State Fair

I've been cruising along thinking I needed to get my things out for the State Fair because it's coming up. Look at me cruising along and almost missing the whole thing (not like it's the first time that's happened). I did start pulling things out last night but was going to work on tagging, etc. this week, mistakenly thinking that I had to have them in on Friday. I just happened to look at my sheet this morning on the way out the door and discovered that they were actually supposed to be in yesterday or today!! It's just as well I have such a nice boss who let me take some time this morning to take care of it.

I had to mount the doilies on light card (which meant a trip to Hobby Lobby) and a hunt for all the staples in the house and then attach labels to all the items. I had 7 entries this year, mostly purses and doilies (and one very treasured Danish sweater).

I finished my Mom's gloves because I was going to enter them but I didn't get the 5x5 sample I would have needed to submit them for the category I was going to enter them into. Never mind, I finished them and am very proud (although tired of the pattern) of them.

I got many of my dyed skeins of yarn balled but I did also get another batch dyed. The Jacquard dyes come in a deep purple that's very exciting. I did 2 skeins of sock yarn and 1 of lace weight with the purple but I think I'm going to put them in one more time - there were some imperfections in the color of the sock yarn and the lace weight didn't get quite dark enough for me. I experimented by putting the 2 skeins of sock yarn in the bottom of the pan so they would have most access to the color and then put the lace weight on the top, with some of it barely in the water. I did like the way the lace weight took on the dye inconsistently so that there are quite a lot of color variations but I don't know if I can live with the lighter purple color. See what you think.


I also decided I like the "desert sunset" yarn and balled it before getting a photo but I'm going to do a gauge swatch to show the colors and will post a pic when I get that done.

Oh, yes, word to the wise. While it's a good idea to buy kool-aid when it's on sale, it can get hard if stored for a long time. It will melt in the water but it takes some attention when mixing before putting the yarn in. Voice of experience.

I did get some dying done this weekend as I’d planned. I started Thursday night dying some yarn I got last year at the Webs booth at Stitches. It’s about 1900 yards of wool that was originally a grayish color. I’ve over-dyed it red (Schucks' brand kool-aid) and it came out exactly as I’d hoped. It’s a sort of faded brick red that will someday become a gansey-type sweater.

I love the colors and the effects of the Jacquard Acid dyes and I was very pleased with how easy they were to use. This is Chartreuse. Very Chartreuse. I’m inordinately in love with both this and with the golden lace weight below.

This was done in the remains of the orange (mix of yellow and vermillion Jacquard dyes) from below. Somehow the first batch soaked up almost all the red and left this beautiful gold for this last batch.

These were soaked in tea bags. I really love how they came out.

The lace weight

And the fingering weight

These are skeins of superwash fingering weight that I thought I would do a bright mix. They came out a little messy. For these I had 2 pots. One with yellow and one with chartreuse. I hung the skeins over the 2 pots with an end in each. Then, once those were done, I rinsed them, put a plastic mixing spoon through each end and then hung the middle of the skein into the orange mixture. I wasn’t completely happy with the colors so I did a final pass with them through another yellow pot. That made it better but it also made a bit of the mess. Next time I would do the whole skeins in the yellow and then hang it over the 2 pots, one with green and one with orange. I think that would have been a much better way to do it. Live and learn, right? I still think these will make interesting socks.

I do have 2 more skeins that aren't quite finished. I did them with theWilton cake icing dyes. One of the things I love about using these for dying yarn is that you never know what you're going to get. I started out with soaking the skeins in tea and then I was going to use a brown and a light blue to variagate them. Well, they came out as a sort of high desert sunset. The brown was beautiful but the blue broke up into blues, purples, pinks and other colors. The problem was that the parts that had been soaked in tea lost most of that color so I'm going to need to do another color along that side. I think they'll be pretty but I need to decide what colors I need to use to finish them.

Rats.

I was so pleased with myself for finishing the Norwegian gloves. Then when I looked at the post, what was the first thing I saw?

Yep, a great big fat mistake in the beginning of the first glove. Argghhhh…..

I guess the silver lining is that I get to make a new pair and customize them for my Mom. Good for Mom.

I’ve designated this weekend as a weekend to dye. I’ve got a gob of natural colored yarn that I’ve been meaning to dye for a long time. I have a class on beginning lace in early December at the Community College here and I will need to have some yarn for students to buy should they not bring their own. Instead of just getting boring old yarn, I thought it would be nice to do some hand dyed for them. The class is going to be based on working a sampler scarf so this will give them scope to go all out!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done any dying so I’m pretty excited about getting into it again. I’ll post pictures once I start getting some colors working.

One more thing

It's the old, old story. Girl goes to straighten up stash, girl finds unfinished project, girl finishes project, girl forgets about straightening up stash.

