Designing on a pound

I've been working on a project for a while that I haven't yet shared.  It started as a couple of bags of Llama fiber from K&T Llamas which I fell in love with at Knit in Public Day.  I'd never spun Llama before, one of the few fibers I hadn't at least had my hands on.  I did de-hair a llama fleece once and have it in my stash but I haven't spun any of it. 

I have to say that spinning this llama has been one of the most enjoyable projects I've had to date.  Every free moment, I just couldn't wait to sit down to spin and got it done fairly quickly.  I ended up with just under a pound of worsted weight 2-ply yarn.

Now, one of the challenges one faces when planning to knit with handspun is that, generally, you have what you have.  What you do with it has to fit with what you have.  Getting more fiber isn't always an option.  I read a quote the other day that basically said that new ways of doing things aren't usually created by smart people but by lazy people trying to find an easier way to do something.  Maybe the old bromide about necessity being the mother of invention is closer.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that it's about 1/2 pound of 2 different natural colors - blond and med. dark brown.  That's fine but it creates another design challenge.  Don't want it to be too easy, do we?  Where would the fun be in that?

I knew I didn't have enough for a full sweater but I've been wanting a shrug for quite a while so I reckoned I had enough for that.  Here's what I've done:

It does fit me better than it does the dress form and I think it's a grand effort.  Can't wait to get the sleeves finished and have it ready for the upcoming cooler weather.  Why isn't it finished?  I'm afraid it's because I've gotten distracted with this:

I'm at the point of working the 11 flowers.  I can't tell you what pleasure this project has given me.  I've wanted to learn to tat for the longest time and didn't think I would ever be able to do it.  Now I can't get enough of it.  In fact, I'm going to make some new tatters at the upcoming tatting class at Lincoln Land.  The class is full but we're hoping to offer the class again in the spring and I think we'll probably do a class through the Old State Capital Heritage Knitting project.  Fun.