MORE socks?!

Seriously? The last ones sat on the needles hibernating for over a year. These? Four days start to finish. =)

 

Okay, sure, they're knit on much larger needles (US sz6 rather than sz2), but still. Working them two-at-a-time was definitely the right idea and I have every intention of doing socks in this manner in the future. 

Love finishing one sock only to have a finished pair! The self-striping was fun too.

I love the afterthought heel with self-striping. My heel needs a bit of fine tuning, but these are meant as slipper socks so it's all good. =)
(Ravelry project link)

So... what's next? The crochet bag I haven't really touched since March! I've been working on it a bit since finished those socks and am nearly done with the 2nd skein now.
(Ravelry project link)

That leaves only one other project on the needles and that's going to have to wait until it cools down... a LOT. Alpaca and 95+ temps? Not gonna happen!

an afterthought

This morning, I set up my little loom as a 7" square to make some dish/wash cloths:

I used a strand of Lily Sugar 'n Cream in "country stripes" along with a strand of white. I really like how they turned out! Super quick, super easy... and a great way to use up some of my dishcloth cotton. =) I could easily get 5 of these from one skein of the stripes held along with a solid and have extra for another project.

(Ravelry project page)

The project I mentioned winding yarn for in my last post? I started these on Friday and they're coming right along!

These are my first socks done two-at-a-time... also my first afterthought heels... AND my first time working with my own hand-dyed self-striping yarn! =)

(Ravelry project page)

FOs, 50% off and dyeing

 I finally used some more of my hand-dyed yarn!

I used about half of the gradient purple/teal yarn on a knitted cat toy and I wanted to use up the last half skein of Noro from my stash so I crocheted up a couple more toys with it. I ran out on the second so I finished it off with some of my hand-dyed yarn (the one with the bright green). Felting was a pain. My washer is a top-loader, but it's less than a year old so apparently much more gentle than my old machine. lol I ran these through 3 times in hot water, then popped them each in mason jars with a bit of dish soap and shook away, alternating with cold rinses. I finally got tired of shaking and decided they were felted enough. The cats won't mind. =^..^=

Michaels had a 50% off coupon this weekend. I went shopping...

I sold my kitchen table and chairs earlier in the day and had cash in hand. First, I hit Michaels and picked up a set of Clover interchangeable circular needles. I've been thinking about sorting through and purging some of my knitting needles. Now, I have to! lol Well, I don't have to, but I'm going to now that I have an interchangeable set. =) I have too many straight needles leftover from my early knitting days, back when I actually used straights. I can't even remember the last time I used a straight needle for anything. I don't even really use the dpns anymore, opting instead for circs in nearly every situation. I prefer wooden needles, so most of my metal ones should go to someone who will use them. That's a good project for these hot days! I'd printed two coupons for Michaels so I took the 2nd to Jo Ann's and finally picked up the loom kit I've been wanting for a long time. I have linen yarn in my stash purchased with the intent of knitting dish towels for my kitchen. Now, I'm thinking of weaving some up instead. =)

I did tackle that ball of strawberry yarn in the pic. I found it in the clearance bin and hadn't yet tried dyeing superwash yet. I hanked this and gave it a soak, then put it in a shallow dish with a little water and mixed up a strong blue Kool-Aid (2 packets mixed berry and about 1/2 c water) and squirted across the skein. After nuking to set, I mixed up a weaker solution (1 packet mixed berry) and squirted some of that around after shifting the skeins around a bit.

Not sure exactly what I'll use this for, but nice that it's washable! =)

fail... or happy accident?

After I frogged that thrift store sweater, I decided to try one of mine I'd decided not to keep. This one is 100% lambswool:

I took it apart and tried to frog it and ran into issues. The yarn is thin and kept breaking. So... I tossed the pieces into a lingerie bag and threw them in the washer to felt a bit. After, I cut them up and dyed the pieces with Kool-Aid.

The small pieces from the yoke are destined to become catnip kitty toys.

