left: bought over 15 years ago --- right: bought today

today i found out that crocheting yarn colours haven't changed in the last... well... 15 years. when i re-organized my stash two months ago, i found two skeins of very lightweight mercerized cotton. both had started but unfinished lace doilies on them, which i frogged and rewound. because i was eager to start, i used the light blue yarn to cast on the japanese feather-and-fan shawl as featured in izzys blog. this ball of yarn must've been bought at least 15 years ago when i needed the thin mercerized cotton for crocheting at school. i had chosen baby blue and powder pink - i think these were the only pastel colours available and i was really into pastels then.

when i ran out of yarn today, i figured i'd get something matching or contrasting and was amazed that i was able to buy the exact same colour (if not the exact same weight)! and all the other colours i saw - black, white, undyed/natural, egg yolk yellow, burgundy, forest green, navy and the light blue i bought - were the exact same colours i remember having in my stash. and i got these stashed yarns as hand-me-downs from my grandmother... obviously, yarn colour really hasn't changed that much - at least not in crocheting yarn. which turns out rather well for me, but is still amazing, i think. i'd have thought the colours would have changed.....

in the picture below, you can see the old yarn (knit) and the new yarn (ball).



this is my current favourite project - my first attempt at lace knitting, too! in reality it is rather less complicated than i imagined, although i did have problems starting out. from my project journal:


finding the pattern: lovelovelove this.... need yarn for it!

first attempt: now trying with yarn i found and originally used for crochet in ground school...

first conclusion: you need to cast on really really loosely.

after first frogging: okay, halfway through the pattern i realized i made a mistake reading it and now... ah... i'm going to frog the whole thing, see if i can get the kinks to come out of the yarn and start over. (i feel like crying =) but i'm ready to do that because i'm really happy with the pattern and how i imagine it will turn out when i've kintted it correctly. the yarn works really well, too.

after second, third, fourth, fifth and not-counting-anymore froggings: the kinks came out of the yarn easily (i rewound it and held the roll of yarn in the steam when i ran a bath, then let it dry for a day - worked like a charm) but i still had problems figuring the pattern out so i contacted the wonderful izzy and she promptly helped me, explaining what i needed explained. she was really really nice and i want to thank her here again. i'm one third into the shawl now and i really like working on it. this is my first lace project and it's not as hard as i imagined, although it does require concentration. but i like that, i like the feeling of sinking into it.

second conclusion: you have to count a LOT. also i found i can't hold a conversation when knitting lace, but i can watch tv. if i am too tired, i make mistakes. well, no, actually i make mistakes wether i am tired or not, but when i am not tired it is easier to figure out where exactly they are and what i need to do to fix them.

current status: well, almost on the last page of the pattern now and i ran out of yarn.... (of course). i went to two of my local yarn stores that are in easy walking distance. i didn't get anything that really matched my yarn or made me completely happy, but i woke up with back pain today and it hurts most when walking (does this mean i am getting old? =) and didn't want to walk any farther. so i ended up choosing yarn that is the same colour, but slightly more lightweight (a nr.10 instead of what i think must be nr.5). i am currently trying if the difference is noticable. if so, i might consider ripping back and changing to a different yarn altogether - maybe something more wooly, like the ggf soft kid yarn i used for the chick-n-egg... we'll see.