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By rights this should be the post where I say, 'I know I haven't posted much but I have been knitting' and then proceed to dazzle you with a multitude of photos of my fantastic projects. However the sad truth is that I have not been knitting. Not true, I have been doing a very small amount but as it's a present I can't show you.
Instead I shall attempt to dazzle you with pictures of other things I have been doing.
Assembling supplies for Back Tack, which will be put together this weekend. I won't be using all the buttons, just 5 of them.
I did some more dyeing.
This was done by sprinkling the powders directly onto the submerged yarn. I used red, blue and a smidge of brown, resulting in mainly purple with intense patches of blue and red.
For this one I squirted the dye directly onto the wet skein and then steamed it. I used a mix of dark brown, red and lilac and I love how it turned out. I'm keeping this one for myself. Who knows, I might even knit something with it...
It was a rainy weekend at the Wool Palace. The perfect excuse to stay in and get crafty. Plus, Toby was away so there was no one to complain about my spreading my wool and things around - except the children of course but I'm bigger than them so there's nothing they can do. Ha ha!
First I assembled the supplies
Then I remembered that I was going to ask Toby to make me a warping board. Since he had already left I cobbled one together with a piece of MDF we had lying around (the joys of being married to a decorator).
After that things got a bit involved and I forgot to take any more photos. I think I need a bit more practice in mixing the colours of the acid dyes. I was aiming for red, pink, purple and blue but I wasn't happy with the red or the blue so I overdyed the whole thing with a pale purple afterwards.
I still think the blue is too bright and I've ended up with two reds but for a first attempt it's not too bad. It needs reskeining properly but I quite liked how it looked in the (very brief bit of) sunlight today.
I need to work on getting more dye into the yarn I think. The blue seemed to take quite well, the purple less so. The purple was the first colour I put on so maybe I got a bit more heavy handed as the process went on?
Of course, the children wanted to get in on the act as well. I wasn't too keen on involving them in the acid dye lark. We live in a small flat and the potential for spills was just too great. A quick trip to Woolies for some plain white t-shirts and I let them get busy with marbles, rubber bands and some tins of Dylon cold water dye.
An hour later we had a couple of T-shirts just right for summer days on Cornish beaches.
Looks like colour preferences run in the family...
Look what arrived in the post this weekend, all the way from California.
Yes, my Sockapaloooza socks, made by the lovely Mary.
Mary knitted the Embossed Leaves pattern from Interweave Knits, using Artyarns Ultramerino 4, Shade 122. The socks fit perfectly and feel absolutely wonderful - soft and warm yet very light as well. I put them on immediately and left them on all day.
Mary also included a stitch marker, handmade by a friend of hers and two balls of fingering weight yarn from Handjive Knits. Thank you Mary - beautiful socks and some really thoughtful gifts. I love it all!
The Bank Holiday weekend came as a welcome relief to the hustle and bustle of the last few weeks. We did briefly consider a camping trip but decided we'd done enough trips away recently, so we stayed in London. Saturday and Sunday were pretty full days so Monday was designated as a staying at home day.
While Josie recovered from a friend's sleepover birthday party (she claims they went to bed at 11pm and woke up at 2am - I hope not but am afraid it's probably true),
Sam and Toby practised climbing knots and belaying techniques in the living room
and I took advantage of the peace and quiet to browse the stash.
I decided the best way to climb out of the slump was to pick some yarns that spoke to me and just go for it. I decided to pick one sock yarn and something else that had potential for a garment.
For the sock yarn I chose Lorna's Laces in Tuscany, which is being turned into this.
Slip stitch rib pattern, which I think works rather well. I don't know if these will be for me or not. I have volunteered to be a sock angel for Sockapaloooza, so if they fit the specifications of anyone who needs them, maybe they will go to them.
The garment choices were a little more difficult. I really want to knit something in Rowan Denim, but don't have any in stash. I may well cave in and buy some soon but I fancied having a play around with something else in the meantime. I have a hankering for a cardigan at the moment, perhaps with a cable down each side of the front. I found some of this
which I think would be perfect but - I only have 8 skeins. I don't think it will be enough, but I'm going to have a play around anyway and see what I come up with. Alternatively, does anyone have 2 skeins of Rowanspun 4 ply in Shade 703 they'd like to swap for some sock yarn? If it was dyelot 29J1, I'll send you some chocolate too...
