Yarn Collecting and Occasional Knitting
I had FO Wednesday, so it makes sense that I’d have a WIP Friday :)
I’ve made it to the solid green lace edge on my shawl!
Of course, if I didn’t stop to take so many pictures, I’d probably be done by now!
Happy Halloween! Hope your weekend is all treats!
I finished yesterday’s Gnome hat. Turns out it was really the Octopus’s Garden all along :) With that, I’ve finally managed to take some photos and do an Etsy shop update! Check it out if you’re behind in your Christmas knitting or just want some new inspiration for your own work! Lots of one of a kind hand knits from hand dyed yarn!
Another Sea Life Inspired Hat, The Fighting Jellyfish
Among many others!
Instant Gratification Woooo! I meant to start this hat so I’d have something not neon green for WIP Wednesday. Turns out, bulky yarn (handspun bolivian llama, handdyed by Mom!), 10.5 needles and a bit of late night knitting were just the thing I wanted yesterday! Poof! Instant Hat!
I don’t think it’s really done though. I want to spice it up with something…maybe some surface crochet vine/leaf motifs or something to make it even more gnome-y, a toadstool applique or a butterfly or some other garden thing. Another excuse to stash dive, in any case! Any Suggestions?
I picked this yarn at Rhinebeck because. Certainly not because I had a plan for it. It’s Wild Hare Fiber Studio’s Pinnacle Fingering in colorways I Want My Zombie and It Ain’t Easy.
And then, I found the perfect pattern! Add in Halloween week and it seems like I planned this all along! I haven’t gotten to the exciting part yet…right now I’m just lollygagging my way through a modified half pi shawl until I get to the lace edging.
Oh yes…Neon Green Lace Skulls!! I have honestly never been so excited to knit lace before. I’m putting my new found love of lace (and continental knitting) to the test! Woot! The pattern is the Jolly Roger Shawl by AinoDesigns and that’s the designers photo up there. I think it’s going to be even better in neon! Having it done for the weekend is questionable but why start making reasonable decisions now? I will knit on!
Stephen West has announced a new Mystery Knit Along!! (I’m excited!! I will not be editing all the !!! out!!) Here’s what we do know…it’s a shawl (my fav!) and it uses 3 colors. That’s pretty much all I need to know…I love it already! The name of the pattern is The Doodler. It’s conjuring amazing mental images for me! I can’t wait to see what Stephen has cooked up for us!
Clue One arrives November 6th. That’s plenty of time to dither over colors. I proudly proclaimed that my first trio of colors was it. I was done, I had a plan, all I had to do was wait. Ha! So, now I have several plans. :)
I went stashdiving first! I have a large stash of MadelineTosh Pashmina, single skeins just for this purpose! I love to play mix n match with my yarn! I’ve got (at least) two friends joining me so I imagined what each of us, with our own unique style would pick.
Here’s Kim & Clementine…
Both lovely but not quite me, here’s what I picked for myself…
It would have been perfectly acceptable except then I went to Rhinebeck and this happened…
This is another lovely choice. And it’s currently the front runner. Except then this happened…
One of my knitting students decided to join the MKAL. These are her colors. I’m sort of jealous. We picked her colors using the ‘what would stephen pick?’ method. I think an afternoon of stashdiving will be in order for me! I have a lovely option, now I want an option with pizzazz!
Anyone else participating? I’d love to see your colors! Have you gone for your comfort zone or Stephen’s?
I’ve got three hats and a cowl to show for this week! Turns out there’s a lot of knitting time involved with getting to New York and back again!
The first two hats are Unicorn Fart hats! I love seeing the effect of removing just a few stitches from the cast on! Two completely different hats! (Read Here to find out how to dye your own Unicorn Farts!) My Mom dyed the energizer bunny of yarn skeins…3 hats and I’ve barely made a dent in it! I’m sure I’ll get at least 3 more out of it!
The third hat we’ve been calling the Midnight Ride of the Unicorn. It’s Unicorn Farts on a dark navy yarn instead of a white yarn! I wanted to have a little fun with it, so it became a stocking cap! I love seeing the pattern change as the rounds get shorter and shorter! This is a lot of fun to wear!
My last FO of the week is by no means the least of the week…a real rabbit fur cowl!
Yes, that is actually knit! The ‘yarn’ is a bit of rabbit hide with the fur still in tact!
It’s from meat packing plants in Europe where they eat a lot of rabbit. At least that’s the story…I’m choosing to believe it’s the truth because I really love this cowl!
It’s as soft and lovely as you’d expect a cute fuzzy bunny to be. I’ll bet he tasted good too! (ha! too soon?) Here’s a link to the fur page on Ravelry! It’s fun stuff! Eventually, I’ll have one in every color! I’ve also done a few hats with it, I’ve gotta stop giving those away!
Here’s a sneak peek of my Rhinebeck yarn to hit the needles…details next week! It’s a good one!
After Rhinebeck, the fiber fun continued at Mom’s house! She had one skein (~1100 yds lace weight, Merino/Bamboo blend) left to dye so Monday morning we set out to dye it up! We made a few little mini skeins for experimenting, soaked them in citric acid…
Picked a few colors…
and away we went…
We started with just purple…
Notice how Mom’s technique rinses clear! No bleeding, no excess dye, no mess! I’ll save the rant for some other time but seriously, this is the way it should always be!
Of course, I wasn’t content with just one color.
Green and, eventually, Orange wiggled their way into the plan. At some point over the weekend, I was bitten by the Halloween bug. It didn’t itch or sting but the effects seem to be growing. Neon Green yarn at Rhinebeck was not enough. This is the sample I decided upon…
I knew what I was doing, I made the crazy clown barf decision with willful defiance. I have no one but myself to blame if it doesn’t work out. LOL! So we set to work…
To prevent the colors from bleeding into each other, we applied the dye with a thickening agent. It was messy and squishy and it took a while.
I can see why hand painted yarns are so expensive! It was labor intensive!
Roll it up and into the microwave it went!
After it cooled, we rinsed it and this is what we were left with…
I love it! I have a few ideas for it! It’s so fun! I’m gonna admire it for a bit…I have a feeling it will be wound soon!
