So, is this the issue of freaky ease? It’s definitely the herald of sweater season, for which my knitting queue is WHOLLY unprepared. :P I love the round yoke sweaters, but I just don’t think I could tackle almost 2000 yd on US 4S! The multi-purpose wraps are totally awesome in concept, especially Okmin Park’s offering. August 11, COME ON DOWN!!!
(Note: There are no photos here as none of them belong to me.)
It was high time. I debated the finer points of umbrella swifts, circumference, materials, and in the end I chose the table-top swift to the left. The price range was right, and it looks to be far less delicate when transported. It collapses (well, it looks like there is a very minimal amount of (dis)assembly involved) for travel. Let’s face it: I knit. Quite a lot. The stash at home? Not getting any smaller, nor do I have intention of ever making it so. I have a ball winder, but have lamented the lack of swift for a while now. As of next week when this bad boy arrives, no more winding from drawers or chair backs for me! Takin’ it to the next level – oh YEAH!
My copy of Traditional Knitted Shawls came in on Monday, and it is almost everything I hoped it would be. It still doesn’t go into choosing and modifying patterns for top down triangles of the sort most design and knit, but the rest of the book is extremely informative and educational. I bought it for the general info and not the patterns, so I can’t speak to those as I haven’t really done more than glance at them. Still, I now feel like I just need Knitting Lace Triangles and the Barbara Walker Treasuries to be “complete.”
Last, but certainly not least, Eat.Sleep.Knit announced that they now have WishLists on their web site! Hooray!
To date, I have now dyed over 1100 yards of yarn! And I can’t stop! Well, actually I can since I’m down to my last 460 yards of untreated wool ;) I’ve really ejoyed learning about this, and am aspiring to start with acid dyes later this month or early next. Of course, I still have to figure out how and where this will all happen, since the kitchen is really no place for acid dyeing.
But, I’ve got the BF on board for the learnings and I have picked out the base yarn I’ll play around with first. It wouldn’t be a big seller, I’m sure, but it’ll be inexpensive enough for experimentation. Then, I have my eye on some ideas, color schemes and more off-the-beaten path bases that fewer people work with so I think that will give me a good chance to starting this as a for (minimal) profit venture. I’d keep on with the Wilton’s but I don’t really think those are good salable commodities.
Still, I’d like to at least get the start set of Jacquard and start playing with a few other techniques … this will be so much FUN!
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.
