I promised an FO and an FO we have!  I finished the Japanese Feather socks and, if I do say so myself, I think they’re fabulous!

Of course our temperatures here in Massachusetts have soared this week, so these will probably live in the dresser until cooler weather returns.

I have worked on other things, including the Baby Cardigan but I have been overtaken by the dying bug.  Sounds like I’ve been pressed into caring for an ageing spider, doesn’t it?

You saw the turquoise on Friday.  It finally dried and I wound it up and made a little swatch.

You can see that there is a little mottling but nothing I’m going to worry about.  Maybe I should have stirred it around more or added some detergent and/or salt to the dyebath (more about that later) but I’m thrilled with it and looking forward to working with it.  The swatch was done on size #3 (US) needles which were a little too big for the yarn (in my opinion) so it will probably get worked with 2s or 1s.  Unless I decide to make lace with it - then all bets are off :)

That would have been fine if I could have stopped there.  Think that was likely?  You’re right.  A day went by and then, the next morning, I found myself in the kitchen mixing up another batch of Easter egg dye - this time with three red and one violet tablet.  The method and other ingredients in the dyebath were exactly the same as above.  The result?

The mottling is a lot more evident in this, at least to my eye.  But oh Lordy, what beautiful colors!  From a slightly muted pure pink, through dusty rose and on to tea rose.  I know there must be ways to insure more even dying, but this - this is truly swoon-worthy!  I’m torn between wanting to cast something on with it immediately and hiding it away for something special!

I have always been a color whore and I should have known better than to start this process, this dying fiber thing.  It will never end, I can already tell.  Even now - as I type - there is, on the stove, a pot.  It contains the water that’s tonight’s beets were cooked with plus the contribution of five teabags that I threw in when the beets were done.  It has produced such a luscious rich russety color that I’m going to use it tomorrow for more experimentation :)

But, and I know you’re all shaking your heads over the sad addict here, there was one more.  I’ve had several packets of Kool-aid hanging around forever - since about the first time I heard of using it to dye yarn with.  I bought them, lost my nerve and they’ve been living in a kitchen drawer ever since.  Well, yesterday I broke out two Black Cherry and one Grape and the remains of a skein of Lionbrand Fisherman’s wool - 2.7 ounces, to be exact.

This time I did add both detergent (just a little) and salt, having read that both things would help the dye take more evenly.  This is what I got -

 
As you can see, it’s still mottled.  Myself, I don’t see this as a drawback; I think the slight variations in shade are beautiful, luscious and eminently desirable.  It’s just more interesting, you know?

And this is what I started with it yesterday afternoon…

...my first item for Dulaan 2007!

If this continues (and the odds are pretty good that it will) I’m going to start keeping an on-line dye notebook with details of each run, what kind of dye, what kind of method, what kind of yarn and so forth.  There will be pictures both of the yarn and either a swatch or the item made from the yarn as well as any notes I might have about how things went.  For example, with the koolaid, about two-thirds of the way through the process I checked the dyebath and found that the water was green.  From Black Cherry and Grape?  Hunh!  I considered removing the yarn at that point which might have yeilded a truer red/violet but I decided to let things runs their course and left it alone.  That also tells me that the red/blue tones were taken up faster than the green ones.  Stuff like that…

Color my world!

I’m going to take the holiday off and probably do some more dying :)  I’ll talk about the results on Wednesday along with at least one FO.

Enjoy your holiday!

I had a new adventure yesterday!  It was either block the shawl or try something totally new.  As always in this apartment, space is at a premium so blocking is difficult - especially for large objects.  And, for some reason, the shawl seems to feel it isn’t finished yet and is nagging me.  I’m not sure what about, but I suppose I’ll figure it out :)

That left the other option - dying!  Now don’t get all excited or anything, this was plain, easy easter-egg-dye dying and I wasn’t trying to make “Painted Desert” or “Sunset Sea-side” colorways.  I would love to eventually, but right now, knowing next to nothing about dying, I thought a single solid color would do me just fine :)

I’d had a few of these stashed and I grabbed a few more a couple of weeks ago when they were marked down to 25¢ in the supermarket after Easter.  I also had three hanks of 100 gram, natural merino fingering wool.  It seemed like time to maybe get them together?  So yesterday morning I sat down and did a little reading.  And when things came to a full boil in my brain, I went to work.  Hah!  Work - sounds like I really did something, doesn’t it?  From start to finish, it only took an afternoon and my part of things probably only took about an hour if you add it all up.

These are the color tablets that contain the dye.  I removed them from the boxes and separated them by color.  The only trick was discerning the blue ones from the green ones; to my eye, the tablet colors were very similar.  The rest of the packages were tossed - I don’t really want to decorate my yarn with bunny stickers :)

The instructions said to dissolve my color tablets in vinegar for the strongest color (or lemon juice for a more moderate shade or water for a pastel).  I arbitrarily decided, having nothing else to go on, that since I was dying a 100 gram hank, I would use one tablet for each 25 grams of weight.  Then I decided I would use 3 blue tabs and 1 violet tab - I thought that might be interesting.

