The musings of one woman with a monkey on her back… and in her lap, on the couch, climbing into the trash …
Batch number #2 (I’ll take the final photos later), definitely not what I was aiming for, which was a more teal-y color. Still, happy accidents! :D I love the vibrance of this color. Sunday, we’re aiming for purple. The BF is seriously interested in learning to dye which is AWESOME!! He’s helping me figure out ways and places around our house to set all this up.
Next up: buying more crock pots, acid dyes and more wool bases. But, that’s for next month. Most likely ¬.¬
… because I’m cookin’ some yarn! Batch one is cooling, batch two is in the crock pot…
Ok, so it’s a lame pun. Whatevs :P If you’re having trouble sussing out the photo, it’s of about 210 yards of sock yarn wrapped around chair legs (and if you’ve done this before, yes, I did it “wrong” – lesson learned), with a crock pot and some Wilton’s icing colors. Yarn + crock pot + icing colors??? WTF am I doing, you ask? For RR#2 Eye of Jupiter I will be dyeing some yarn!! I’ve never done this before, so it could end up epicly bad, or epicly good. Only time – and a hot water + dye + vinegar bath in a crockpot for about an hour – will tell… I’ll post photos of the finished product once I get to that stage.
But, really, this is all just a test run. I’ve been really interested in learning to hand dye and paint yarn for a while. It seemed, however, to be a bit much to invest in: there are the dyes for protein and cellulose fibers, the equipment, and most difficult of all for our home the space. Food-based colors seem a better way to start, and I don’t have to worry about the dyes tainting our food utensils, since, well, it’s just food coloring. This is going to be so fun!
The new BSG FPB missions are UP! If you didn’t play first run, you should totally give this a go!
… but I just wanted to prove right quick that I have been working on a few things. That right there to you left is inspiration, my friends. It’s a half pi version of MMario’s Cliendori Pi (A Cottman IV shawl). How is this shawl inspiration? Well, it inspired me to start rereading the Darkover novels. I snagged 7 for about $11 at Half PRiced Books over the weekend. It also inspired a shawl idea or two. One a faroese shaped thing, which is going to take some work since I’ve never made anything like before. Admittedly, it and another are Darkover themed, thanks to this shawl, but since they wouldn’t be the same at all, I feel like it’s ok to let the simmer before charting and call this shawl out at the piece that inspired me to get off my rear and start to work on them.
See this? This is the last little nugget of yarn is what I have to bind of the last 250 stitches of this shawl. Can she do it? Can she make it all the way to the end of this shawl? Well, we sure as hell are gonna try to make it. I have a life line in to be sure that I have a place to rip back to. Wish me luck!
Raider Training is… slow. I’ve got lots of tiny motifs, but none that are coming together cohesively. I have the first two sections charted, but section 3, which is a much larger space is proving more difficult. I have an idea of what I THINK will work but I don’t know how well it balances with the rest of the piece. I now have an even greater respect than I already did for the lace designers whose site I frequent and whose patterns I often drool over. You ladies have an eye for balance and spacing that I could really use right now… does that come in pill or liquid form that I can get my hands on? I didn’t think so. Poo. Practice it is, then.
My History of the Colonies project is progressing better, but thanks to a back / shoulder injury, is on hold until I feel better.
I’m ready! I’ve checked my math against EZ now that I have my copy of the Knitter’s Almanac, and my math is different. :/ But, the shaping has turned out right on my trial piece, so I’m rockin’ my new math because otherwise I have to COMPLETELY rework the motifs I’ve drawn; everything I’m working goes into an odd number of stitches not an even. I tried to expand with YOs between the stitches so that it’s K, Yo, K, Yo, etc., and I tried YO, K, YO, K, YO.. I think the first looks better and the second begins to expand too rapidly to keep that half circle shape the way I want it. So, EZ goes in multiples of three and I went for twos. It’s definitely non-traditional, but does that make it wrong?
I have two sections worth of motifs charted, and am working into the second… which is where I have stalled out completely. I have some smaller motifs I could work in the 58 row section (don’t ask; when I release the pattern it’ll all make sense), but I tried three together, and even on the graph paper it looks… cramped and busy. I’m having a really difficult time with negative space. I know it’s important and I want to have some, but I’m trying to keep each section to a similar amount of negative space so that things don’t look like I just threw motifs in there pell mell (which, granted, is pretty much what’s going on now… but that doesn’t mean it needs to LOOk that way!!)
I’ve easily got two motifs for section one, and one complete motif for section two, with two others in the works. I think section three will end up as two “sections,” with an eyelet row inserted to break them up… I don’t know. I have until August to finish this to stay in the game, so I’m not realy in a huge hurry. By the same token, though, I want to start swatching these to make sure that retain their recognizability when stretched out over the arcing shape of the shawl itself. I always envisioned that designing would be tough (otherwise everyone would do it); I just didn’t imagine the negative space issue being so HUGE for me!
The other project I’m working on for BSG FPB is a bit more secret, as it’s a potential gift (depending on how my edging modification works out). So, no photos for you unless you’re on Ravely and can suss her out! :D
Briefings for BSG FPB don’t open until Monday… so I have been patiently waiting before I cast on anything new. After all, who wants to be a cheater? (Swatching doesn’t count as cheating.)
Still, having untangled and “discovered” a ton of yarn – mostly fingering and lace weight – I have been chomping at the bit to start a new project. I have a few projects in mind, like the Shetland triangle or Sagittaria… maybe even a Half Pi Shawl (I realize that I am writing my own half pi pattern, but I started writing mine, bought theirs, and the construction is different so I feel ok about it). I just have so much yarn that is screaming “you have neglected me for far too long!” that I am having to fight the urge to cast on immediately. I also have some serious winding to do, since most of it is still in hanks. But that is a large undertaking… I’ve slated the Tempted Glam Girl for tomorrow, I think, and then after that the Gingerbread House even thought they aren’t my team colours… they’re just so pretty!
Off to go get bed time started! Hopefully we can get to sleep at a more reasonable hour this evening.
4 days until BSG FPB starts up!!! Go! Sign up! Mention my name and win me some bonus points!
Design progress is coming along slowly… I still have some decisions to make about motif placement. I also made some rather unorthodox changes to the start of the piece, and am liking the results better than I though. So, general shape of piece is going well. Lace motifs? Meh. Not so much just yet… In the mean time, I still need to prep some yarn for the first set of briefings! Can’t going trough RT without doing at least one briefing!
Don’t tell the yarn police ¬.¬ but I snagged a couple of skeins of one of the new Gloss Lace colors:
Isn’t it prettttttty? Admittedly, I’m on a yarn diet… but I decided it was time I caved and snagged a copy of EZ’s Knitter’s Almanac. It is THE book to own, so it will be joining Knitting Without Tears sometime next week (I hope).
I’ve just been told to clean my room (well, not room but office) so I’m going to get on that! Good hunting!
MonkeyMan’s World
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