Going for Gold

Between the cupcakes and the turmeric, I think it's time I stopped talking about food and got back to knitting. Well, maybe after I show off the two skeins of handspun I spun for Ravelympics:


That is 400 yards of lace-weight alpaca. I'm so proud of how my very first lace-weight skeins turned out and glad that I got over my worries about ruining such lovely fiber. And, despite breaking the drive band on my spinning wheel as I was plying the second skein, I managed to finish in time to win a gold medal!


Speaking of winning gold, here's a little golden something that I recently finished. The design is Coraline by Ysolda Teague, making it my second Ysolda sweater that I've made in the last 12 months (the other was the Vivian Cardigan). Between the happy color and the smocking detail on the yoke, I just adore this sweater! It is bound to become a favorite in my wardrobe.


I must admit that this is not a true Coraline sweater, as I have heavily modified the design. The only part that is actually from the original pattern is the yoke/smocking section, and even that is resized because I used Ultra Alpaca in worsted whereas the pattern calls for DK-weight yarn. The rest of the sweater was worked from the top down (Barbara Walker be praised!) to work around the small amount of yarn I had. I wrote all of my notes up on Ravelry if anyone is interested in the exact details of my modifications.