Two Crochet Shawls and Spinning Progress

It hasn't all been spinning here at Aran Brew, I've been doing a bit of crochet as well. I decided to make a lace shawl for the summer from the lovely Handmaiden Seasilk I ordered from the US last year. I finally decided on the Shill Shell Shawl pattern and got started. When you crochet something big like this the first row is always the hardest. So I went very slowly and finally got through the first row. After this it gets easier as it's a three row repeating pattern which is interesting enough to keep me interested but it's not so difficult that I want to give up. I find lace knitting really difficult and I was glad to find that crochet lace is a bit easier. Since you're only ever working with one stitch at a time it's easier to keep track of.

Here's what I've done so far. The silk yarn is amazing, it's the colour of the Caribbean sea.



Inspired by Jagienka over at 2 Knit Or Not 2 Knit I decided to make the Drops crochet shawl she had made. I want a triangular shawl for spring and this looks nice, quick and easy. My friend had given me some pink with silver yarn so I decided to use it in this shawl.



The spinning is going well. May I present my first bobbin of yarn.



Left to right we have white blue faced leicester, green merino, more blue faced leicester, a purple merino silk blend and a pink merino silk blend.I'm actually finding the blue faced leicester a bit harder to work with so I need to do more practice with it to get the hang of it.



I decided to spin this pink merino silk blend as my very first full project on the wheel. I got this combed top from Wingham. It weighs 100g so I'll spin it onto one bobbin until I have about 50g left and spin the remaining 50g onto another bobbin then ply the two together. It's going well. I'm finding it easy enough to get a rhythm going. As you can see in the picture there are some bits that are a bit too twisty. These will even themselves out when I ply it. I'd prefer to have it a bit too twisty than too loose and falling apart. I wonder what this yarn will be when it grows up?