A Two-Fer!

The first part of this "Two-Fer" is my first skein of spun silk. The second aspectis my first beaded yarn. Behold! Approximatley 95 yards of 3-ply silk yarn, 2 plies are spun silk and 1 ply is commercial sewing thread to which I strung on 100+ size 11 seed beads in a variety of coordinating colors.
Too bad my camera doesn't handle close-ups very well! You can see some of the tiny seed-beads spun in there on the right-hand side. This stuff is SO shiny!
Here's what I started with- a length of hot pink and electric blue unspun silk. Purchased from ThreadBear in Lansing last week 2/13/08 when dh and I managed to get out of the house without the kids to see "The Blind Boys of Alabama" in East Lansing.

Working on a pair of shorties (Detroit Red Wings theme this time) for a cloth-diapering friend, along with the Noro Socks (one is DONE! Second one is casted on!) and the hibernating Autumn Cardigan. Don't know why I can't get it in gear to work on that- I tried last weekend and only managed about 8 rows on one sleeve before I switched to something else. :sigh: I think it's the tiny DPN's. With such a huge body going, row after row on little DPN's doesn't seem much like progress. I've heard others have stalled out at this point in this pattern too, so I'm chalking it up to "normal."