A long overdue FO

I forgot to mention that at the beginning of the month I finally finished my Trillian.

I was supposed to finish this for a KAL back in August...oops.

Adventures in Dyeing Takes 3 and 4

As mentioned in my previous post, I spent a whole day last weekend messing around with different Kool Aid/food coloring dyeing techniques.  My two more successful skeins resulted from trying two different things.

For the first skein, I wanted to create a turquoise gradient because I was inspired by my recent trip to the Caribbean and the beautiful water there.  To do this, I followed the tutorial for the Dip Dye method described in an article on Knitty.

I mixed up McCormick food coloring again, this time Neon Blue and Neon Green, which was supposed to create a turquoise (at least, according to McCormick's mixing guide for icing).  However, my final color ended up being much more of a green-teal, possibly because my yarn wasn't pure white (I used Knit Picks Bare in fingering weight, which is slightly off-white).  Still pretty though!

Here are some "action" shots of the Dip Dyeing method, for which I used my crock pot:

Slowly yet surely...

Hanging to dry

The final skein!  Not the color I was aiming for, but I love it anyway.

My only problem with this skein is that it won't stop bleeding.  I'd rinse it and the water would run clear and I'd leave it hanging, only to come back later and give it a squeeze and it would be bleeding again.  I think I need to heat it up in some water/vinegar to really set it.

The last method I played with was the Hot Pour method, which is described in that same Knitty article.  I hadn't exhausted my teal bath at the end of the gradient experiment, so I saved some of that to use, as well as mixing up a reddish orange and a purple to contrast.

Looks a little muddy here, but it actually turned out okay!

Tada!

I like this one, but I do wish there was less white...wondering if I could overdye it a smidge just to get rid of the white areas, but no idea what color would work.  Maybe a pinky-purple? (I have a thing for purple, I can't help it!)

I'd definitely like to play with these methods again--maybe do a light immersion dye before the hot pour next time?  I also have to try the Cold Pour method described in that Knitty article, too!  So many things I want to try, so little time...

Adventures in Dyeing, Take 2: The Fail (?)

Last weekend I played around with food color/Kool Aid dyeing again.  I actually tried three different things, but I'll discuss the other two later since they turned out far better than the first experiment did.

I decided to trying over-dyeing a skein of yarn again, since I had a flavor I was pretty sure I wouldn't use for another project.  The skein in question was Knit Picks Stroll in the colorway Cartoons, which is a very bright rainbow colorway.  (I used some of it for my knitted monster because I thought it was a very kid-friendly colorway, but beyond that it was a little TOO bright for my tastes).

The original rainbow craziness.

I decided to try to use actual Kool Aid this time, and to over-dye the skein green.  I used the immersion dyeing method (basically, heat up the color in water and vinegar, blopped the skein in until the dyebath cleared, done).

My first attempt was not super successful:

Barely colored at all! Boo.

So, I prepared a new dye bath using McCormick food coloring (green with a dash of blue), and re-did the skein again using the same method.  It came out a little darker, but not nearly as dark as I wanted.

The second attempt turned out little better.

Strangely, I don't totally hate it.  However, I'm thinking I should have over-dyed it blue rather than green; the red areas would have turned purple, the yellows to greens, etc.  Oh well, you live you learn, right?  I may play with it some more, but we shall see.

Putting a spin on it

Several years ago, my friend Kate decided to take up spinning.  I remember watching her and thinking to myself that it seemed far too complicated and I had no desire whatsoever to learn.  Dyeing? Sure.  Spinning? No.

You will not be surprised to learn that I seem to have changed my mind.  Once again, I have podcasts to blame for this, because so many podcasters seem to spin.  They're always talking about all kinds of different fibers and spindles, and I'm listening half-lost and wanting so badly to understand, and also sort of warming up to the idea of spinning because its also something old-timey, and I will totally be able to survive the apocalypse if I learn (and if sheep are available). Also, I feel like being able to spin, dye, and knit up a project would be like some kind of knitting hat trick (GOAL!).

My friend Sam seems to also have caught the spinning bug, because as I mentioned in the previous post, she went to a class to learn the secret codes.  I am totally jealous (extra free time is an issue for me at the moment because of other activities).  We keep sending each other links to fiber and random spindles and wishing spinning wheels weren't so freaking expensive (wistful sigh!)

I'm still trying to figure out what I even need to start.  A spindle, of course.  Fiber (but what kind?)...beyond that I have no idea (spinners--any tips??)

Knitting in the dark

I've always been a little envious of people who have movie socks or movie projects.  I am completely unable to divide my attention between a new feature film and a knitting project--I have to be focused on one or the other.  Then there's that whole knitting in the dark thing.  Despite the fact that I've been knitting for five years now, I still have to look at it.  I can't look away and keep going, or knit by feel.

My friend Sam was talking to me about knitting in the dark the other day (she can't do it either), and when she admitted this while taking a spinning class at our LYS, the other women there looked at her like she was crazy.

So, fellow knitters--how many of you can knit in the dark?  Are we some kind of odd ducks who can't?  Is this a skill I should have added to my repertoire ages ago?

Stop organizing, start knitting!

My stash got out of control, so this weekend when I was in a cleaning/organizational mood I rearranged it.  I added some yarn weights, and arranged them in order from thinnest to thickest (OCD alert)--it looks the same (I'm still using the cubes seen in this post and this post), only more of the bins are labeled now.  The fingering weight portion of my stash was especially crazy, and I ended up having to put it into TWO cubes.  I need to get going on some more shawls (or maybe more socks).

Speaking of shawls, I still haven't finished my Trillian.  It's fairly close, I really just need to sit myself down to a movie marathon and finish it. I have to knit the body until I have about 10 g of yarn left, and then finish up the border; last I measured I had about 34 g left.  Power through, Jackie, power through!

In completely other news, as I mentioned in my last post, my friend Rachel has started dyeing yarn, and I went to Jimmy Beans to check it out.  Needless to say, I came away with two skeins--one in the Tahoe Skies colorway, and one in Desert Sage.  Very soft and pretty!  She's added some more colorways since I was there, so I suspect I may walk away with even more in the future.  Rachel is a fan of tonal colors (rather than variegated), so if that's up your alley, I highly recommend you check it out!

Friends and Fiber

My friend Rachel has started her own line of hand-dyed yarn, which is currently only available at Jimmy Beans Wool, and which you should all check out because its pretty: Unraveled Designs Baby Merino DK.

I love that her current colorways are inspired by various Nevada things--the Desert Sage colorway is particularly accurate.  I will make an effort to go to JBW this week to fondle it, and will report back here with an update on how soft it is (oh, darn, a trip to the yarn store!)