Multiple Projects

I've had several people laugh at me and ask me why I feel the need to knit something for every couple I know who's having a baby. To be honest there are lots of reasons, first every baby should have something hand made and something that has a lot of love and caring built in. Second it gives me a break from whatever project I'm currently working on. My sweater that I've been working on is now in the long dull phase, just trying to get length, so its nice to have a break from now and then working on other things. Lastly, gives me a chance to go through my stash and dwindle it down. Especially the smaller scraps of yarn that aren't big enough for other projects. 

As you may have guessed...I'm knitting another baby project. A baby blanket...I tried this pattern once before and failed at it, but I've learned more now (and it seems to be paying off) I started the blanket this weekend, its knit in a series of squares...when I was laying out the yarn I thought it would look alright...but it turns out that I hate the color combination...not sure what I was thinking. I didn't even finish the red portion before I gave up and decided to look for more yarn. (You can even see that my pick up and knit was off too, because its not really a rectangle) Anyway I grabbed the yarn that my sweater is made of but in different colors and started a new set. The squares are smaller but the knitting is faster, so I think it will work out. I can always make more squares until I get the size I am looking for. Interestingly, the pattern calls for a slip edge, which makes it easier to pick up and knit...but you also have to pick up edges that have been bound off...so I don't know how that's all supposed to work. But I'm managing. I've got three squares done now.

The blanket pattern calls for 12 of these squares to be made, then they are all attached together (and all those pesky ends are woven in) Lastly the entire blanket gets a solid edge attached to it. I'll have to see what yarn I have left to see if its possible to put one of the lighter colors around the edge, otherwise it might be one of the darker colors. (Purple and green). Overall I'm much much happier with the color combination this time, and the yarn feels more baby friendly to me. Like I said its a fast knit, made those 3 squares in about a day.


One final note. The color work on my sweater is done, now it's just a matter of time to get it all finished. I figured when I had a few hours to sit down and knit I would work on finishing the baby blanket (I have till mid May) but when it comes to doing little knits here and there and during lunch or whatever I would work on my sweater. Hopefully it will be done soon!

A days work for color

So I got bit with the artistic bug. I had to do something different, new, and creative. I decided to try my hand at dying yarn, Easter egg style. Here's the account of my weekend's adventures.

I started with several kinds of wool  yarn. From what I have gathered reading on the Internet, wool yarn is easily dyed with things like Easter egg dye and kool aid, but natural fibers like cotton needs something a bit stronger. I followed a tutorial I found online (Kathryn Ivy) until my book arrived, I suggest reading it if you're going to dye yarn, this is just quick notes of my adventures.

First I took my 2 different kinds of Peruvian wool (100% wool) and unwound them into hanks. I started trying to use my yarn swift, but that wasn't the easiest thing, so I switched to a two wine bottle method. Worked much faster and much much easier.

Since I moved my yarn to the floor with the bottle method, I got lots of kitty help from Lilu. Mostly she just wanted to sit next to me and get petted every now and then, but of course, cats and yarn, especially moving yarn....well she had to grab it from time to time. Was really amusing, and of course there is always time for kitty yoga while knitting too.

After all of that work, I hung up my white yarn on the drying rack (even though it wasn't wet yet) just to get a picture of what I had, plus it was a good time to get things cleaned up and organized before the next big stage...actual dying.

This stage involved cutting up a trash bag and putting it on my counter, mixing up some Easter egg dyes, and filling my sink with vinegar and cold water. The first step is to prepare the yarn, so it was soaked in vinegar water for an hour, then its ready to accept some new colors! I was amazed at how clean everything ended up being, there wasn't much in the way of "shoot I got that everywhere" which made me really happy. Plus it will give me confidence when I go to the chemical cotton dyes which WILL stain everything, unlike the Easter egg dye that's designed for children to mess around with.


