Dyeing for Friday

Hmm...seems to be a very lame day of the week thing going on around here! Struck my funny bone. I recently bought some Wilton's frosting gels (or whatever they're properly called) to experiment with dyeing. It just so happened that I had two skeins of cream lace weight in the bin. I decided that I wanted teal and set to playing. I first put the skeins in the microwave with teal Wilton's. But it didn't come out quite right. Instead of a solid teal, I had white parts. And Wilton's dyes are known to separate, so I had some green starting to show. Made up more teal dye, spread the skeins around in the crock pot and checked on it about two hours later. And while there wasn't any more white, I was getting green areas. So I mixed up some royal blue and poured that in. But I didn't take the yarn out first, I just poured in the new dye. It was amazing to watch the yarn suck up the royal blue! I ended up with purple areas! And while I don't have two identical skeins, I am happy with how they turned out. But if I need more than 350 yards, I'll have to alternate skeins.

This is the dry yarn prior to reskeining. The purple blotches are really noticable!



But this is the yarn wound into skeins. The subtle variations really don't show in the picture. And I really like the yarn!



This didn't turn out how I expected....but I sure will be trying this again!

FOs on Thur

I don't know what I'll write about on Friday, but does a finished object really have to wait?? I said earlier that I had finished my Spring Forward socks. After knitting these, I can understand why people say they have made this pattern over and over. It is a well written pattern and an easy, attractive knit. Not an inspired photo, but I shot it when I had 2 seconds - it shows, but the deed is done.



I made a few modifications:
knit toe up using Judy's magic cast on
used size 0 needles
short row heel on half the stitches, decreased to 11 before increasing
tubular bind off

The twisted ribbing was a nuisance to knit, but looks wonderful. The twisted stitch provides such definition. Tubular bind off isn't the right bind off for twisted ribbing though. I had the dickens of a time getting the bind off right. The second sock wasn't any easier either! But I can see how this is a very handy skill to have in one's knitting basket.

WIP Wednesday

I get to do a WIP Wed! It's been awhile. And the last couple of days, when I went to put up a post, I couldn't get a stable connection. But here goes!

My mitered square blanket is moving along. It's really fun to work on. Each little square is a celebrated FO. Thank goodness for the ravelry Blankie Mania group. There is no way I'd ever have enough yarn for this. The group has constant swaps and the yarn has all been wonderful. I have it here folded in halves on the couch - side 1:



and side 2:



The Waving Lace scarf is moving right along at warp speed. The socks that rock yarn is just as yummy as everyone says. I'll do a light block when it's finished. I'm debating whether I should wind off enough yarn to knit a square for the blanket. I need to make up my mind really quick!



I'll do a gentle block once it's finished. I like the way the colors move across the scarf:



This scarf has been a surprisingly fast knit. I haven't ever felt like it was dragging on and on. But then, I did cast on last Thurs. I've volunteered to make a bag for someone in the Starbucks and Yarn swap who had a partner that flaked. Apparently, there was a lot of people who didn't follow through on their commitment. So the scarf may be set down for a bit while I quickly make a bag.

Found!

Apparently, if I were a camera cord recently home from an extended trip....I would be in the car waiting for the next trip! Camera cord found under the passenger seat in the huge van we use for travel. Found just in time too. The battery was *this* close to being totally dead.

I finished a pair of Spring Forward socks (pattern from knitty, but I'm time crunched so not doing links) that almost flew off the needles. I think I got the whole pair finished in about a week. I know sock #2 was cast on Fri and finished on Tue. There were no all day knitting marathons in there either.

They're recovering from a dunk and dry blocking, so no pics yet. But I do have some dyeing pictures! I received this yarn (among other wonderful goodies) from my Starbucks and Yarn swap partner. But the colors just didn't work for me.



So I decided to overdye it. Actually several times. And ended up with this skein:



The first picture doesn't show it well, but the yarn sorta went red, white, purple, white, red, etc....And all that white bothered me while the red and purple not so much. I overdyed with a lot of blue with a touch of green. I have no idea how either yarn would have looked knit up, but I have higher expectations of the over dyed yarn.

Off to work...I have a bunch of it staring me in the face as I type. No good, better get to it.

Blech

It's a self-induced blech so I don't even get sympathy. I LOVE to read. And my weekly sit-n-knit group meets at Barnes & Noble. Instead of a coffee, I treated myself to a book from the bargain table last night. Came home and stayed up way too late reading. Killer headache today. My left eyeball feels swollen.

I started some lace scarf (pattern from Knitty) name escapes me right now - last night from one of the skeins of green STR.

Camera charging cord still missing. Where would you be if you were a camera cord and weren't in the usual place???

What to knit next?

After I had so much stolen, I was gifted by some amazing strangers with a wealth of yarn. It's all sock weight (which is what was stolen). I probably own more fingering yarn now than ever before. And I'm not sure what to knit next! I've been doing pattern searches on Ravelry. There is an advanced pattern search and as much as I love knitting socks, I've entered "not socks" as a filter. And there are tons of stunning patterns. But with one exception, I only have a sock's equivalent of each yarn.



See that yarn about 11 o'clock that is pink, brown, and white? Usually not my colors at all. But I love that yarn! I'd really like to find a pattern besides Jaywalkers to knit with the 420 yards that would really show off the colors. Nothing against Jaywalkers - I like the pattern and am not adverse to knitting it again, but I'd like to come up with something else.

And the ShiBui knits yarn next to it? I'm thinking of using that to knit a cowl for my cousin for Christmas. I really enjoyed the stitch pattern in the Spring Forward socks and think the zig zag would be great in a cowl.

The stunning pink and tan yarn at 7 o'clock? It really needs to be a shawl. A lot of time lace and variegated yarns fight each other. But the color changes are subtle.

The blue & white yarn that looks like your favorite blue jeans will become a pair of socks I'm sure. I have two skeins of the green STR (prewound at 2 o'clock). Scarf and fingerless mitts? I have four colors that don't go together of STR - in two weights so no Charlotte's Web there. Hmmm....I'm totally lost about which patterns to use. While the reason has been monetary, it is no wonder I usually don't have a stash!

Let's see if I can keep this up!

During the entire Summer of Socks, I didn't not knit a single sock. Although I did get two free patterns. So last week, I grabbed one of my RSC kit yarns.


I'm not usually wild about pastel yarns. And while this yarn is pastel, I liked the pictures of the finished socks that I saw. So I decided to try out one of the free patterns from SoS. Wendy Johnson donated a free pattern, so off I went.


And I didn't like it! I felt like the pattern (while easy and interesting) wasn't the right one for the yarn. So I ripped out (except the toe) and decided to knit a pair of Spring Forward socks from Knitty. And it was too big! So I frogged again, started over, and these socks just flew off the needles!



I decided to do these toe up, and for the first time, I used Judy's Magic Cast on - genius! This is a fantastic pattern. Also for the first time, I used a Tubular Bind-Off - and of course, that's fantastic for toe up socks. Except for the bind off, I have both socks finished in less than a week's time. Finished sock pictures coming when the missing camera charger shows up.