I went stash diving and came up with three balls of this:
That's Baruffa Bollicina, a yummy 65% cashmere/35% silk blend yarn. I must have bought it as a treat, and I bet it was on sale at the Ewe when I did. Anyway, it's lovely stuff, although I did find a knot in one of the balls.
Ishbel is a lovely little pattern - very clear and easy to follow, although the lace pattern is not one I was able to memorize. My only change to the pattern would be to do a provisional cast on in the place of a regular cast on. I think it would be cleaner, although not too functionally different.
As I am wont to do, I blocked this within an inch of its life. It ends up just under four feet long and maybe 20" wide center to point. That's a little smaller than I usually prefer, but very functional.
I could imagine making the larger laceweight version of this someday. Also, while knitting it, I had the opportunity to try AddiClick Lace needles - interchangeable needles from Skacel with Addi Lace heads. I loved how light the needles were, and adored how flexible the blue cords are (my own addi lace needles are the old red cord, which is great, but not so nice as the blue ones, apparently). And I liked that I had no concern whatsoever that the needle tips were going to fall off. But I did find the my yarn was catching at the join between needle and cord, a very unfortunate impediment to their use. It was interesting to compare them to others I've used.
Next up: Finish the foot on the sock I'm making for this Saturday's class, and then get to work on the socks I promised my aunt! Excited, because I'm going to do the Rivendell Sock - a pattern which I have loved, but not had an excuse to get until now.
