Swatching, Plying and Various Other Challenges

Yesterday, I knit a swatch for the Coat of Many Colors (cover sweater) from the book knit, Swirl! by Sandra McIver.  I had to knit the swatch twice.  The yarn is Malabrigo Rios, a superwash merino.  The superwash stretched a bit after blocking (thus, the 2nd swatch).  This swatch is 8" x 8.75" and 40 stitches by 55 rows.  It includes 6 of the 7 colorways that will be in the actual sweater.

Today, I went to a plying lesson and learned to ply yarn.  Here's a picture from before plying:

 And here's a picture of that same thing in a 2-ply:

Then here's a picture of another yarn (a series from my try a bunch of different fibers class a couple of weeks ago).  This is Navajo plied.

Finally, I've spent most of my knitting time lately working on this.  This is Crocus Shawl by Hiroko Folkmann Drost.  I'm knitting it from Filatura di Crosa Centolavaggi with 8/0 Japanese seed beads.

   

As for the various other challenges, the Knit Girllls are sponsoring a 5k from May 27th to August 15th. The challenge is to knit, crochet or ply (or knit and ply, which counts twice) 5,468 yards of yarn.  Only finished projects count and photos are required.

Dramaticknits is sponsoring a Summer 2011 Stashdown from June 1 to September 1 to knit only from stash.  He states the rules in his podcast Episode 14 near the end.  He recommends, but does not require that you upload your stash with photos to Ravelry and requests that you tag projects with the tag DKSSD2011.