So much for an Easter break!

Have been afk for a couple of days due to a trip to Manchester to see my sister. She lives just round the corner from the "spiky old statue" as it's always referred to by DS otherwise known as the "B of the Bang". Anyhow, we thought yeah lets go to Manchester. We can get out into the Peak District, see the hills and do a spot of walking. Well, it was a nice thought anyhow. The whole weekend ended up being spent decorating! Four whole days of it and all of them sunny - which for Manchester is pretty good. Still, it was lovely to see my sis and I now have a commission for a huge painting to put up on her wall.

On the knitting front it's been slow progress (decorating is exhausting!) although I have picked up the pair of socks I started for DS again which has reminded me how much I like knitting socks. Bronte posted a link to the Blue Blog's sockapalouza 4 , I really enjoyed the AY Spring Secret Santa so I might give this a whirl as it looks like fun. I finally bought a set of pink Denises (yes I gave in) and have switched my baby shawl onto them but having seen it spread out a little more, I think I might frog it and restart it. There are a couple of places that I'm not happy with and as it's a gift, it really needs to be perfect or near to. I might go up a needle size too as the stitches seem to drag on the cable a bit - it's more or less the same diameter as needle tip (presumably the 3.75mm one, I'm using the 4mm for the shawl) unlike a regular circular needle. So I'll have to see how they pan out.

Oh and I was really naughty (shhh don't tell anyone) and bought some yarn online but there'll be more on that when the parcel arrives!

Denises .. again

I'm sorry to keep harping on about this, well actually, I'm not. Fiona (resident AY guru and general enabler) pointed me in the direction of these... Rainbow Denises!! How cool are they? Only downside is that they are on the other side of the pond. I very nearly ordered them last night but I have been good and resisted, well so far anyway. I am going to take a wander over to Maldon tomorrow morning if I have the time and take a look at the regular ones in Ethnits. I think I'd like to have a fondle before I commit myself and also, I'm not sure I want to wait for the delivery. Well that and it gives me an excuse to have a wander round the shop - if I save on the delivery etc, I can buy more yarn! Hmm, coloured needles or more yarn - it is a bit of a dilemma. Still, if I take the munchkin with me it should limit my spending. His current phrase when I want to look at something is "it's boring" - who is it that teaches children these things? grrr

Project Amnesty... part 1

As promised, the start of my "Project Amnesty" otherwise known as the "to do" list or "those things I have started and haven't finished yet". Pictures will have to follow separately as I'm sure there's going to be a few things I might have missed. I'm hoping that this list isn't going to give the impression that I have the attention span of a goldfish. It's just that if I buy something new, I just HAVE to start it otherwise it sits and calls to me.

So here we go:
Noni Lattice Bag - still needs lining
Noni mini bag - needs decorating
Lorna's Baby Shawl - in progress
IVY - needs some lighter weight needles (hehe Denises?)
Aran hoodie
Aran fingerless gloves
T's Socks
T's Stripey jumper

hmm, only 8 things? Hopefully that's the lot but this is just the things that I can remember starting!

Fresh from the microwave

Last weeks efforts all wound up and ready for a project. This is almost the last of Granny's yellow 4ply. I really like the way the food colour dyes the wool, it's giving me some lovely vibrant colours. The bottom was dyed using red and cochineal and where the two colours meet over the yellow yarn, it has left it a lovely peach colour. It's very hard to get a good picture of the colour even in natural daylight - it is much pinker than this shows. As much as I love the pink/red, I'm really looking forward to knitting up the green. I used both green and blue to dye it so there are some fabulous graduations in the colours, it should make either a lovely Pacific Northwest Shawl or maybe a home designed one.

Lorna's Baby Shawl

Here's the first pictures of the baby shawl I'm making for my friend. She's due in May so I have about another month to get it completed. I looked through all my baby patterns (I have lots of "vintage" pattern books) but I couldn't find one I liked and as I couldn't find one online either, I decided to make one up. I'm using Sirdar Baby Bonus 4ply in a lovely lemon yellow, it's very soft and snuggly and washing machine safe.

