Out Of The Dye Pot And Off The Wheel

I feel like I have been pretty productive the past 2 weeks. I finished plying the last of the 8 oz. of Autumn Corriedale pencil roving. I ended up with 2 large skeins, and one small one. I had a tiny bit of leftover singles that I tried Navajo plying, but the singles weren't cooperating and kept breaking. The yarn came out a lot different than I expected, to my pleasant surprise.

The yarn came out allot different than I expected, to my pleasant surprise. There was a lot of orange in the roving (see picture from previous post), but when I plied it, the orange just ended up mostly being a highlight.

WPI – average of 10, Worsted Weight, 3 ply
Yardage – Approximately 331 yds,

I had to play with color on Thursday, so I broke out the crock pot and the dyes and some Pastaza by Cascade yarns. The colors didn’t come out as deep as I would have liked, but I am still pleased with the results. The yarn was sitting in my bag at the yarn shop yesterday, and the lady next to me said she loved the colors. I must be doing something right!! I am anxious to try the dyeing again with some different colors. I think I will add more dye to see if I can get the deeper shade that I want.

I have also been working on the Printed silk Cardigan here and there. I had made a fair amount of progress, then realized that I had been off on my measurements and had to rip back about 7 inches of work. That was last weekend, I have since re-knit those 7 inches and now I am ready to start the diamond pattern on the second front piece. My next obstacle is doing the buttonholes, the directions in the magazine are different than the buttonholes I have knit in the past. I can’t wait to get this sweater done and have something new to wear -and move on to the next project that is waiting in the wings.

Flashing my FOs

I have been back home from Texas for a week, and finally have a moment to "flash my FOs".

The day before I flew to Texas, I took a class in crock pot dyeing. I didn't have the colors available that I really wanted, so my first attempt doesn't look exactly as I had imagined. But isn't that the way with so many things when we are first learning? I know my first few knitting projects didn't turn out how I had hoped.

The green is too much on the "kelly" side, so I tried over dyeing it with brown. That muted it some. Since I did this, I have gone shopping for other dye colors and have about 10 now. I am looking forward to having a morning to play with yarn and dyes.

I also finished the Lenore socks.......

Sorry about how dark the picture is, but black is hard to photograph.

While I was visiting my mom and sister, I enjoyed visiting with my sister's cat, Pandora. Pandora is gorgeous (as you can see in the picture below) and her fur is very soft...and luscious... and a very soft creamy color.

The more I thought about it, how she gets combed every single day and how that beautiful fur was just being tossed into the trash can, an idea began forming in my head. Now the fur is being placed into a bag, and when at least 4 oz. has been gathered, it will be shipped to me and hopefully spun into some gorgeous yarn and knit into a lacy scarf to give back to my sister to enjoy for years to come!!
The biggest accomplishment for me during my 2 weeks in Texas, was designing a pair of fingerless mitts. The design is actually based on 2 different patterns. I have e-mailed both of the other designers who have given me permission to offer the pattern for free on the Internet. I have a friend who is willing to proof read the instructions for me. When she is done, I will be posting the pattern here and on Ravelry. I have also had a few ideas for sock designs rattling around in my head. Who knows where this will lead me?