Yep, caught up in the old vortex again. But look what I found at the edge of the stash. I can't even remember when I started these gloves (Nancy Bush - Norwegian gloves from Piecework online download) but it was probably as I was in the midst of the Danish sweater. I started it with other colors, couldn't figure out the fingers the way the pattern was written (definitely not a beginner's pattern in any way, shape or form unless you're a beginner savant). I remember I put it away for a while. Then I decided to start again with the colors it called for and, again, got the pinky finger done and then was probably too distracted to think through the pattern.

Well, this time I was determined to do it. How often is it like this. You stare at a pattern from anywhere from a few minutes to a year and it makes no sense and then, one day you're straightening your stash, find it, pick it up and all of a sudden it makes some sort of sense. This time it must have taken because I still didn't think any better of the pattern but it made sense and I actually breezed right through. All I have to do now if the final thumb and the finishing work on the second one. These are made out of KnitPicks Palette yarn in dark grey, natural and red. If you haven't heard about the red knitted into Norwegian patterns I'll tell you one day. It has to do with the Norwegian resistance in WW2.

Making the most of it

It’s amazing how a couple of hours you didn’t expect to have can be so productive. I was able to leave work a little early today (because next week the craziness begins again) and I came home and proceeded to get tons of stuff done.

The Ponchette
I actually finished the Ponchette last night and love it. It came out exactly how I’d hoped it would. What makes this fun is that I used a yarn that was different from what the pattern called for and decided to just keep knitting until the 3 skeins were finished. Finishing the 3 skeins made it exactly the right size. I had an idea about finishing it with some shells but I didn’t like the way it came out so I’ve now taken them off. The changes I made are: (1) I did it in stockinette instead of the garter; (2) I changed the yarn; and (3) I added a mock ribbing at the top by working over the first 5 stitches 2 rows of stockinette and 2 rows of garter, giving that top edge a little definition.

Necklace
I found these crystals and locket at a couple of local craft stores and I finally got the idea of how to put them together using these chain links. I like the muted colors together with the silver.

Pin for Portuguese knitting
I gave a little (rave) review of a video about knitting in the Portuguese style. It showed carrying the yarn either around the back of the neck or through a special pin that gets attached to the top of the left shoulder. I told some folks that I was going to try to make my own pin and that I would post about it once I tried it out. So here goes:

I used a Darice 2¼” Coiless Safety Pin in nickel and a Darice Brass 2” Eye Pin in nickel.

First I used my small needle nose plyers to bend it in half.

Then I began making a loop with the straight end and fed it through the eye and closed the loop.

I used a small dowl to fold the eye pin over. This is where the yarn will feed through. Once I had all the ends tucked in and the eye of the pin perpendicular to the fold, I fed the large coiless safety pin through the eye. Easy peasy, right?

Cool. Now I’m going to use it.

Golly

I hadn't realized it's been so long away. Work has absorbed all my energy the last 2 week and I've done absolutely nothing else. I feel bad that I haven't been able to meet some knitting deadlines but the biggest part of the rush is over now and I should be able to get to things. The only thing I did manage to finish is my linen Roman Stripe Stole with the beads on the edgings. It's been the first really hot period here but I've so fallen in love with it that I've put it on and worn it around the house for as long as I can stand it at a time!

I ripped out the Pi Shawl with the Habu wool/stainless steel yarn because it was just too unmanageable in that format. I've restarted what I originally thought would be a scarf but has now morphed into a shrug. I should have enough to do the wrist to wrist part with this yarn (I have 2 cones (about 275 yards each) and then I have a plum colored merino Habu yarn that's the same impossibly small weight that I think will work fine if I decide I want to make it into a cardigan, which I'm really liking the thought of. I think I would make it a pretty frilly long edging. We'll see how it goes. I'm starting to get used to working with it but it's not something you can speed along with.

This weekend I'm enjoying working a bit on it while I'm watching the dvd of Season 1 of Burn Notice. I really enjoy the smart aleck humor of the show - very much my sense of humor. In fact I'm a little shocked that it was picked up for a second season. Usually my seal of approval doubles as a seal of doom for shows!

Almost Done

I may have been quiet but I haven’t been doin’ nothing.

I’ve almost finished my Roman Stripe Stole (although I’ve just started on Antony and Cleopatra). I had some olive beads that matched the yarn perfectly so I’ve worked them into the borders on each end. Funnily enough, when I was looking for a simple edging for the end, the one I came up with is the one that’s used on the ponchette. I think it works fine, though I have adapted it slightly. It does need to be blocked a little bit but I really like the weight of the beads on the end.

I left this picture large so if you click on it, you’ll see the beads on the end.

I really like this pattern and just wish it wasn’t so hot and humid so I could wear it! I love how it worked up in the lace weight linen. I never knew I would enjoy knitting with linen so much. I had to get a second cone of it so it looks like I will use about 650 yards or so. I have another cone in the same yarn in a Chinese red color. I did a little purse with the 2 colors and I like the combination so I'll have to work out a shawl using the 2.

Oh, by the way, I did this on US size 5/3.75mm needles.