Hi, Ted,
I don't know about you, but sometimes I get frustrated when having to choose yarns for projects, especially yarns like the ones used for heirloom pieces such as Princess. Generally the only way to acquire them is via the internet, and sometimes you just want to look at them, touch them, maybe knit a small sample before you invest in a whole project's worth, especially if the project is going to take rather a chunk out of your life.
It's helpful that Sharon includes some samples with her patterns, truly helpful.
Recently the Knitting Beyond the Hebrides list held a virtual lace conference, and I was thrilled to read the piece by Lark Burger, a "Comparison of Lace Yarns". Lark has knitted up samples of a wide variety of the available gossamer type yarns out there, and she has provided some excellent photos of the yarns and samples before and after blocking, as well as some useful commentary on each.
Lark is sampling specifically with the Wedding Ring Shawl in mind, and I know that there are rather a number of folks out there, yourself included (heck, myself included) who are planning on working this shawl.
I already know I'm going to be working with Sharon's own gossamer silk (a seemingly impossibly small cone of which is tucked away until that far off day when Princess finally comes off the needles, a day that is moving farther and farther off into the mists of time as I struggle with the damn stitches over the needle join issue). But I was interested in Lark's comment that she would use a smaller needle for the silk, and her swatch would certainly seem to bear that out.
(And I went right out and bought a 120cm Inox in the 2.0 mm size. Just in case.)
I have to say that the swatch that appealed to me most was the Treenaway silk/wool blend. Had I seen that before I got my impossibly small cone of gossamer silk, I might have been tempted to try that out. Though the pure silk is absolutely exquisite.
Let's hope it slides over that damn needle join more easily than the gossamer merino does.
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