Olympic Knitting

I finished my Olympic Knitting item today, two days early even. I now have a fine lace item waiting for its recipient. Marianne Kinzel's 'Arabesque' Scarf turned out to be more like a slender stole at 30cm/12" width, 140cm/56" length. Funnily enough my version is 2.5cm/1" less in width, but 35cm/14" longer. Probably because I blocked it first lengthwise then widthwise. I did pin it out to capacity though. Lace really needs to be stretched to near breaking point when being dressed/blocked, only that way it shows its patterns to their best advantage. The baby alpaca 'Alpaca Cloud' from KnitPicks, a gift from Emma, smelled a little bit like wet dog while drying, but no smell in it now.

But here are two pictures, which I know you've been waiting for. Both are after drying, pinned to my curtains to show off my work. The yarn bled a bit during its soak, but it remains a beautifully heathered blue-green, 'Tide Pool' is the official name.

Nearly the full length, without fringe yet.

The width with the flame-like pattern.

Those little 'nubs' you see in the second photo are a very interesting background pattern I've sofar only seen in Mrs. Kinzel's patterns. 3 stitches over 4 rows, 1st row *k2tog, k&p into same stitch*, 2nd row p, 3rd row *k&p into same stitch, k2tog* 4th row p. It gives that nubbly look and  texture, but  surprisingly enough also a bit of openness as the k&p into the same stitch tend to open that stitch up more than its neighbours which are pulled tight by the k2tog's.

I have now also decided what to do with it. I'm going to auction it with the proceeds going to

I need to ask some help for that. I'd preferably see it on ebay, but ebay is sadly not represented in Denmark and I don't really want to force people to create an account on a Danish internet auction site that they'll never use again. So if a friendly US or UK knitter, preferably with a good digicam to take some better shots of the item, would contact me with the intent to put it up on US or UK ebay, I'll send it her/his way with my gratitude. That btw also saves me from the Danish tax office which would probably applaud the cause, but still add the income to my taxable income.  My email s up n the page, I hope we can work something out. I offer a box of Japanese Limited Edition Kit-Kat chocolatier noir as reward. 

In other news:
- I lost another 1.7kg/3.8pounds of weight the last week.  Which is good, as I do not expect any big losses this week with several lapses from the food regimen, 'nuff said.

- I've finished spinning and plying my first hand spun yarn. As I told you last week, I've been trying my hand at spinning silk hankies. It worked amazingly well. My first skein of 100% silk yarn, 75g/100m, will soon be on its way to its recipient. I even got 18g of 1ply over from the second spindle-full. Apparently I drew the silk hankies out far thinner then than in the first spindle-full. The plying from wound balls onto the spindle went well too. The skein hangs straight with almost no twisting, so apparently the two plied singles balanced each other just right. Which is good as you can definitely see some differences in size between the two singles in the yarn.

I'll definitely be doing this again, though next time with some dyed silk hankies. The undyed stuff is a fine ivory-white, but I have an idea for a project that'll look good in the resulting yarn and that project needs some colour.