The one on the right was left in the original color.

Not sure what the lower sleeves will end up becoming.

I had fun playing around with different techniques dyeing all of these though!

The upper sleeves were fun too.

I especially like how this one turned out.

It almost looks like graffiti.

The body of the sweater will most likely become a bag of some sort.

actual knitting!

With all this newly dyed yarn around, I finally found a little knitting inspiration!

I was tipped off by a friend to the 3-hr cowl pattern and decided to give it a go with the hank I dyed Saturday. What do you think?

I think the stitch pattern worked okay with the dye job. I did get quite a bit of pooling, but it doesn't bother me.

I'm not a fast knitter and bigger projects seem to suck the knitting mojo out of me. lol I have an alpaca blanket that may never get finished. I love what's done, but it's reeeeeeally slow going. And I have a pair of socks languishing in their bag. I also still have a crochet bag that's just a bottom at this point. None of these are calling my name. I suppose I just need instant gratification. =)

dyed in the wool

Ah, yes. My new favorite hobby has surfaced once again. After getting my errands run on Friday, I had Saturday to do as I pleased (thanks to rain taking yard work off the table). So, I pulled out some wool and my packets of Kool-Aid and got to work!

I started with some variegated wool that I'd picked up on clearance a few years back. I used some for a pair of slippers that were a gift, but still had about 3.5 skeins and no interest in making anything with that colorway. So I decided to over-dye it! Ugly can be fixed. I had three partial skeins and started with those, using a packet of mixed berry KA for each. The result? Perfect!

The original is on the right and the new, muted skeins on the left.

Pretty, no?

I'm thinking those two full skeins might be taking a blue bath soon too!

Then, I used more mixed berry, lemon-lime, pink lemonade and black cherry/grape for an off-white skein.

This one, I'm not so sure about. We'll see once it's been knit up if it'll need another date with some Kool-Aid or not.

I'm not so sure about that lighter, pinkish segment.

After finishing those, I was still inspired to try another technique I'd seen - dyeing yarn while wound in a cake. First, a bath in lemon-lime:

I then flipped it and gave it a bath in mixed berry.

Poking around in the cake, I realized I apparently wound my cake a bit too tightly and the color didn't make it to the center of the cake so I mixed up some more of both colors and used my baster to inject color into the center, nuking, checking and squirting in more where needed.

After winding this back into a skein, I could really see the results:

Oh, so pleased with this! I'm not entirely sure it's worth the extra effort to dye in the cake though. I think I could get very similar results from hand painting and could avoid having to re-skein a wet cake of yarn.

 My efforts yesterday did produce a colorful living room while things dried:

I'm already thinking what else is in my stash that I want to over-dye. =)

gradient

I dyed up another small hank of yarn to try out a new technique. This time, I used neon liquid food coloring. I first dyed the 35g hank of winter white wool in what was supposed to be turquoise (according to the box), but the wool took up much more of the green than the blue even though there was very little green added. lol Once this was dyed and rinsed, I wound the hank into a ball and mixed added it to a bowl of dark purple. Sorry, no process pics this time.

The result:

I'm loving the mix of colors! The 2nd color is mostly taken up on the outer layers of the wound ball and in lesser degrees as you move inward. I did squeeze the ball a few times to help the purple soak in a bit further. I definitely plan to try this again in the future!

Any suggestions for 35g of a worsted weight wool in a gradient?

adventures in striping

Thanks to a break in work - I had work, but we were not allowed to work, waiting for possible changes to the rules that never actually changed. Yeah, thanks boss for costing me a whole day of work. :-/ This waste left me with free time on my hands yesterday and this morning so I pulled out a skein of winter white Patons wool and got to work with a plan to make some self-striping yarn. =)

What I stated with:


I pulled out my swift and started wrapping:

I used roughly a 10-yd repeat for this one for thicker stripes. I'm thinking of making a cowl with this.

