A Little Hug

I wanted to start this blog with something a little special. I am sure we have all had those moments when crafting, when you look through your materials, and you suddenly know exactly what the thing you have in your hand should be. Inspiration truly hits.

This last weekend, it happened to me. I was going through my spinning fibre, and had this fibre sample in my hand, and it hit me like a tonne of bricks, no kidding. I knew it was meant for a friend of mine. A friend who has been going through some incredibly tough times lately. Someone who could do with a hug, but someone I could only hug virtually through the internet. Unless....

I knew this sample was not going to make much yarn. So I was going to have to get very creative. It was this lovely length of pink with white silk running through it, and gold firestar. Most people who know me will know pink is NOT my colour, but I could appreciate how pretty this bit of fluff was. I got out my tiny lace weight spindle and spent what time I could spare around the usual chaos that is a weekend, spinning singles. As I spun, I thought of my friend, wished her well, and put all of the good vibes into my spinning as I possibly could. I plied and set the twist Sunday morning. Then, plan made, I cast on Sunday night.

It was going to be an Annis. Now I only had 92m of this pink yarn when I was done, but in my handspun drawer, I had a mini skein of 130m of cappuccino alpaca lace weight yarn I spun during my first Tour de Fleece last year, which had been quietly niggling at me to make something with it. And I cannot think of much nicer round your neck than soft alpaca. Still, it was less yarn than the pattern calls for, so time for some maths.

Annis is a very open little thing, laceweight yarn on very big needles, so I instantly dropped needle size, and then the number of lace repeats. Its knit from the bottom up, and I wanted the pink to run out after the lace. Well it quickly became clear as I was knitting Monday that I was not going to be able to knit the nupps in the pattern and have the pink go far enough. So what on earth was I going to do? Well bead was the obvious answer, but did I have 150 beads of anything in the house? It just so happened that I did. What's more, I had rose quartz chips, perfect for with the pink.

So to the fiddly job I went. One tiny crochet hook in hand, I spent most of the day beading. And the pink ran out just after the lace. Perfect. Joined in the alpaca, and Tuesday was spent finishing it. I also added a row of eyelets at the neck since I had enough of the alpaca to do it, because it is a design that can roll, and it just helps that.

There was this lovely moment in the evening, when the knitting was done, cast off and downed tools, that my husband got curious. So much so he picked it up and started to look carefully at this curly bit of fluff.

"How on earth did you get those on there?" He says to me, pointing to the beading.

I grin, reach for my 0.6mm crochet hook, tiny little thing, and hand it to him.

"I don't get it," he says.

Even a brief demonstration of the how doesn't seem to make it any clearer, but in any case he is somewhat impressed.

So Wednesday is blocking day, and being made of very open laceweight stitches, its pinned at midday and dry by my son's bedtime. So ends to weave, and all I have left now is to wrap it up with a note and send it off to its recipient. I hope the hug is just what she needs to make her smile. She most certainly deserves it.