sampling for lace shawl

This is the first of some posts about my Ravelympics project (aka Ravellenics - come and get me IOC).

Briefly, inspired by josiekitten's Citron shawl, my project is a lace-edged shawl using dyed fibre spun as singles and set by slightly felting / fulling. Even though the event didn't start until the start of the opening ceremony, I thought that sampling would be ok beforehand!

Knitting with singles (a single ply) is ok if it's well set, and a recommendation was to full (slightly felt) the singles. I've not done this before, although I did mention the technique with a video in Hand Spinning news a month or two ago.

Prudent to practice beforehand I thought. Even better to make two skeins and set one as I would have done in the past and full the other.

After spinning the fibre from the fold, you use soap (I used Aussie Know How felting finish because it's what I'm using for all wool washing now), hot and cold water to shock the wool and then thwack the skein against a hard surface.

We usually handle fleece so carefully when scouring, this rough treatment doesn't come easily! But is fun when you get over that.

Result

It's obvious from the pictures, the fulled singles (right) feel - well - fuller. The process seems to have plumped out the thinner bits and evened it all up a bit. It feels softer against the skin, and when knitted and blocked, I'm sure you'll agree it looks better.