way they are. The lovely merino batts were made byLeilani Sue, and I bought the batts from her Etsy store, Heavenly Fiber. As you can see from the picture, I added plenty of Angelina for sparkle.


I heartily recommend the pattern, which had not a single error and left nothing to the imagination. It's worth knitting for the clever beginning leaf, from which the rest of the pattern flows without a hitch.



  I was so careful after spinning. I measured and weighed the skein twice to be absolutely sure that I had two identical halves. But clearly Harry put his legs on the scale when my back was turned, because when I got to the last three leaves, I ran out of yarn.



I frantically emailed Leilani Sue, who was in the process of moving and thus had everything neatly packed in boxes. I whimpered. I whined. I sniffled. And dear Leilani Sue unpacked some boxes and found what she thought was the right color. Um, it wasn't. So I sent her a little sample of the spun yarn, and she unpacked more boxes and finally found a precious ounce of the dark blue.

So, after a month of squirming in anticipation, the merino arrived and I spun it up. The next day, Semele was finished and I gleefully started pinning it out. And pinning it out. And pinning it out some more...



The length was my fault, because I kept knitting the center repeat until I had used up all the white, at which point the design faded back to blue. As I never bothered to measure it on the hoof, as it were, I got a long surprise when I blocked it.

 Well, it will certainly wrap around me a whole lot of times...


11 comments:

Soo said...

The colours are gorgeous! And it never hurts to have an extra long scarf to wrap youself (and your friends) up in! :)

Unknown said...

aren't you funny..do so enjoy your blog..

Anonymous said...

That's dedication above and beyond, finding you the right color. I moved 9 yrs ago and STILL have unpacked boxes. (I'm getting used to the idea that they can probably go straight to Goodwill.)

I just finished a handspun Semele, too (no pics yet... waiting for Christmas when I'm reliably informed I'll have a Victorian-style wire mannequin to put it on).

Mine was a Pumpkin Patch colorway that started dark orange, got progressively lighter, added yellow, and was dusty green at the other tip. Because it was Navajo-plied, last spun was also last knit. I, too, weighed as I went along, and thought I'd measured correctly... but the last-spun stuff was slightly thinner gauge, as tends to happen, so I had an unacceptable amount of yarn leftover. Frog to the middle, add a repeat, reknit the second half, and it looks great with just a tiny bit of yarn leftover. I figured I'd tell the story here so we can both serve as a warning to others. :)

BTW, the length isn't entirely because you kept knitting the white portion. Mine grew a lot too... I think it's just a function of having been knit in that direction.

yarnlot said...

You should name it the Big Blue, it is like a big blue sail indeed and what a gorgeous blue it is!

Annie Cholewa said...

Gorgeous blue shawly perfection :D

Laritza said...

L.O.V.E.L.Y.

Anonymous said...

I'm really enjoying your blog. Thank you for sharing your experiences :)

blandina said...

This shawl is beautiful, I love it so much. I just purchased the pattern, you are my source of inspiration, thanks a lot!

Rosemary said...

Beautiful! I love a bit of sparkle, too. I wish I could see it in person!

Caryn said...

wonderful spinning and beautiful knitting, as ususal. And yes, I still want to be you when I grow up, bad knees and all.
Did you spindle spin the yarn?

Delusional Knitter said...

Beautiful!! Those carefully thought out plans just sometimes don't work out. Glad you were able to get more and finish!