I ran a bowl full of cool water and submerged the wool.  I had to squeeze it to get it wet - it would have actually floated on the surface of the water if I had left it alone.  Then I let it soak for about a half hour to make sure that it was thoroughly sodden this being the way, I had read, to get the wool to take up the dye well.

Then I got another bowl and prepared my dye.  There was a bit of a scramble before the vinegar was found (hiding in one of the few cabinets that would hold a gallon jug) and I measured out 3/4s of a cup (3 tablespoons for each of four tablets) and dumped it in the bowl.  Then I added my tablets - one at a time.  They dissolve in effervescent fashion - like Alka Seltzer - when they hit the vinegar.  The first tablet burst into intense blue.  Whoa!, I thought, This is pretty cool!  Then I added the second tablet which was also supposed to be blue - except that it was green.  I told you I couldn’t tell those suckers apart :).  So I returned the violet tab to its bag and grabbed another blue one (hopefully).  I was aiming, at that point, for three blue and one green but I may have gotten two blue and two green.  I don’t really know and it doesn’t really matter.  This is an experiment!  An adventure :)  This is what it looked like…

Pretty intense!

When the tablets were fully dissolved, I added what I thought was enough water to the bowl to cover the yarn.  Then I took the yarn out of its soak and put it in my crock pot (don’t do this if you’re not using a food-safe dye!) and poured the dye solution over it - looked at the level, added another cup of water and called it good.  Then I used a stainless steel spoon to gently stir things around and get the wool well acquainted with the dye.

In the above picture, you can see how dark the solution is and how light the yarn started out.  Some spots on the yarn seemed to resist taking up the dye at first, but they eventually succumbed :)  After that, I put the lid on the crock pot and set it on low.

I had the idea this would take around three hours but I imagine that would vary depending upon the color and the yarn.  I left this for about 4 hours until the dye was fully exhausted.  That is, the yarn had absorbed all the color from the liquid and the liquid was crystal clear and colorless.

You can see the difference in the above picture.  The liquid has no color any more - that yarn has it all!  I must admit, that’s a seriously cool trick!

I turned the crock pot off and left the yarn to cool on its own.  Then I washed it (it didn’t crock any color at all), rinsed it and rolled it in a towel which I stood on for a few minutes to get out as much moisture as possible…

...and hung it up to dry.

I had intended to wind it up this morning but it was still just a bit damp so I left it alone.  You can see from the picture that the color is a great deal more green than I had anticipated, kind of a cross between turquoise and medium teal with a soupçon of robin’s-egg-blue thrown in for good measure.  It’s not the color I had in mind when I started but it’s not a bad color at all.

This was all great fun and I had a blast checking on the yarn at various stages and watching the dye disappear from the bath into the yarn.  It was also simple and easy and something I will probably try again very soon!  I’ve got enough egg dye left for several more batches (Lionbrand Fisherman’s wool, anyone?) and after that?  Kool-aid!  BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Have a wonderful and colorful weekend, everyone!

I know it’s pro forma
And kind of old hat -
But if you’ve the time,
Won’t you join us and chat?

After much soul-searching and internal debate, I finally bound-off the edgeless Dragon Wings last night.  The I-cord cable that I had mentioned in Monday’s post was too narrow to suit me.  I finally realized that the shawl was going to sit here and rot before I made a decision and did something - so I bound it off.  I will block it today or tomorrow and, with luck, have the pattern written up for you sometime next week.

Right now, it looks to me as though the length will seriously improve with blocking.  First, the pattern will get stretched a bit to show it off to its best advantage and second, that should take care of the edges’ enthusiastic rolling :)

I love this stitch pattern so much that executing it - even to this extent - hasn’t dimmed my admiration or bored me in the slightest.  I’m already trying to think of how to use it next!  Socks do come to mind - maybe a hat?  Hmmmm…. 

In other news….

The baby jacket now has a front as well as a back.

I think it is a couple of rows too long so I will have to check again carefully and make any necessary adjustments.  I’d plead not guilty by reason of the 24 season finale, but I really do know better than to try to work when there’s something exciting on the tube :)

Finally, I turned the heel on the second Japanese Feathers sock…

Now it’s clear sailing straight down to the toe and I’m looking forward to having this done - not because I’m tired of it or because I don’t like it.  I’d like to have it done so I can think about what kind of socks I’d like to tackle next!  This sock thing can be a bit addictive, eh?

Oh!  I forgot to mention this Monday.  There’s a new button on the sidebar - see it?  It’s the “White Knuckle Knitting” button.  Colleen over at Musings of a Silver Rose made it.  It for those of us who experience the occasional sense of trauma over our knitting - which is most of us at one time or another.  See her entry for Friday, May 19th for a detailed explanation.  I love this button because it’s both funny and heart-felt and pretty much describes how I knit my first two or three pairs of socks :)

Also, Chatters is on tomorrow night.  I have added a link to the log-in tutorial should anyone need it - if chat rooms are new to you, it can all be a bit confusing.  We have a good time talking about our projects, how to do different things and what we’d like to do in the future.  But it’s not exclusively knitting either - we have fun.  If you have a few minutes, stop by and say hello!

