Seriously am in love with the combination of these 2 yarns. Can’t wait to show this Beauty to Sandra in June!

April 29th:
Swatched using US7/4.5mm needles. Washed/dried and boy that drape is gorgeous! I am leaving a 6-inch tail to weave in for the heavier yarn, but knitting the lace with the first stitch of every odd welt to avoid additional ends.

May 13th:
Cast on using 2 skeins of the alpaca/silk with the US7/4.5mm needles. Am continuing the rest of project using US6/4.00mm size since the alpaca/silk blend will stretch.

May 14th:
It took 29 grams of my first ball to make the 1st welt (with 21 grams left). I calculated that I should only take up 19 grams for that 3rd welt. I am halfway done with the 2nd welt, but I started it with 41 grams and will weigh the laceweight skein after I am done. Total amount of time for 1st welt = 4 hours

May 15th:
I cannot seem to put this down. The 2nd welt used 8 grams. The 1st row of the 3rd welt used 2.5 grams out of the 19 gram cake leaving 16.5 grams for the other 3 rows.
3rd welt 616 -- 104/68 or 26/17 (1st skein of BSA: 2g left over.)
4th welt 600 -- 102/66

May 21st:
5th welt 584 -- 100/64 or 25/16 (2nd skein of BSA: Started with 46g. After 1/2 of 1st row of 5th welt, 43g left. After 1st row, 40g left. 5th welt done with 28g left.)

May 22nd:
6th welt 568 -- 98/62 (1st skein of Lux: Started with 27g.)

June 4th:
finished last 2 rows of 6th welt, 21g left.
7th welt 552 -- 96/60 (After 1.5 rows, 23g of BSA left. After 2.5 rows, 16g left.)

June 13th:
8th welt 536 -- 94/58 (Used 12 of 14g BSA leftover from 2nd skein.

August 13th:
So I couldn’t use this WIP for Ravellenics, but that’s okay because I was able to enter the Modular Relay with my 168 Squares project and medalled in it. :D But during that time I also managed to knit up to half of the 16th welt. Now my goal is to have it finished by the “Knit, Swirl!” trunk show at KnitWits on August 24th. I can DO THIS!!

August 17th:
Finished 18th welt and broke yarn. Inserted lifeline as a reference point. Half of the BSA (3 out of 6 skeins) and 2/3 of the 2nd BWC Lux are left. I decided to rotate the project 180 degrees and begin at the “halfway” point where the 2nd larger section begins. This way the section where the cut ends are will not shown at the top of the collar. To make it easier to get to that point instead of slipping all of those stitches, while on the 3rd row of welt 18 I added a second needle after I did the 26 stitches (to mimic the 26 slipped stitches on welt 19), and did the normal decreases on row 4 of welt 18. That way when I started on welt 19, I began my bind-off at the skull stitch marker with the green removable marker.

September 1st:
Finished welt 30 last night during an outdoor concert by the Virginia Symphony on Ft. Monroe’s beach. Need to double-check that I did not miss any stitches in the darkness!

September 9th:
Okay, I will have to admit that I have not touched the Swirl since the symphony night because I have been cranking out some HPKCHC classes. But that means I will be able to spend the rest of the month finishing it. Right now I have 450 yards of BSA A/S Sport and 400 yards of BWC Lux to go. Time to get cracking!