Sound the Trumpets!

I finished something:


slightly floofy (it's a word. shut up) puffy not-curly-not-straight hair brought to you by the constant downpour of the last few days. good for the really dry skin. not good for the manageability of the hair.

Fern Leaf Lace Tank
Pattern: my own. ("pattern" being used loosely here to describe the "wing it" method) Knit in the round in "Fern Lace" from my Reader's Digest stitch book.
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa Millefili Fine. Millefili Fine is a mercerized cotton. It seemed to me to be a light DK weight.
I'm not really sure about the gauge since it's a bit tough count stitches in the lace. (that's the excuse I will stick to) I used size US6/4mm needles and used (mumblemumble) yards of this yarn. Okay. Fine. I have no idea what the yardage was. I have started and frogged so many projects with this poor yarn. I can't remember how many balls I had in the first place. I have about (mumblemumble) yards left.

Overall, I'm happy with it. It turned out exactly how I wanted. The lace produces what I think of as a chevron-like effect so it didn't get that wierd pooling thing that variegated yarns sometimes does. It is DEFINATELY a layering piece, which was what I intended, but it's so well ventilated that layering wouldn't be a problem even in very warm weather. (I'm hoping we will one day have very warm weather)

I celebrated finishing something by taking something apart! I needed more yarn for the lace cardigan I have been slowly working on. I'm knitting it from a recycled men's XXL sweater I had purchased for $2. (Cha. Ching. I knit both fronts and one sleeve from the sleeves of the sweater.) I ended up cutting about 2 1/2 inches from the shoulders and just picking my way down to where the yarn was whole because the shoulders were sergered (??) together. The thrifty, save every ziploc bag part of me felt really guilty about this:

crappy picture above shows a big pile of wasted cotton yarn in teeny little shreds

until I realized the front and back each measured 26" across!!

Did I mention the Cha? And the Ching?

I knit the fronts and sleeve with the "yarn" doubled (each piece of the original sweater was machine knit with 4 strands of cotton threads) so I wound the yarn up that way.

each of these balls of yarn is about 4" tall and 5-6" in diameter. That's a lot of yarn

I LOVE recycling sweaters for the yarn. I love the funny looks you get in the thrift store. I love the big BIG pile of crazy cheap yarn. I love re-using something that was not being appreciated. Sigh.

Enjoy the weekend. I'm hoping for sun! I'm hoping I didn't just jinx it by saying that!

(Go Oilers)(shh... don't tell anyone I said that)(although I am by no means an Oilers "fan" I am cheering for them in the playoffs. Not as a bandwagon jumper but because I would pick a team to cheer for anyway, so it might as well be the Canadian team.)(if you don't live in Calgary, this need to explain myself may be lost on you.)