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)

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...