I keep seeing all these cute photos of babies posing on top of fabulous circular shawls - I don't remember DS ever being like that so what on earth makes me think that other people babies are like that, I don't know! Anyhow, I decided to make a round shawl with a sort of pinwheel effect in the centre. Once it's big enough the plan is to knit a lacy border around the edge. Simple enough you would think (and it is knitting up nicely if I say so myself) but I'm being hampered by the fact my needles are too short already and it only measures about 10" diameter atm!

Forest Canopy KAL

My Forest Canopy shawl finally complete and blocked. I've really enjoyed knitting up this pattern and I'm sure it won't be long before I do another. It's a really quick knit and the pattern is far simpler than I had originally thought - it's certainly very effective. I think I might use some of the yarn from my first dye batch to do a second.

Here's the pint sized model showing how charming he can be. Must be something about boys. Anyhow I think it actually fits him far better than me - even with the 3 extra pattern repeats. I've decided that I like my shawls to be big. Will just have to do another!

I have already got another lace project on the go. I forget who warned me that lace is addictive but they were certainly right! One of my old school friends is expecting so I've decided to knit her a baby shawl - it's lemon yellow, circular and I'm not using a pattern. I must be crazier than I thought - oh and my needles are not long enough already. Looks like I might be buying those Denises sooner rather than later although I have now discovered Knitpicks too. Pricey but far nicer looking - the Denises are definately ugly! It's a shame that there's not a home brand of these interchangeable needles as it's a bit of a pain having to get them shipped over.

Anyhow, back to the knitting and I must check up on the midget as it's all gone quiet.... I'm thinking I should probably be worried.

To dye for

Some while back I inherited not only my gran's old knitting machine but also a couple of huge boxes full of cones of yarn to go with it. Most of it's acrylic and her choice of colours was a bit dubious sometimes but buried among them all I found a couple of cones of 100% 4pl wool. One still in it's natural colour and one in a somewhat revolting yellow. Not that I have anything against yellow per say but there is only so much yellow a person can wear. It's not really my colour to say the least. Anyhow, to get back to the point of this post, I'd been enthusing over some Opal sock yarn that I'd been knitting up and the self striping etc when I started to take an interest in the possibility of dyeing some.

So I started looking into how it was done, cooking it on the stove, various references to crock pots (I'm guessing that's some american invention as I'd not come across it before), cooking it up for various lengths of time (hours in some cases). I mean, who has the time to actually do all that? I know I don't work atm but I do have a very inquisitive midget under foot. It's not really all that realistic is it?

I'd read a lot about using about Kool-Aid but what I had in my cupboard was food colouring and lots of it. (The benefit of being talked into icing the family's wedding cakes over the years). So, free wool, free "dye" and I even found a bottle of white vinegar in the back of the cupboard. Bonus! It would have been rude not to give it a go. Finally back on the Angel Yarns forums I came across a link to a really helpful blog Beatlewear and the rest as they say, is history.

So, I turned my cones of yarn into ready to dye skeins. Not having either a swift or a niddy noddy I had to resort to wrapping my kitchen chairs in yarn. Yes I did feel a bit mad at the time, my DS thought I was too - he even offered to help at one point which did make me panic a bit. Needless to say I packed up quickly and left the next stage for when he would definately be unavailable for assistance. I love nursery mornings! My new skeins went into a bucket of vinegar & water and were forgotten for the night.

Having packed DS off to nursery for the morning, I fished out my food colourings and began to play. I think I must have used almost every glass pot I have in the cupboard. Anyhow here it is ready to go into the microwave and my resulting laundry ;)








Finally, the finished product. Skeined and ready to go.

To say that I'm a little pleased with my first attempt would be somewhat of an understatement. I need to do more!