After the color is added to the yarn, it gets thrown on the stove to get stemmed. I have a collider resting on top of the pot and the yarn goes in there. It gets steamed for 30 min. I thought I was going to be behind on my coloring, but no. I managed to color almost everything while waiting for the first few to get steamed. It gave me time to do some actual knitting and cleaning while I was dying yarn. The hot yarn then gets taken out and put in a sink to cool, once its cool, you put it in warmer than the yarn itself water and makesure the color doesn't run. Add some wool wash to keep everything nice and soft (and get rid of that vinegar smell) and the drying process starts!

After all was said and done I refilled my rack with beautifully colored yarn. The one thing I didn't care for, and I'm not sure how easy it is to correct, is that the yarn seemed to always be a bit pastel. You couldn't get a really vibrant big bold color, it will be muted a bit. (And the colors in the water are much brighter than when they are dried) But I'm happy with the colors I got and I'm excited to see what other adventures I might have. I went back to Target to get some more Easter egg dye, got lots of different color options. Neon, some actual greens, a brown, lots of variation. So I'm looking forward to it next time. I have some more ideas on getting really creative. I don't have much more white wool left in my possession, but maybe next weekend or the following there will be some more snow (like today!) and I'll get back to dying. In the mean time, it took a full day to get this all done. Would have been faster if I had made my hanks the day before, but still enjoyable, creative and a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Froggy

So I ripped out the body of my sweater again. The rib stitch was too loose and looked bad. If it stretched at all there would be lines down me, if it didn't stretch then there wasn't too much point. So I undid it. Started fresh again (the pick up and knit is much easier after 6 times) Thankfully, this is a faster stitch. I'm already back to the length I ripped out yesterday! Now on to the adventure of doing the rest of the body

Shh, don't tell mom

I'm not a shopping sort of girl. I don't go gaga over shoe sales, or new cloths. In fact I hate to shop for those sort of things, I have shirts from 6th grade and basically my shoes are worn until they are falling off. Though I love electronics the expensive nature of them prevents me from pulling the trigger. I looked at my awesome camera for almost a year before I dared to purchase it. But when it comes to yarn...I can't resist. The softness, the colors...the ideas and projects going through my head... I am helpless to fight it. Well today was especailly bad. A local store is closing down, and therefore selling things at 44% off. I went down there and saw that it's a really great store. Some of the yarn I could resist, but clearly there was lots that I couldn't. Most are the higher end that I normally don't buy because of the expense. But I managed to buy 35 skiens of yarn. Now some of it was bought with the intention to dye is this Easter (most of the whites) and some are for other projects and some will be decided later. My stash is getting big...really big... gotta knit faster!

What starts with the Oscars and ends with St. Patricks day?

A baby jackets! A friend of mine challenged my to knit something during the oscars. I started thinking of hats, then got reminded that yet another co-worker just had a baby. And babies are small, perfect oscar event. Although I did start during the oscars (and maybe a bit before) I didn't finish, wasn't close. Its done now though, right before St. Patty's day, which is perfect because its green. I was trying to help work down the stash, but that didn't work. I ran out of yarn on the second sleeve so I had to buy more yarn...boo. Definatly not a yarn stash reduction (doesn't help that I went to a yarn shop in Boulder and bought some amazing alpaca)

But the jacket is now finished, being blocked, and should be ready for gift giving on Monday!

Pick up and knit...yeah right

Yeah, I met the deadline but traveling did not go so well. I did the first pick up and knit (you read it right... first...) and I didn't like it, so I undid that and tried again. It turned out okay, but there was no more time before my flight so I decided to knit as long as I could on the plane. Didn't look the greatest but I had blocking hopes. Then during the first night at the hotel, disaster struck. As I was moving my yarn around, the link between my two loops came loose and in the middle of my work was now a bunch of dropped stitches. Something like 20-30 of them came off. Well the lighting, the tools, and my mood were not well suited to fixing it there are the hotel. (The messy pick up and knit didn't make me want to keep going either) So I frogged it. Then I did 2 more pick up and knits before I left for the airport, didn't like them and didn't feel well so I just slept on the plane. Today (after fighting a really bad head cold) finally felt well enough to start knitting again. I finally did a pick up and knit that I don't hate, and started doing some knitting. Only have about 5 rows done, and its time to do some cleaning, but the progress looks hopeful. We'll see where I am in a week or so.