Dye Day, Almost Dry

I keep waiting for my yarn to be dry so I can put it in a ball and take pretty pictures. But, it’s still not dry. It’s really getting a little bit silly.  Partly this is because I did not have time to finish rinsing it out so I didn’t want to hang it dry at first since it was still dripping little bits of dye.  Then I didn’t have the chance to finish rinsing it for a few days. After that, our spare bathroom (and everything else in the condo) was being painted and the painter used the spare bathtub to rinse his stuff in, so I couldn’t hang it to dry in there.  So it sat even longer. Finally I last week I hung it to dry but of course it has been cool and humid (or so I think?) so it still is not dry.  But I am too impatient, so here are the photos as it stands at the moment.

 

This one is Worker Blue, Cyan, and a green that I made.  I don’t know if I didn’t mix the green well enough, if I didn’t squish it in to the yarn well enough, or what, but all of the green is not the same color green.  Who knows.

This one, I used Worker Blue, Worker Red, and I made a green again.  I also added a little bit of black to both the blue and the magenta.  I like this one, I hope it ends up looking good when I knit it up. I was hoping for a real red, and it was red before rinsing – but once I rinsed it, it became more of a pink/magenta. I definitely think this is too girly for the original intended recipient so we’ll see what I do with it.

Knit Me Up Sock Club

I received my first kit from the Knit Me Up sock club today! The theme of this club is based on the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer. I have a wee bit of an obsession with these books (I really like them, so what) so I was very excited by this club.

 The first kit’s yarn is beautiful.  The pattern is intriguing.  I think I may try two-at-once-on-two-circulars but other than that, I’m going to do it as written. I will need to follow the “small foot” guidelines for sure but that’s no big deal.

 I can’t wait to get started on these socks!

 If you are a club member and don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read any further!

Bella

Some of you may know that I have a cat named Bella.  In some small way she is named after the character Bella from the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, but mostly she is named Bella because I have always liked that name.  Technically, she is Isabella Victoria but mostly we just call her Bella.

So, when the Yarn of the Month club I belong to announced that the January selection would be a worsted weight merino/silk blend yarn called Bella, I jumped at the chance to buy a few extra skeins.  This month’s yarn is dyed by a guest dyer, Julie of Selah, and I chose the colorway “Murmur”.  It’s hard to describe but it’s so lovely. Slightly muted but still colorful, without being pastel.  It has green, blue, purple, mauve like colors in it.  I have tried to take some photos but didn’t have a huge amount of success.

I am pretty sure this yarn will be a tank for me. I am eyeing the Ballet Camisole from Magknits, for which I seem to have exactly enough yarn – that always makes me nervous, but I think that the same yardage is required for the next size up too so that’s promising.

Unfortunately, I need to finish the Baby Sack in my previous post pronto, so I won’t be able to play with this yarn for several weeks at least. 

I love the labels for Selah – did you notice the inside of the butterfly’s wings are made from a photo of yarn?

Sleep Sack

I am currently working on a slightly modified Zodiac sleep sack. I say slightly modified because my gauge is a little bit different, so I am adjusting the stitch count. I’m also adding some stripes to make the yarn that I have go a bit further.  I’m using Peace Fleece in Hemlock and Father’s Grey.

I think the colors go well together. The Father’s Grey has faint flecks of the same green that is in the Hemlock so it ties together.  I’m doing 14-row stripes because that is how often the decreases happen.  I’m thinking I’ll continue the stripes for the bottom portion and then just use solid Hemlock for the top section.

The pattern calls for a zipper to be sewn in along the bottom. I’m not really thrilled with that idea, but I neglected to think about how to stop the bottom from curling when I started, and I am not about to rip back all of these rows. So, I may attempt to add some elastic or a drawstring to help keep the edges down; if that doesn’t work a few rows of some sort of crochet should work.

You may have noticed the needles in the above photo – yes, those are Knitpicks Harmony needles! I recently got these secondhand for a great price and I am thrilled with them so far!  I must say I am not noticing a HUGE difference, speed-wise, from the nickel-plated options but they do feel warmer and they are quieter too.  So far, I’m a fan.  Unfortunately, all of the speedy stockinette I have been working on lately is really taking its toll and I’m rather sore… I may be heading back to physical therapy in the not-too-distant future.

At the same time, the baby this is intended for is a March baby so I had better get cracking to ensure it arrives in time!  If I space it out a bit each day it won’t be too bad.

BSJ

I had a skein of some rather shockingly bright yarn hanging around, it was the December selection from the Three Irish Girls YOTM club.  I have to admit I thought it would be a bit more muted when I chose it, but I actually rather liked it when it arrived. 

(This is not quite as bright as it is in real life!)

I knew it would take a special project to pull off this level of brightness so when I learned that a friend is expecting a baby this September I came up with just the thing.  I have been wanting to try out Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ) pattern for quite some time now, but haven’t had any babies to knit for, nor have I had the right yarn.  However, it turns out that using this Lancelot sport/DK weight yarn with size 3 needles produces just the right gauge to knit the BSJ pattern in a 3-6 month size – perfect for a September baby.  I still have to sew the shoulder seams and add buttons, but for the most part it is finished.  It’s a fascinating pattern and I cannot wait to make more.

Increases.

