Speaking of which...

(One final exam down, problem set half-done, so I'm allowing myself to indulge in a little blogging today)

Speaking of dying, look at this article in the new Knitty! It's fascinating--I knew some of it already, but it was so interesting. I didn't realize (although I guess I would have if I'd thought about it) that Kool-Aid, liquid food coloring, and paste dyes all use the same kinds of commerical food dye. How interesting. And the way different dyes are absorbed at different rates, and the question of mixing colors vs. overdying--it's so interesting.

And the stuff on color theory-again, I knew a lot of it, but it never even occurred to me to use complimentary colors to tone down the really bright colors I've been getting with food dyes (i.e. add a couple of drops of green to my red to make it a little murkier). Oh, I can't wait to try some of this out! I've always shied away from acid dyes because of the scary chemicals (plus I'm lazy...and cheap...big surprise), but knowing the range of results I can get just with food dyes is great.

Relating to the dying, though, a Cautionary Tale: when dying on the stovetop...make sure that the other burner that you're setting your plastic plate full of yarn on is OFF.

No joke.


(all that shiny stuff on the burner? Yeah. Molten plastic. Mmmm.)

(don't worry, though--no yarn was harmed in the melting of this plate).

Aww, man.

Oooh! New Knitty! New Knitty new Knitty new Knitty!

...problem set, paper #1, paper #2, final exams fast approaching...sigh.

OK, I'll only look for a LITTLE bit. Just ONE pattern. Maybe two. Oh man, look at the cover. Is that kidsilk haze? And beads? Oh man. I've never knit lace before. Or with beads. But I WANT THAT. Ice Queen, it's called. How beautiful, and how warm it would be! (It's been really, really cold here lately, although no snow yet, cold enough to make me daydream knitting a balaclava. My nose is cold). Oh, and look at Three Tams! They remind me a lot of Fake Isle, except with Silk Garden instead of Kureyon.

OK, no more. Back to the problem set.

Sigh.

In the meantime, here's a progress report on the glove: getting there! I've tried it on a few times (OK, a lot) and I really like the way the fingers feel.



I do have a problem, though--it's looking kind of big. Here's a picture with my hand for contrast:



Now, keep in mind I have freakishly tiny hands, and since I don't yet know who these are for, I'm making the size medium. And when I put them on, the fingers are really only too long by about half an inch.

Still, though...I don't think I'll weave in the ends just yet.

Dyeing to Knit

Auuugh. Sorry about the pun.

Over Thanksgiving break, taking advantage of an empty house and an excess of free time, I embarked on more dying adventures. Last time, when I'd dyed the yarn for the Kool-Aid Sweater, it came out REALLY bright and colorful--this was fun, but I thought I'd aim for something a little more sedate this time. I settled on Lamb's Pride Worsted in "Misty Blue" for the cool colorway I wanted to try, and Bulky in Victorian Pink for the warm colorway.

Here's the yarn pre-dying:



Mmmm, can't get enough of that bulky single-ply.

I skeined the yarn using a piano-bench-turned-skein-winder:



For the cool colors I wanted to do, I knew that Kool-Aid wasn't going to cut it--even with a base color, the Kool-Aid blue and green are too neon and not saturated enough. I'd had good results with food coloring and vinegar before, so after some searching I found a box of food coloring (can't find a link, but you know those little tubes that look like dwarves and come in boxes of four? Yeah, those) that had pink, purple, blue, and green. Just what I wanted.

Since I wanted blue to be the predominant color, I came up with a color scheme that looked like this:



Next, I used a very very scientific method to determine how much dye to use: since I would be dying two blue sections and one each of purple and green, I poured all of the blue dye into a pyrex pitcher, mixed it with water, and then divided it into two jars. One of these jars went into the pot, mixed with more water and some vinegar (I actually did measure this, though I don't remember how much--I think 3/4 of a cup?)

I brought it to a boil and then added 1/4 of each of the two skeins I was dying (I'd sectioned them off into four parts earlier):



I cooked it until the water was clear (it was opaque when it started):


(seen here about halfway)

and then repeated the process with the other blue sections.

