Dyeing to see it!

Yes, I'm going to work that pun for all it's worth. I finally got around to taking decent pics of the yarns I dyed last week. I'm planning on doing a few more this afternoon so I can get the store stocked this weekend. Here's what's come out of the dye pot...

Aquamarine
100% Merino Wool, DK Weight
Kettle DyedI really like the way this one came out. It was supposed to be a Morning Glory colorway, but I had way too much water in the pot so everything blended so nicely. The yarn is so soft and it's hard not to stop petting it.


Morning Glory
100% Merino Wool, DK Weight
Kettle DyedThis was my first attempt at recreating a color way. I like it, but not as much as my first morning glory skein so I'll be messing a bit more with this.


Rouge et Blanc
100% Peruvian Wool, Worsted Weight
Hand PaintedWhen in doubt for a color name, go with a different language. This was a, "Let's see what happens," skein. I painted 75% of it with a dark, rusty red and at the ends it eases into pink tones before the cream. I'm looking forward to doing variations of this with different colors to see how it turns out.


Tropical Garden
100% Peruvian Wool, Worsted Weight
Hand PaintedI love the way the colors move on this skein - from a bright green to orange, yellow, medium green, dark blue-green and back again. I haven't looked at any pictures, but in my mind's eye it reminds me of a Bird of Paradise flower, or at least what it should look like. This one's a keeper.


Wood Sorrel
100% Peruvian Wool, Worsted Weight
Hand PaintedThis is my first attempt at mixing to make a specific colorway and I am very pleased with the results. I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show a while back and saw some purple wood sorrel and instantly fell in love with the colors. I'm planning on doing this colorway on some Merino/Silk fingering and some Peace Fleece tonight.

That's all for now folks, I have dyes to mix! Thanks for looking!

Cross-posted on Knitty Keen

Feeling the EZ love

I cast on again for EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket and it's really flying this time. I found two great resources for working the pattern. the first is an article on Knit Wiki all about the BSJ with great instructions on altering the pattern. The second is Baby Surprise Notes - which is a nice expansion on EZ's instructions.

I'm really starting to like EZ. Her patterns take a bit to get used to since that aren't written out, but once I got into the groove, I'm definitely feeling the love. I bought a copy of her Knitter's Almanac and I just ordered Knitting Without Tears. I have three skeins of Lion Cotton Ease that I am going to turn into either a BSJ jacket with a color for Michael or a Tom-ten. I may even break my own rule and knit up a BSJ for the planned for Baby #2's hope chest because it is that much fun to make.

So yes, S - you will be getting this on Sunday. I'll post picks later.

On other fronts, Michael is taking a lovely nap, one that he initiated himself. I am going to take advantage of this quiet to do some dyeing and of course work a bit more on the BSJ. On the decluttering front, I am tackling shoes and the back-bedroom closet. After Michael gets up, we are finally going to start my seedlings - I think he'll have a blast filling my little peat-pots with seed starter. I was planning on putting my pansies out front, but the nighttime temps are supposed to be in the mid 20's so it's another week before that can happen.

Out of the dye pot...

Here's what I spent my Sunday doing...

Fingering, 80/20 Merino/Silk
Hand-painted





Fingering, Merino
Kettle-Dyed





Worsted, Merino
Kettle-dyed





Worsted, Merino
Kettle-dyed



I so love using my acid dyes. It takes a lot more prep-work than using Wilton's, but the actual dyeing process is quicker and I am loving the results. It is very interesting that I used the exact same stock mixtures for the two fingering-weight yarns and the difference came from the dyeing method. The hand-painted is very dark and exact while the kettle-dyed has a softer, washed-out look to it. I'm thinking Bengal as a name for the hand-painted colorway, and Sandstone or Autumn Wood as a name for the kettle-dyed colorway. Aquamarine is a logical name for the turquoise-colored skein, so I think that's a keeper. Nothing screams out to me for the Blue/Green/Yellow one, the names I have bumping around my head all seem cumberson or don't do the color combination justice.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I am going to try to recreate the two kettle variegateds tonight or tomorrow night. I took lots of notes, so lets hope that is enough.