Decreases (it’s a straight line, I promise!)

Nearly finished, blob-like sweater (see my lifeline? I stuck that in there in case I ran out of yarn, so I could take out the five ridges of lengthening stitches easily).

Unseamed and unblocked – but still adorable! This yarn really works in this pattern, I think; there was not a ton of pooling thank goodness.

Leftover yarn – not much! I was getting a bit panicked toward the end; I only did 5 ridges of “lengthening” stitches to conserve yarn, and I’m glad I did. I should have enough to seam the shoulders, sew down buttons and possibly crochet an edging around the sweater.

Dye Day, The End Result

After the yarn packages have cooled off then you have to rinse them out.  Here are a bunch of photos of Linny’s yarn, mine is not dry yet (we are having our bathrooms painted so there was nowhere to hang it where it did not risk being painted in the WRONG way!).

Some packages waiting for rinsing (mine, mine, Lindsey’s).

Linny getting ready to rinse her yarn.

Rinse-rinse-rinsing!!

 I’ll post more photos of mine once it’s dry and happy :) There are a few more photos on my Flickr here.

PS. This is what the road down from Shiori’s house looked like, for all of you who left early!

Dye Day, The Dyeing

This was the fun part. It was a little bit messy and I don’t like messy, but it was fun!  It was also a little bit cold to have our hands submerged in water or squeezing wet yarn, since it was snowy and cold.  First thing you do is take your yarn out of the water and wring it out. Then you mix your colors up and go to down with whatever application method you prefer.  We had paintbrushes, which were awesome, medicine droppers/syringes which were good for small applications and you could always just pour dye over the yarn.  Once you apply the yarn you have to be sure to squish it all around on the yarn to make sure everything gets saturated. You don’t want too much dye though or it will just be wasted.  Then you wrap your yarn up in a nice little saran wrap/polyvinyl film package and set it to steam over boiling water.

Part 1 of my first yarn (Knitpicks wool/silk blend).  I used blue, cyan and I made a green (not yet applied). Linny is across from my painting with purple and magenta!

More of Linny’s pretty yarn, being wrapped up to steam!  Those spots on the table are snowdrops.

You can also dye roving. I don’t remember who’s this is (maybe Suzanne?)

My one getting ready to be wrapped up.

All wrapped up and waiting for steaming (Mine is on the right), quickly being covered by snow!

The big pots for steaming the yarn. They have water in the bottom then a steaming rack, then the yarn goes on the top.

After steaming, the yarny packages cool down in the snow. Lindsey’s in on the right and mine is on the left. I don’t know who’s is on the bottom.

Dye Day: Getting Ready

I went to a dye day at Shiori’s house on Saturday, it was an event organized by the Eastside Spinners.  We had a blast and I took a lot of photos so I will split this into several posts.  First up is the preparation.  Andrea showed us a lot of sample cards for the dye we were using (Mother MacKenzie’s Miracle Dye) and explained how to go about mixing colors (don’t forget to add the vinegar!) and painting our skeins.  First, you put your yarn in skeins and tie it off in two places using a really loose figure 8.  Then, you soak the yarn in warm water for 30 minutes. You should keep squishing the yarn down in the water to make sure it is thoroughly saturated too.  Bonus points if it is snowing out, since that will just add to the moisture!

 

Linny and Shiori chatting, notice the big bag of fiber!

Lots of undyed yarn.

Filling the water bucket.

The set-up, premixed dyes ready to go!  We used blue painter’s tape to mark our names on the yarn so we could keep them straight.

The yarn is soaking in its bath. I only did two ties on my skeins but I think next time I would do four or three. It was a little tangly.

 

Snow makes everything better.

We covered the tables with plastic to protect them, and then used polyvinyl film to wrap each individual skein.

Sweater, Part 1: The Swatch

How can you not love this yarn?  It is so beautiful.  It is soft, and drapes fabulously.  It has just the right amount of shine and halo. 

I count between 5.5-5.75 sts/inch.  22.5 sts/4″ to be precise.  Also, 32 rows/4″.  Neither of these fit the specs of Cardigan for Arwen (the intended project), but I am not afraid of math.  I am, however, afraid of getting the cables to line up properly!  I’m going to ball up a hank of the Spruce and do some swatching in the cable pattern to see what I get. 

I may end up doing something else, but, I think I really want to do this one.  I have to sit down with the pattern and see what I can sort out.  A small part of me just wants to do a simple, in-the-round striped raglan sweater. But…. well, we’ll see!

Finished Coronet

The coronet is finally finished, complete with pompom. I love it!  It’s a tiny bit on the large side which I prefer, I just hope it fits my hat swap partner.

 

The cable band was a lot of fun to do. I slipped the first stitch of each row to help make a more defined edge.  I am pretty sure I like it it better than not slipping, it almost looks like an i-cord edging.

My grafting job was reasonable, not fabulous but reasonable, and I did go back in with some duplicate stitching to better define the cables where they met.

Here is the teaser photo I sent my swap buddy.  I included a neat little snowflake tin (she said she likes snowflakes), some stitch markers, some autumn-inspired novelty yarn (enough for a scarf – she said autumn colors are favorites of hers), some fabulous notecards from my friend Rachel (with snowflakes!) and a few other bits and pieces.