Knitting progress

I mentioned previously that I was taking up knitting again after many years. My first efforts yielded a gift to be given at Christmas, but my next project didn’t go as well. Hmmm. Unknitting, anyone? However, during my trip to the Houston Quilt Festival, I ran across a stand that does online classes in a variety of subjects, including knitting. I signed up for a class in knitting lace shawls; the class gives instructions for two different patterns, and I’m very happy with the results! 🙂 My first shawl is now drying after having been blocked, and I’m anxious to begin the second one.

I’m going to make the second class shawl from a baby alpaca and silk blend that feels like heaven when I touch it. It came in a hank of 875yds, which needed, of course, to be wound into a ball. Do I have a ball winder? Nope. 😉 But I do have something called a nostepinne, and it does a great job, albeit more slowly than a ball winder. To the left you can see the finished ball of yarn and the nostepinne. The end of the yarn is looped around one of the indentations in the nostepinne, and then the yarn gets wound — and wound, and wound — around the slightly tapered end until finished. Then the yarn can be fed from either the inside of the ball or the outside. Below is what the ball looks like before being removed from the nostepinne. This ball is about the size of a large navel orange.