WIP Wednesday: Miller Park Shawl

I'm still working on Lynn's gloves that I started, and complained about elsenet, last Friday. Why did I complain about them? They're a 80/20% acrylic wool blend, both of which make my hands hot when I work with them. It's also currently the season of melting metal in Texas, though most people call it summer. I don't know, summer sounds warm but when you risk combustion just from walking outside it seems to be a bit more than summer.But when you add those two together it's just a recipe for insanity. I hope the husband recognizes how much I love him.

Anyhow, while they're a work in progress and thus technically available for this posting, they're getting set on the back burner for a bit. Horrors, I ran out of yarn just before I started the fingers on the second glove. I'm really not interested in buying a whole skein of yarn just for fingers. I will if I have too ... but with a limited budget I'd much rather use my yarn money for new stuffs to play with. So meanwhile I'm poking Ravelry to see if anybody has a bit of Lion Brand Wool Ease Chunky in charcoal that they'd be willing to part with.

But, enough of projects I'm annoyed with. On to the good stuff.

Almost a year ago I signed up for a yarn swap. The premise is simple, you take a new skein out of your stash that you've lost interest in and agree to mail it to somebody else. When done correctly it's a big sharing circle and you get something new and awesome in your stash that you can play with. I hit the jackpot, truth be told. I ended up with 5 hanks of SWTC Sparkle in the Twilight colorway.

I was simply in love with this yarn. I searched and searched for exactly the right pattern to use it on and dreamed of the time when I'd be free to work on my own things instead of things that were somewhat time sensitive. I've never worked with silk or bamboo before I was just thrilled with the idea of having something pretty made from this that I could wear and sparkle with.

Last night at gaming, when I reached the end of the yarn tail for those gloves I set them aside and pulled a hank of this out of my purse. While the game play whirled around me I carefully untwisted the hank and let it hang over my knees. I paused to roll my dice and make my attack before I undid the ties spaced around the hank and I began winding the ball around my thumb.

As we finished off one group of foes impeding our progress I made my slipknot and cast on those first three stitches. I ended up having to redo the cast on 3 times. Going from size 6 DPNs to size 11 circs is certainly a challenge. But once I managed to get the first couple of rows down I was off and running.

There's not a ton of progress so far but this is what I got done last night. I think it's going to be gorgeous and lovely and sparkly. 

Pattern: Chastain Park Shawl (Rav Link)
Project Page: Ravelry