I haz a sad.

The alpaca yarn I was going to knit into an Ishbel?  Yeah, something about it is causing allergy-like symptoms.  I'm thinking maybe I'm allergic to some of the VM in it.  Whatever it is, though, I start working with it and my eyes start watering in a matter of seconds.  First time I hoped was a fluke, but the second time in a completely different environment?  Nope, we're talking irritant.  Not gonna keep going with that

Sigh.

Guess I'll wait until my Thursday knit night, have the yarn shop wind a skein of Cascade alpaca lace I bought a while ago, and buy a size 3 needle while I'm there.

Started my Ishbel

I balled up my special alpaca yarn and started my Ishbel scarf.  Let me tell you, though, I was threatening to confiscate the skeiner of the person who wound that hank.  Messiest skein I personally have unwound.  It doesn't help that the stuff is full of sticky grabby vegetable matter, either.

When I started knitting, my eyes started to water and get that "puffed up" feeling, so I'm a little afraid I may be allergic to something about it.  I doubt it's the alpaca itself -- alpaca is considered hypoallergenic -- but it may be the VM is something I'm allergic to, or something used in the processing.  Or it may be throwing off dust and fuzz as I'm working, and it's more an irritation than an allergy thing.  It did seem to clear up as I work, so we'll see if it gets better or if I have to bail and pass this skein on to someone else.

Suddenly developing an alpaca allergy would be utter cruelty on the part of the universe.  I hate to say it, but if that were to happen, I'd go back to wool and the cat's on her own.  (Well, you know, with the meds to help.)

I started this thing with US5 needles, but that was way too loose, so I switched down to 3mm (European size, between a US2 and a US3.)  If you're wondering the method to my madness, those happen to be the sizes of Addi Lace needles I own.  Going up a size from the 3 mm would probably be better, but not enough to wait until Thursday when I get back to the yarn shop.  The 3mm is giving a pretty nice fabric and should block out OK, but I think I will be a bit below gauge even blocked.  (Yes, I'm a bad girl who didn't do a gauge swatch.  It's a flippin' scarf.)  I was already thinking of doing the larger stockinette section from the shawl but stay with the narrower border of the scarf to get a little more size out of it.

I thought on it some more.

The lace + locally produced alpaca thing.  What I've gone and done is bought myself a copy of the Ishbel shawl.  It seems all the time someone in one of my Ravelry groups is sharing one they've done, and I click on their thumbnail going "ooh, pretty, what's that?" and it's the Ishbel.  My 540 yards should be more than enough to make a nice triangular scarf.  Because it starts with a good chunk of stockinette stitch, by the time the growth function gets intimidating I'll be well committed, and even on the big size the last row isn't that big.  As an extra bonus 80% of the purchase price goes to Doctors Without Borders to help in Haiti. :)

I hate it when this happens.

Although I guess I hate when this doesn't happen even more.

This afternoon I was really jonesing to ball up some locally-produced alpaca laceweight I have and start a Swallowtail Shawl.  So this evening I brought up the Ravelry page to see if there was an easy download location, since I'm not exactly sure where I stored my copy.  And suddenly it hit me: I don't really like the Swallowtail Shawl.

Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely shawl.  I just don't care for it.  I'm not very fond of the leaf pattern that makes up the body, and the transitions from body to border and border to edging are a bit abrupt for my tastes.

I'm glad I realized this before knitting several tens of thousands of stitches into the thing.  But, now what do I do with 540 yards of locally-produced alpaca laceweight?

Guess that'll live in the stash for a while.

I'm still kind of jonesing to knit some lace, though.  But not the Alka shawl I've got started.  I'm barely into it, and each row already takes 1/2 hour to do, and it's a top-down faroese so it's one of those shawls with a growth function that just gets worse and worse.

I'm thinking maybe a Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl or a Cap shawl (both Ravelry links; you'll only be able to see if you have an account, I'm afraid), but both are knit from the center out, and the Alka has me a little gun shy about those growth functions in laceweight.

I'll have to think on it some more.