Now, the only thing is picking a colour! Anne says that Jamieson is coming out with new colours for ["Shetland Heather"](http://www.sheeweknits.com/shetland%20heather.htm) (the new name for Soft Shetland) in the Fall, so I might wait until then to order the yarn. In the meantime, I’m going to order some BWA yarns for myself!

It’s time for new projects. The two one-skein wonders are blocking, I’m wearing my finished Soleil, the DH’s second sock is almost done and I’m *almost* finished the lilac Paisley Lace Shawl! About 10 rounds to go — but since each round is at least 500 stitches, that will take me approximately… forever…

So! What’s in the knitting bag today? Dale Baby Ull! For the [Baby Norgi](http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring03/PATTbabynorgi.html) sweater from Knitty.com. Armed with my new 2mm and 3mm Addi’s, steeking, *here I come!*

Oh, of course, this is just practice for a steeked sweater for me. I won a copy of Alice Starmore’s Tudor Roses on Ebay and am planning to knit something out of that next — I didn’t see any fair isle projects I liked in her Celtic Collection book, although I love the cabled Cromarty sweater…

In the meantime, I’m picking yarns for St. Brigid (from Starmore’s Aran Knitting, also out of print)… Here’s the Blackwater Abbey yarn sample card I just received… I’m considering either Pink Heather or Iris, so I ordered a couple 1oz skeins to test drive:

Now that I think of it, is it *wrong* to knit a Scottish designer’s sweater in Irish yarn?

Anyway, I also finally got up the courage to start spinning the Ashland Bay merino that I bought a few weeks ago. It’s so soft and smooth to spin! I love it! I’m spinning this thin for a laceweight 2-ply that I’ll use for a shawl. Maybe another Flower Basket Shawl or maybe the Meadow Flowers Shawl from the Knitters’ Stash book:

And here’s proof that I’m still knitting the Manly Sweater. Here’s the finished front! Two sleeves to go.

So in my search for an appropriate Scottish Heather yarn sub, I’m going to try to get my hands on a sample of Jamieson’s Soft Shetland (soon to be called Shetland Heather Aran). Anne at She Ewe Knits is sending me a sample card and some yarn for me to test drive. I found the Simply Shetland site and have been considering these colours:

Yes, that’s right. In my current obsession with Starmore and that darned “Aran Knitting” book, I’ve glommed onto the idea of knitting a St. Brigid for myself. Funny enough, I’m actually ok with this aran sweater being oversized. What I’m _not_ ok with is a huge fair isle sweater. I don’t want to put myself through [this kind of stress](http://onemorerow.blogdrive.com/archive/19.html).

Yes, even though weaving in 38 ends and blocking 16 individual swatches takes a long time and is incredibly boring, writing up the documentation is even more so. Ah, but I shall be done soon.

I have swatch #15 and #16 left to do. Swatch 15 is a cable of your choice and I think my choice will be a ["staghorn" cable](http://swim.typepad.com/swim/staghorn_cable_cardigan/). Swatch 16 is a two-colour swatch that demonstrates how brilliantly you can join colours — at the side and mid-row. Ooh…exciting.

Originally, I wanted to submit the perfect package so that there wouldn’t be any re-submits to do. But now I figure, I’ll just get it out and see what happens. If I have to re-knit some swatches, whatever…it’s a learning process.

Swatches and questions should be done tonight! I still have the write up the blocking report too…maybe by the end of this week.

A group of us spent this past weekend at my friend’s parents’ custom-built house in Saltspring Island, relaxing, hot-tubbing, watching movies and knitting… Ahhhh. How would you like to wake up seeing this every morning? Well, for about a million dollars, _you can!_ Their dream house is actually up [for sale](http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=&SearchURL=%3fMode%3d0%26Page%3d1%26vs%3d1%26rlt%3d%26cp%3d%26pt%3d0%26mp%3d900000-0-0%26mrt%3d-1-0-0%26Beds%3d0-0%26Baths%3d0-0%26f%3d%26ft%3dall%26o%3dA%26of%3d1%26ps%3d10%26ptgid%3d1%26aid%3d90%26MapURL%3d%253fAreaID%253d750&Mode=0&PropertyID=3518284) (boo hoo too).

Of course, we did a little yarn shopping in between meals of Saltspring Island cheese, lemon bars and blackberry port:

Sunday morning, while some of the guys were off playing golf, we walked up their beachfront, tormented little crabs and tried to save already dead jellyfish.