Thanks for looking!

cross-posted on Knitty Keen

The long awaited crafts update...

With lots of pictures, no less....

From the Dye Pot

Louet Gems Opal, Cream
1/2 tsp Red paste coloring, 1/2 tsp Orange paste coloring, 1 c vinegar
Crock-Pot
I went to one of my LYS's to pick up some sock yarn. I wanted something bright but in a solid color. the Louet gems yarns looked great but none of the colors sung to me so I picked up a skein of the Opal sport-weight in cream and decided to dye it myself. This was a first for me, superwash wool and mixing colors. I am very happy with the results. Next time I decide to do this, I am going to have them ball the skein for me and then wind it onto my niddy-noddy myself since the skein was tied a bit tightly and I ended up with some small areas that didn't take the dye.



I bought three balls of this color of Debbie Bliss Soho (its a variagted with purples and a very bright pink) on sale from my favorite LYS for a felting project. The colors aren't really me and with a shocking amount of selfishness, I decided that I was going to make my first felted project for me and I wanted it to be a color that I liked. Into the crock pot it went with some fisherman's and 1.5 tsp of Wilton's Copper (one of my favorite colors). Several hours later, I got this...


These are so my colors - the purple and pink still sparkle through in some places but there is a lovely burnt orange glow to it. here it is on the needles...


I cast-on 126 stitches on my 29" size 10 circulars. I'm doing wide bands of stockinette in the fisherman's and then two rows of the Ball Band Pattern from the Mason Dixon book. Since I know the yarns will felt at different rates, I should end up with a neat horizontal corregated effect. I've been wanting a felted bag of some sort for ages so I'm really looking forward to this project being completed.

On the needles

This is the first of my pair of knee socks in a wonderfully hideous yarn I bought on a whim from one of my LYS's. It's an acrylic/nylon blend somewhere between sport and DK weight and I'm knitting it using magic loop on size 4 circulars. The first sock is done and I'm about half way through the instep on it's mate. I did overdo the calf increases so while it looks fantastic on my huge legs, it's pooling around my ankles after about a half a block. I'll be heading out to AC Moore's later this week to pick up some elastic thread to fix it.


These are a pair of thumbless mitts I'm knitting up for my friend K's son to match his hat. I love this colorway. I'm hoping Santa will be bringing me a big stainless steel pot so I can dye up enough yarn at once for a sweater in this color. I'll get the pattern written up later this week and posted over on Knitty Keen. I knit them top down at a pretty tight gauge for worsted - 5 sts/inch, but they should be all the warmer for it.


This is Michael's top-down raglan tunic that I've been battling for the past month. It has a k2p2 ribbed funnel neck with button closures on the side with a k3p1 rib in the body. After frogging it at least four times, I think it's going well at this point. I decided that I was going to do the button holes as a separate facing and I finally worked out how the k3p1 rib would work with the should increases. It's bugging me a bit, but I put in a purl band to separate the neck ribbing from the body ribbing and I should have knit a round before and after to give it extra definition. It doesn't look bad, but it's not a crisp as it could be. At this point thought I just have to let it go.

I only have a few more rounds to get to the bottom of the arm holes. I'm going to steal the technique for doing the afterthought heel once I get there so I can just continue to knit the body without dealing with a provisional cast-on for the under-arms. I'm still not sure if I'm going to bother with underarm gussets. The ease on this is pretty generous and the arm holes are very deep so I think they may be overkill. When I'm ready I think I'm going to transfer it to waste yarn and try it on him to see if that extra the gussets provide is necessary.


This is my first real foray into cables. I'm going to be using it for a horizontal band for a hat for my mom for Christmas. I love celtic knotwork and once you get into the swing of it the cables go very quickly. It will be a 6 stranded braid alternating between all six strands in the braid and then only four strands with the extras framing it (the patter on the left-side of the swatch). I'm knitting it up in Lion Brand Wool Ease on size 8 needles.

This is getting long and I need to eat lunch so I'll leave you with this...


This is my take on Panta from Drops Design. I altered the pattern a bit to accomodate the chunky yarn. I'll post the pattern I used later tonight or tomorrow.

TTFN!