Of Course: New Projects

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So, thanks Anna! My birthday gift arrived late last week. I got myself several balls of Elann Den-M-Nit in black, enough to make an Indigo Ripples Skirt. I really wanted to get the darkest indigo color, but I never had the moolah to get it while it was available...oops.

I also received my yarn order from Webs. It's a cone of 2/14 Alpaca Silk lace weight yarn in the color Sienna. This one will be for Anna's Butterfly tunic which is going to be a birthday and graduation present. I am trying to do a gauge swatch now and, well, this one is gonna take a while! I've never done lace before, at least not like this with super-thin yarn. I'm going to go over the pattern again and see if it's written out instead of charted and see if that helps me at all. I'm also trying to figure out which size I should make. I think lace is very stretchy but I'm not sure how much it will stretch and how much ease is built into the pattern. Suggestions welcomed: do I use the bust or hip measurement if there is a 6" difference (wider at the hip)? EDIT: added photo of swatch. The color is way off.

While I was away, I also started working on a Picovoli for myself in Lion Brand Microspun (black). I liked working with it before and I had five balls in my stash. I'm debating about whether or not to add sleeves to this one, but I've not even gotten past the bust area so it will be a while before I even get to it again, considering the lace project. The way the yarn lays in a very neat |/|/|/|/ pattern is just so cool. Speaking of cool: I want the sleeves to be long-ish if I add them, so they end just above the elbow. The square neck and longer sleeves might look better on me. But I might get impatient. You know how that goes.