A First Attempt at Dyeing

Yes, I know that I tried the Kool Aid stuff a while back, but this is the real, multi-colored deal. I used 5 colors in total and dyed the two bare skeins (one fingering weight, one worted weight) that I recently ordered from KnitPicks. It actually was not that challenging and the results are amazing!

The five colors I used were: purple, dark blue, light blue, yellow, and teal.

I poured the dye over wet wool to get the color scheme I wanted.

The sock yarn goes into the oven for 30 minutes at 250 degrees.

The 'cooked' yarn looks similar to before.

The resulting skeins are gorgeous!

We'll see how the two yarns knit up, especially with the repeating colors in the sock yarn (right, above).

And speaking of socks, one of Andy's socks is finished and I am well on my way into the second. I might just have them finished before his birthday!

I Just Finished Some More Yarn!

Normally, I would be in be at this time of the night, but since I have nothing better to do on Sunday at 11pm, I did some more spinning. At the latest count, I am up to three (yes, the number 3) balls of handspun. I don't have a lot of roving at this point in time, so each is only 30-50 yards. I plan to aquire more roving soon, but only after I knit some of this yarn that I have recently purchased.

Anyway, the balls of yarn are shown below. From the left: the two ply shown in a recent post, the single ply blend of magenta and purple (still a little too twisty), and a double ply thick/thin combo with two shades of purple. I'm very happy with each of them and I can't wait to knit with them soon!



I'm still working on Andy's socks, but I broke down and told him what I'm doing. It makes getting his measurements much easier. That, and he finally lets me knit in his presence. Apparently he needs ALL of my attention when we're together, unless I am making him something. Silly boys.


Sock #1 is almost done (except for the heel, of course).

It's Finally Fall, Bring On The Knitwear!

Lots of things going on this week in my world of fiber. In conjunction with the room cleaning, I frogged a couple of UFOs (unfinished objects) that were taking up space in my closet. One was a two-side argyle scarf that I was 4" into, and the other was a few panels that were going to be a purse. It was made out of stash yarn and ugly anyway, so I'm glad it's gone. Nothing like a little Spring (I mean Fall) cleaning to remind you about all of the yarn you have!

And speaking of lots of yarn, I recieved all of the sock yarn I ordered by the begining of this week. The three skeins are each absolutely gorgeous! I have already cast-on Andy's socks and am trying to devise sneaky ways to get his foot measurements. BTW, did you know that your forearm is almost the exact same length as your foot? I've decided on a 'waffle' pattern for the socks (k 2 rows, *k2,p2* 2 rows, repeat) which I think will be nice and manly enough for him (although, my grandmother's first knitting project was a pair of argyle socks for my grandfather). As for the other two sock yarns, I was thinking about knitting the green yarn as Jaywalkers and the red yarn as the Snicket Socks. One project at a time Kristin...



Even though I am getting to knitting all of my new yarn, I am still partaking in some stash enhancement, but not in the way you might think. During my parent's visit last weekend, my mother brought me my drop spindle and some roving, which she gave me a few years ago, though it had mysteriously made its way into her stash in the meantime. After remembering how to spin, I was able to whip up some really nice two-ply yarn after only a night's worth of spinning. It's not very even (but heck, 'art yarn' is cool too!), but it will make a nice small project. I'm going to try to spin up the rest of the roving I have, then maybe order a hand-dyed colorway or commercially dyed roving to make a larger project. Again, one project at a time...


And finally, I'm excited to announce that it is cold today. I almost grabbed a scarf on my way out the door. Bring on sweater season!