Fridays are for purple

February baby sweater: Finished!



(Almost...still awaiting blocking and buttons)



Oh man, do I love this color! I can say that completely unabashedly because, while I did dye it myself, I had no clue whatsoever what I was doing.

Oh, and I chose buttons:

I still need to sew them on and then crochet some button loops. I did make buttonholes while I was knitting, but they're too small and too far in and they just look goofy--so I'm going to sew the buttons onto the side that had the holes, and in doing so close up and camoflage the old holes, see? And then crochet little loops to go over them. It's not perfect, but it'll work.

A better solution might have been to make the buttonholes right the first time around, but what can you do.

One bootie, kind of finished but awaiting buttons, blocking, and sewing up:



Super cute, and super easy and super fast--maybe an hour and a half for this bootie last night? And so CUTE! I can't get over how little it is. I did modify the pattern a little, unsurprisingly--details later.

And big-girl booties (not really): flats for me.

Purple purple purple.

Mmmm, purple.

Knit faster, knit faster

It is one million (numbers are approximate) degrees outside today, so naturally I am knitting a wool sweater.

Naturally.

Although, truth be told, I am actually somewhat concerned because the baby shower is in oh let's see eight days, and so far the sweater looks like this:



Yeah, um, CONCERN. I'm not really in big trouble just yet, but I might be if I don't get cracking. What do you think my friends will say to this: "Sorry guys, I can't go to the movies/bar/park/hiking--I have to stay home and knit." I mean, they already knew I was a huge loser but that is pushing it even for me.



Oh well. In the meantime I will knit normally, taking time out to hike/bike/swim/lie in the shade waiting for my impending death from heatstroke due to the preceding three activities and the fact that it is, at 5:37 p.m., 97 DEGREES OUT.

I'm not in trouble.

Yet.



(I do like how my hand-dyed yarn is knitting up, though!)

One-woman sweatshop

Cranking out the baby clothes around here.

My high school band director had a baby last week, so I took a break from knitting my still-embryonic (heh) February Baby Sweater to make her a little hat:



Pattern: Umbilical Cord Hat, by Jennifer L. Jones. Kinda. I didn't really read the pattern, just made a little baby hat and then added a little i-cord knot on the top. I think it makes the hat look a little Dr. Seuss, but I like it.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora, only a bit of a skein of each. What perfect baby yarn! I don't know if it's still being made; I bought this yarn a few years ago and haven't seen any in stores for awhile. But oh, so soft!

Reggie is not moved, softness or no.

Curl Up and Dye

Hands down my favorite salon name EVER.

Anyway. Yarn. I had quite a bit leftover from my Gathered Pullover--more than enough for a little baby sweater. But the baby in question is a girl--not that baby girls can't wear blue! I would have been happy to make her a little blue sweater, actually, and take THAT, gender-normativity, but after knitting an entire adult sweater out of this yarn I could not stare at that ocean of blue (heh) any longer.

So bust out the food coloring and vinegar, and MY NAME IS INIGO MONTOYA, YOU KILLED MY FATHER, PREPARE TO DYE! (hahahaha)(shut up.)

Ahem. Before:

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in "Denim," 2 + a little bit skeins.

Two teeny samples, microwaved:



On the left: purple McCormick food coloring over blue; on the right, pink. I like the purple much better.

Drying in the sun after "kettle-dying" (which sounds quite fancy and artisan-dyer esque, but really means I stirred up some food coloring, vinegar, and water, heated it up, and added the yarn. Somewhere along the line I managed to dye my foot pink. You know.)

Aaaand finished product!

I love it! It's much more variegated than I had intended--some spots stayed pretty blue, and then I tried to overdye those and only got some of them and so now some spots are pretty red, but I think it'll look nice knit up. So a success!

Except, except...oh, I don't want to talk about it. It's too painful.

It's...I...I can't even talk about it. There was a funny smell, and then there was yarn on fire, and then there was burned wool, and breaking, and...aaaaugh.

And really it's not too bad, actually; it only burned through about ten strands, all close together, so most of the skein is intact. I saved these little bits and I'll use them for seaming or edges or something. It's just...augh.

But I did make pretty yarn!

Oh, and what am I making? Oh, only the third-most popular baby pattern on Ravelry.

I told you I'm not cool.

Flamingo Scarf goes down on the farm

I'm home again, home again, home again! The travel was sort of exhausting, but I'm oh-so-glad to be here. On the way here I spent about ten hours either waiting at the airport or watching horrible dreadful reality TV on the plane (Jet Blue, I love you so), which meant about ten hours of quality time with the Flamingo Scarf. It is coming along quite nicely, although I am remembering once again that while I love wearing scarves, I hate knitting them.

I do seem to have a bit of trouble assimilating this concept.

Anyway, the scarf has grown significantly, so I decided to take it for a little photoshoot around the farm.

Flamingo scarf enjoys the sunflowers.

Close-up of the pattern.

Flamingo scarf finds a kindred spirit! This scarf is really quite easy (easy enough to be boring, actually) now that I've memorized the pattern.

Reggie is not amused (but see how long it's gotten?)

It does curl a lot, at least pre-blocking, so of course it'll be much wider and longer than this once I'm done.

Flamingo scarf checks out the pumpkin blossom.

Signage to the contrary, the chickens were not particularly interested one way or another.

But they did leave me a present!

Not everyone is allowed a photograph, though--

Some of us are far too inquisitive and rambunctious to be allowed ANYWHERE near my delicate lace scarf.

Want want want covet covet covet

I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it! It's red and lacy and FAST and pretty and I want it, I WANT it.

Those of you who are knitters and have been reading the internets lately might know of what I speak. (As an aside, those of you who are not knitters but merely friends of mine hoping I will post another picture of my rack will be sorely disappointed. Just saying.)

I want it. I was first inspired by this one--I think that if (no, WHEN) I make my own I will probably make the same mod--to eliminate the purl ridges after the yoke. Then I did a little googling and found this one and that was it--I was done for. I had to have this sweater, and I had to have it in red, and I had to have it NOW. And as it turns out, I'm not alone. (Ravelry is my NEW FAVORITE TOY).

The process of knitting and eventually wearing this sweater and having it all for my very own, yessss precious, is slightly complicated--complicated by my finances (i.e. I have no money for groceries, let alone yarn)(although given a choice between the two I am not entirely sure what my choice might be)(pathetic, I know)(moving on now). Complicated, also, by the fact that in eleven short hours I will be getting on a plane and flying across the country.

But I have a Plan. It involves ripping some WIPs that are getting on my nerves anyway, it involves washing and re-dying that yarn and putting it to new use, it involves a lot of things that are going to make a big mess in the kitchen and remind my mother how extremely pleased she is that I am home (not really).

In the meantime, I'm going to go pack my Flamingo Scarf in my carry-on bag and hope for lenient airport security. I'm a little worried about those metal straight needles I'm using for it--I've never had a problem flying with my knitting before, but I also usually use wooden circs. We'll see. I'm putting in a lifeline just in case.