Month: April 2012

Final Step in my Fleece Adventure

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Back in April of last year I got an idea in my head that I just couldn’t let go. One year later, after much handling of my first fleece, I have finally cast on a project with the yarn I created from the first fleece I purchased. What a long journey. What a time investment. What an addiction. I’ve learned so very much in just one year with just one fleece. And I can truly say I don’t want to stop any time soon. What this first fleece is knitting into is just beautiful. It is soft, squishy, interesting, and the cables show up very well. I just can’t put it down, simply because I am working with something that I invested so much in.

I really do have other things I should be working on, but we are going to let this current addiction just run its course.

Vittorio Shawlette

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I am not even sure how or why I decided to knit this. Was it the excuse to purchase dyeabolical’s Fate, PhD colorway? Was it the opportunity to get my hands on a not yet released pattern for free? Was it the call of something new? I don’t quite know. However, I am glad I did knit it. It is a great little shawl, looks fantastic in many drastically variegated yarns, and I love the unexpectedly sideways lines of it. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I felt the need to take 4 pictures to show off.

   

Something New. Again.

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I fondly remember my Nana and my aunt making rag rugs of various sorts.  They were often made from old fabric or old t shirts.  Jason, in all his moving, mentioned that he needed to go through his t shirts and get rid of some. I knew I needed to do the same, and I thought “Why can’t I make my own rag rugs?”  So I asked for Jason’s t shirts and I went through all my t shirts, and ended up with a pile to turn into yarn.

Many of the t shirts are light colored, which is fine. But, I rather think it might be good fun to also dye some of them in order to add to the color scheme. I’ve got some dyes around that should work on cotton if the correct fixer is applied, so once I have the yarn created, I’ll see what colors I can make out of the lighter t shirts.

I used the rotary cutter to cut them into strips:

In reality I am only about half done with that process.

Then, I cut the strips and balled up the yarn:

So far, so cool!

 

More Pay it Forward

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I need to keep cranking these pay it forward 2012 projects out, and so I decided to start some work on a hat for a local cycling friend. I had some Rowan Scottish Tweed hanging out in my stash and I figured the black tweedy color would be perfect for a hat for a guy. I just needed an interesting pattern. I did a little digging and figured out that he was secretly pining for a handknit hat in a style of that which Zac Brown of Zac Brown Band wears. Thankfully, this guy seems to have a decent collection of hats, so all I had to do was choose something interesting, and so I located a pattern called Ritenour which interested me and I got started.

This hat is basically a basketweave pattern. Quite interesting and textured. I need to measure it, but I think I am about ready to start the decreases.

Vittorio

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So, last week I jumped in on an offer for a free pattern to knit in order to have some shawlette examples when the pattern was released. The deal was that I had to use dyeabolical yarn for the shawl. I had a little trouble picking a color, but finally settled on Fate, Ph.D. which I think was a good choice. The shawl has fairly flown this weekend, I only started on Friday evening, but was able to get quite a bit done during dye day. I am thrilled with the progress and thrilled that I had a weekend where there was knitting progress.

 

Dye Day 2012

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The day before easter seems like an appropriate day to have a yarn dyeing day. I’d planned it well enough ahead though that I didn’t even realize that it would be on easter weekend. I had just a bit of yarn to dye for myself, some yarn to dye for a friend, and two other friends who wanted to dye their own. In the end I had 4 other gals in my house either dyeing yarn or helping with the process. Bug chose that time to dye her easter eggs too, so it was a dye day all around.

I personally dyed 11 skeins of yarn, all in shades of purple. I am not even sure how many skeins the rest of the gals managed to dye. My porch looked like it usually does on a dye day:

I tried a new technique for my skeins, and ended up with a little bit of an accident. I burned a few strands of yarn. In the end I doubt I will have lost too much yardage, but it certainly was a learning experience. With mine, I used a large dye pot and loaded up on dye. I then added about 1/3 of each skein, and every half hour added another 1/3, so that the dye soaked in much darker initially and the final 1/3 of each skein was more of a light lavender to white.

I enjoyed this technique and I loved the results, certainly one to try again.

Cthuluklava

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“In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”

 

My Cthuluklava, the green thing, it is done. It took forever, but I think it was worth it. The yarn is knitpicks wool of the andes tweed. 3 skeins and I had only about 5 inches of yarn left when I was done. I modified the tentacles. Instead of making them knit and stuffed, I crocheted them. Additionally, there are 20 instead of 10. The other mod was the sides, or gills as I’ve been referring to them. Rather than stockinette stitch, I did them in garter stitch.

It really wasn’t a terribly long project, it just was somewhat uninspiring because I wasn’t quite sure as to what was going on with the pattern most of the time. I am glad it is done and even happier with the result. It is one more goofy project that rather completes my “Year of Knitting Dangerously.” Not that I’ll stop that any time soon!

Fascinating!

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I’ll tell you what, when working with color, my needles just fly. Working with color makes me an unstoppable knitter. This, paired with a little knitting time I am sure! I’ve worked my way through the left front of Bug’s short row jacket and now part way through the first sleeve. I love the construction, I love the short rows, and I love the color changes. Knitpicks Chroma is great fun to work with! I joke that I am starting a sweater for Bug just as it warms up, but Bug wears sweaters indoors year round. She doesn’t like a lot of AC coolness on her skin. She calls herself a “summer girl” because of this. I am sure it will find use even this spring.

Skew Socks

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I decided that the commission piece has to come to work with me. I am just not inspired enough to work on it at home. I don’t have time, life is busy, and when I do sit down with a little time, it isn’t really what I want to work on. I had these great hopes that I would finish it this weekend, but cycling took priority and I couldn’t be bothered. At least with it at work, it will get a consistent 4 hours of work per week, especially since I am unlikely to try to work on anything else during that time.

What I did work on this weekend was my skew socks. I found that they were the portable and easy project I needed while I was hanging out with friends, and the moved along so quickly that before I knew what hit me, I realized it was time to bind off! I love the fit on these, they feel fantastic. These are certainly going to go on my easy portable sock list, since they are actually something I’d wear with consistency. And yes, I did wear them to work today despite the warm weather. I still think wool socks, even in the summer, are the best. You may already have noticed, but they don’t match. Yarn is noro kureyon sock, and while I probably could have tried to make them match better, I wasn’t inclined to worry over it very much.