Getting the colors together:

teal - 4 pkg berry blue, 1 pkg lemon lime and about 1/2 pkg grape


brown - 2 pkg lemonade, 1 pkg orange, 1 pkg grape and I added about 1/4 tsp brown Wilton's icing paste to darken the brown

After about an hr in plain water, the divided skein went into the color and into the microwave:


Nearly clear water took 4 2-minute stints in the microwave:


Success!


After I had the skein rinsed and hung to dry, I still had time on my hands... and more yarn! So I set up for a 3-stripe skein:

Really glad I got this type of swift - no need to build a separate board to do this! =)

I went more basic with the colors on this one:


Super simple!


And very spring-y!

This one was about a 6-yd repeat. I'm thinking socks. =)

Next, I'll have to do a gradient...

Another kool dye job

I tried it again.

This time, I used some the inexpensive wool I picked up at the fiberfest last month. It started out like this:

This stuff picked up the Kool-Aid really well.

I think I prefer the way the Lion Brand came out, but this stuff will be fun to play around with. I picked up a few different shades of KA yesterday and I'm planning to use a 40% off coupon at Michaels to pick up a set of Wilton icing gels. This is addictive! =)

Variegation Frustration

Variegated yarns almost always frustrate me... they pool or flash... or they don't... usually the opposite of the effect you were hoping for. So now, I'm causing myself even more headaches by creating even more variegated yarns for my stash. Am I a masochist? heh

I wanted to work up my new hand-dyed yarn into something I'd use often. I thought, hmm, a small bag that would fit my cell phone and a bit of cash and possibly my keys would be perfect. Previously, I crocheted a cover for my droid and it's worked well, but it really needed some sort of strap to make it easier to cart around. Too many times I've been frustrated trying to hold it while shopping or at the check stand or even out of a walk when not wearing a jacket with pockets big enough for my phone.

I don't have photos of the ones that didn't make it, but I first tried a crochet design found on ravelry. I got about halfway and realized I didn't have enough yarn... but didn't like the way the colors were all over the place anyway. I pulled out a set of dpns and set about knitting up a small bag, similar to what I ended up with, but slightly wider resulting in great flashing. Sadly, I didn't have enough yarn for that either. So I frogged that one as well. Next, I tried a more vertical design - a rectangular-bottomed bag with a drawstring. HATED it. The colors were all over the place and I just didn't like the bag at all. Frogged once again. heh This was my final attempt.

I like the more subtle, diagonal stripe here and love how the colors worked up in the seed stitch. I just need to figure out the closure. I tried buttonholes but didn't like the look. I was thinking of adding simple loops for buttons, but I'm kind of like how the needle looks (but with something else). Any ideas?

BTW - there's more yarn hanging in my shower right now. =)

Dyed in the wool

I've been wanting to try dyeing for awhile now. I did overdye the tan parts of my messenger bag with brown Wilton's icing gel. It came out darker, but not quite as dark as I'd wanted. So I'm planning to overdye the purple strap a darker color before putting it together. Forgot to take a pic of that, I was so distracted by my newest attempt at dyeing. =)

I had a small amount of Lion Brand wool in winter white so I tried dyeing it with black bean soaking water. eh I got kind of a tannish color, nothing pretty. I didn't use a mordant though and probably hadn't soaked the beans as long as I should have either so didn't have enough color in the water. I'll try it again someday...

So, instead, I overdyed it again with Kool-Aid. LOVE!! And so freaking easy!

I rinsed the yarn first in vingar water, then I used black cherry, grape and berry blue and microwaved it (2 min, let cool 2 min, heat 2 more min then let cool completely before rinsing).

I'm SO happy with the results! I have another ball I've made into a skein and plan to dye it as well. This could get addictive very quickly! heh I'm already thinking of what I can overdye that's in my stash. There's a pale yellow that was super soft and so cheap even though I didn't love the color... =)

I've also made a few more of the little wash mitts. They're so quick and easy and use almost no yarn.

Great for using up scraps of cotton! =)