This is lace weight yarn. So the skein's actually smaller than one for 440 yards of sock yarn. To try communicating how fine this yarn is, I stuck a penny in there with two strands over it:
I'll probably use size two needles (3mm) to knit it up, though I'm leaning toward using my size ones (2.5mm). It's extremely even yarn and I am highly impressed with the skill it took to make this.
I've been reading up on lace knitting (what with all the new books in the house) and I read in my Shetland lace book ("Heirloom Knitting", reviewed a week or so ago) that master spinners in the Shetland Islands could produce 9000 yards of laceweight single ply from one ounce of wool. Yes, you read that right: NINE THOUSAND YARDS from ONE OUNCE. Lately they are lamenting that the skill is being lost because the youngsters don't have the patience to practice spinning enough to manage that (you THINK?) Personally, I'm doubtful that there were ever a LOT of people able to do that. I don't care how fine Shetland lace wool was supposed to be. That's crazy.
Anyway, I love my Happy Spider yarn and intend to make something impressive for the State Fair with it.
Thank you all for pointing out the baby shape of last night's yarn skein post - I'd just wrinkled it around on the floor so it would all fit in the camera frame. Maybe we should do yarn-related ink blot tests. Or develop some kind of divination system where you fling yarn on the floor and see the future in the pattern that develops.
I finished my sock last night by grafting the toe together. I've never minded grafting - see it rather as a party trick. And since I'm the lunatic who wears machine-made socks inside out because of the toe seams, I figured it was the best way to go. I just wondered if anyone had ever done the three needle bindoff and how it wore. I wonder if it creates holes in the long run, since it's so stiff and unstretchy. (And yes, I love three-needle bindoff for shoulders. I use it all the time, precisely because it's unstretchy.)
Otherwise, I started on Sock Two and am trying to motivate myself to finish the Knitty Project by the deadline (March 15). Plus I need to go to Florida sometime soon. It'll be interesting.
7 comments:
Thanks for posting the pic.
Um, Julie, are you sure you didn't get thread instead of yarn? That's pretty thin! I suspect you'll need A LOT of stitches, but the resulting fabric will be lucious.
Love the rorschach suggestion. ;)
Very pretty yarn! It looks like it feels rather scrumtious as well!
My first thought when I saw the last post was of Patrick Star from SpongeBob Squarepants. I probably should avoid rorschach tests...
it is VERY fine isn't it. You know I almost kept it for myself, but HappySpider says she can make me some more!
Wow, and again, I say, Wow!
Boy, you would have loved the yarn on sale at the Michigan Fiber Festival last year! Galina Khmeleva, co-author of "Gossamer Webs," the Orenburg shawl book, was there selling the books, shawls to die for, and oh! I swoon! the yarn. ($55 a skein, ouch, but so soft and fine.)
I don't have the new Guinness Book, but last I read, the longest handspun thread was 1103.58 meters, spun and plied to weigh 10 grams, by Carol Robinson of Queensland, Australia, in 2005. That just boggles my mind.
So how do we get to your shop? I didn't see a link on your side bar. You need to advertise more so we can all buy buy buy.
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