The last addition to the stable

The last spindle acquisition arrived yesterday. She is beautiful also. The spindle maker is Neal Brand. Again, I happened to be around when he updated his shop and while I didn't get my first choice, I got the second. I accidentally selected Visa first instead of PayPal and just backtracking slowed me down enough that my first choice sold before I could pay for it.

She has a lovely walnut burl whorl,

a graceful shaft,

and a tapered tip.

She is a lightweight supported spindle in the Tibetan style. And that is it! I am content to learn on these spindles and master supported spindling.

I have been knitting rather than spinning the past few days. I am on the last bit of the purple triangle shawl I've been working on. I wanted to use up all the beads I bought so I counted sts, counted beads and came up with a beaded pattern to use up the majority of the beads. This is a closeup of the pattern.

Which brings me to my question: this is the first time that I am adding beads that match the knitting. Usually I choose beads that stand out. I am not sure I like this as much because you are doing a lot of work for not as much value. What do you think? Do you prefer this sort of subtle beaded look or do you prefer beads that sparkle and stand out in the work? I don't think one is better than the other, just different.

Finally, here is a view of the shawl as a whole so far.

Upside down, of course. You can see the beads in the triangle at the bottom. The beads match the multi-colored variegated yarn I used and I put them in the purple variegated to bring the multi-colors into the purple.

The final part is a ruffle. So it will take a long time to finish. I just tripled the number of sts in the first row!