I got the second Japanese Feather sock done to the heel flap.  I started that and got a few rows in before remembering I had used a different number of stitches on the fist sock.  Er….  It’s not bad,  just matter of frogging a few rows, adjusting the stitch count and presto!

The shawl is still the shawl - except that I have something unexpected to try for edging.  It’s a cabled, I-cord bind-off and I found it at See Eunny Knit.  Would that not be an awesome looking edge?  I haven’t tried it yet because I don’t want to practice this on the shawl so I need to work up a swatch to practice on!  And I haven’t done that yet because when I sit down, several projects cry out for finishing - like the socks and the hood :)  But I’ll get there eventually - it’s too neat a possibility not to try :)

I did also get started on the baby cardigan I mentioned last Friday.  In fact I got the back done yesterday.

I just love Flash - it works up so nicely and glows like a bowl full of jewels.  However, I hadn’t thought about how different the yarn the pattern was written for (fuzzy, cotton chenille) and the yarn I’m using (smooth, mercerized cotton) were.  The pattern calls for a size 6 needle and a gauge of 4 stitches/inch.  That might be perfectly do-able with the chenille but the Flash wasn’t having any.  Adjustments were made.  I went up to a size 7 needle and made a conscious effort to keep my work relaxed (a good idea when you’re knitting with cotton anyways!) and that did the trick.  In addition, it made working the decorative rows less of an ordeal that it might otherwise have been.

This was, I thought, very clever and not tricky at all.  Using the contrast color, increases are made in every other stitch of the row.  The alternate stitches are slipped.  On the return row, the increase stitches are knit together through the back and the alternate stitches are slipped again.  Then, using the main color, 2 rows of stockinette are done.  The next pass is offset, and the third pass repeats the first.  I really like the way it looks - neat and attractive but not bulky!

The main color yarn is a marl; there are three strands to its composition.  In this case, two strands are a slightly orangey gold and one is a bright lemon yellow.  I debated for a while about whether to use green or orange for the contrast color.  I decided to go with the green solid and I think it works well with the green tones in the lemon yellow.  I think orange would have been a suitable trim color also.  In any case, the little one wearing this is going to look like they were picked from a citrus tree :)

Now to work up a swatch for the I-cord, cable bind-off.  I wonder how elaborate you could make the cables, so long as they didn’t get too wide?  Hmmmm…

Hope you all had marvelous weekends and that your Mondays don’t go too badly!

Whee!  Has my luck been good in the knitting area :)  Last week it was the swift.  This week it’s yarn - beautiful and useful wools, alpacas and mohairs.  Oh and some snazzy cottons too!  Let me show you…

I got a wild urge to head to the mill shop yesterday.  Clearly the knitting gods were nudging me to move my lazy bum because this is what I found:

Lovely, soft warm mohair!  Several balls of different colors - perfect for making Ryan’s (over at Mossy Cottage) Cloud Hat - combined with a regular worsted weight wool, of course.

This Le Gran mohair is seriously hairy stuff - I wound a ball of it last night and I have to tell you, I would have been lost without the swift!  That stuff, lovely and luxurious as it is, would have kept sticking to itself and snarling and tangling until I gave up and threw it out if I hadn’t had the swift to tame it and make it mind its manners!  Cripes, I’ve only had the thing a week and already I can’t imagine what I ever did without it!

What’s that?  What about the worsted weight wool?  Heheh…

This is a pile of wools and alpacas (there may be a bit of silk in some of the blends too).  Just fabulous - look at that orange!  It’s an 80% wool/20% mohair blend and it just radiates warmth. It will make a very splendid and very snuggly hat.

I acquired 17 hanks of yarn, excellent, wonderful Dulaan worthy yarn - for $1 a hank.  Odd lots, discontinued colors and so forth.  The real luck part comes in when you realize that you wouldn’t have seen any of it if you’d been just an hour later - it would all have vanished into somebody else’s basket - just the way it vanished into yours :)

I also stumbled onto a pattern for a Baby Cardigan which I thought was just adorable.  I had seen the pattern before but hadn’t thought much of the yarns used.  I’m not dissing Crystal Palace yarns by any means, I just don’t like working with chenille.  So when I saw this:

...(Classic Elite Flash) and found that it would work to the same gauge, I was delighted.  Flash is nice stuff to work with and was what I used for The Peony Purse.  It works up well, wears well and comes in rich, saturated colors.  What more could you ask from a cotton?  Machine washable?  Okay, it’s that too :)

It’s pouring down rain again here; I guess the universe thinks we haven’t had enough already :)  The word is that this won’t increase flooding, it will just take longer for the rivers to recede.  I suppose we had two lovely, sunny days - what more did I want?

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!