Finally, I did finish the Rebecca Cardi after the lovely people at Weaving Works shipped me another ball of mohair:

####Rebecca 29 Wrap Cardi

* Pattern: from Rebecca 29 Magazine
* Yarn Substituted: Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Mohair x 6 balls
* Needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm Addi Turbo’s
* Changes: left off the edge finishing, picked up the ties from the front edges.
* Ok, I like the cardi — I like the yarn and the finished fabric…very soft. I don’t like that it makes me look like a football player. A good cardi for those with sloping shoulders and stick-thin arms.

Oh, and all the rest of the [Saltspring Island photos are here...](http://www.planetfishdesign.com/photos/SimpleViewer/?album=Salt_Spring_Island__May_2005)

I used a slightly different process this time too. Just before the trip, I bought an [18 qt. Turkey Roaster](http://www.esalton.com/control/product/~category_id=C20025/~product_id=TRST18H) for cheap at Walmart. I didn’t like how the dyes would sink to the bottom of the Crockpot and make a big muddy mess of the roving, so I used the cold-pour/saran wrap method as shown in the Twisted Sisters book. This gives so much more control over where colours go (and stay!).

I broke off 7 lengths of roving, each 30g, and “painted” stripes using the 0.5% dye stocks I had already made up. Wrapped them in saran wrap lengthwise and then coiled them up. Placed them all in the roaster and steamed them for about an hour — I know 20 minutes is enough, but I put them in a cold roaster and heated the whole thing up so that I wouldn’t have to transport potentially leaking coils from the dining table to the kitchen counter…

In the Twisted Sisters book they have a photo where the roving packets are “all puffed up” so that you know they are done. In my case, the crappy saran wrap I used melted onto the rovings. Woo hoo. But it was no problem. Plastic and wool don’t mix so I just ripped the melted saran wrap off and the roving was still safe and intact. Just in case, I bought some thicker, heavier-duty saran wrap for next time!

Here are the lovely colours I got:

After a day of drying, I pre-drafted the whole lot. Just gently attenuating the rovings until fluffy. See pre-pre-drafted and pre-drafted shots here:

And here’s the whole 210-220g lot of dyed Polworth roving! Happily, none of it’s felted and it’s still soft. So pretty just like that, I’ll have to decide how to spin it up!

Next time, I think I should pull back a little and try some more “subtle” colourways! These colours are gorgeous…but blinding, _non?_

A couple of my friends are starting socks for the first time and are, like I was, _apprehensive_ about the heel turning section. So we’re all starting with the top down sock and going to have a “heel-turning afternoon” soon. Here’s the start of my sock:

It’s in that ["ONLine Supersocke 100 Sierra-Effekt"](http://blog.sweetgeorgiayarns.com/archives/2005/02/spring_stashing.html) that I picked up a few months ago. I thought it would be predominantly pink but so far, it’s mostly black and white! I’m going to extend the leg of the sock more this time so that I can use up more yarn (previous socks only took 30g of the 50g available). The pattern hasn’t even started to repeat yet. Hmm…

And here some of the girls that were sitting outside the GAP in Ometosando. Too shy to take a photo with these girls, I took a photo of _other_ tourists getting their photo taken.

We spent quite a bit of time at the Robot Station at the Expo too…watching little Japanese kids play with the “child care robot”. This robot, called PaPeRo, actually responds to pats on the head and verbal instructions — it blushes and “plays” with the kids!

The yellow robot is Mitsubishi’s Wakamaru robot — a hospitality robot that speaks and understands four different languages. It can recognize faces and, in the shot below, was actually looking at me — creepy but very cool. Many of the robots on display at the Expo were actually in use onsite!

And finally, we spent on night at an onsen in Osaka called “Fushioukaku”. _So_ relaxing. It was a perfect way to spend a day between train rides and luggage hauling. I mean, you take as many baths as you like in their hot springs…next to a waterfall…under cherry blossoms! The only thing you have to think about is when you’re going to have your next bath!

See the lovely stone bathtub on the hotel balcony outside our suite? I want one. We’re renovating our bathroom this summer and it’s starting too look like a real challenge. Our house is old old old to start with and the bathroom is tiny. I’ve measured the old bathtub and it’s 57″ x 27″. WHAT?!? All “standard” bathtubs are 60″ x 30″ (or 32″) nowadays! How will we find a new tub to fit our silly little bathroom? I was thinking of installing a tiny Japanese-style soaker tub instead!

I think I’ll be doing some more dyeing this weekend — there’s a pound of Polworth that I bought just before our trip and 200g of fine merino that I picked up in Japan — all plain creamy white right now. I did also buy myself a HUGE 18 qt. turkey roaster to steam the rovings in this time…all because I think I managed to felt some of the last rovings I worked with. Hopefully the steam (vs. simmering) will prevent felting… we’ll see…