Then I repeated the process with the green dye, except since I was dying half as much yarn I only used half the bottle to begin with. I was concerned, though, when it still looked really clear, not dark and almost opaque like the blue solution, so I eventually dumped in the whole bottle (yes, I am very precise and scientific. Shut up) along with 3/4 cup of vinegar.



Right away I was concerned, though, when the yarn took up the dye MUCH faster than the blue had done, and when I took it out it wasn't nearly as saturated as the blue, despite having used the same amount of dye for half the amount of yarn. The color wasn't what I'd wanted either--it was much more olive-lime and less the emerald that I'd envisioned. Hmmm.

In the meantime, I dyed the purple portion (also using half the dye; this time it worked like I thought it would, just as saturated and rich as the blue) and then let it all cool.



(after it cooled I decided I still didn't like the green, so I overdyed it with some other green food coloring I stole from my mother's baking shelf. Much better).

For the bulky pink yarn, I used a selection of warm (Kool-Aid) colors, using a pyrex baking pan and the microwave. Evidently the vinegar fumes had gotten to me at this point, though, because I forgot to take a picture.

(I also somehow managed to to melt a plastic plate on the stove and drip molten plastic all down the cabinets, but let's not go into that, hmmm?)

At the end, I had some Kool-Aid still mixed up, so I dyed a few mini-skeins I had lying around.

And the end results...



Tah-dah! From left to right: food coloring on "Misty Blue" LPW; Kool-Aid on "Victorian Pink" LPB, and leftover Kool-Aid on some random wool scraps. One of them is Patons; the other, a mystery single-ply.

I really think this is my favorite yarn that I've dyed:



(reskeined so it looks like Real Handdyed Yarn)

I love it. I love it. I want to carry it around with me and show it to everyone I know. I'm kind of doing that already. I'm aware of how obnoxious that is. I can't stop.

and in its current incarnation:



(see how the fingers are striping? Isn't that cool?)

Christmas break, here we come! I'll try to keep the damage to the kitchen at a minimum this time.

FO like whoa

(The title only works if you say "foe" instead of "eff oh," which I don't, but still I am a fan of the rhyme).

This was a quick little knit, started (as I said) on my journey home for Thanksgiving, nearly finished on the plane, but then put on hold when I fell asleep somewhere over Montana. I finished it the next day.

As modeled by the lovely roommate, who graciously allowed me to put her face on the internet without even questioning whether it would be used for porn (don't worry, I won't.)

Berrocco Ultra Alpaca, in what I think is "Pea Soup Mix." (Ew! Who names a yarn color after soup?) Note, of course, that the reason I know the color is from looking at the website, because I lost the ball band about a year ago. 50% wool, 50% alpaca.

My own pattern: cast on 35 stitches (I think), knit in mistake rib until the yarn's almost gone, bind off. I guesstimated pretty well this time--I only had about three yards left when I bound off. 200 or so yards made for a pretty short scarf, not long enough to wrap around my neck, but it blocked out pretty nicely. There are a few scallops along the edges where I pinned it out, but I'm not too bothered. Certainly not enough to re-block it. Ah, the advantages of not being a perfectionist.

And isn't the heathered color nice? I would definitely use this yarn again--it was lovely. Not quite as soft as some other alpaca yarn, but I'm sure that was because of the wool content, and it was great to work with. I think perhaps I have a little bit of a bias against a company that produces an excess of novelty yarn, but to each his own, I suppose.

Now, if you're reading this blog and you get this scarf for Christmas, act surprised, OK?

Mittens for me!

After some consideration, I've decided I'm definitely a "process" knitter...I really enjoy knitting and planning and futzing, but after the knitting is done if I give it away/it looks goofy I'm not too fussed.

Which is why I'm so pleased that my long blabbed-about mittens actually worked! I've talked about these before, I know, but now you get the promised photoshoot, and it's not even at 2 a.m.

In all their glory:


Closeup of the flip top, v2 (ripped out the first version because it rolled, reknit in k1p1, bound off. Does it count as a provisional cast-on if I didn't mean for it to be provisional?)

Closeup of the fingertips--dear God, that was a lot of ends to weave in.

Also, can you tell I'm finally figuring out how to use macro mode?

I've gotten a lot of use out of these already--they're warm, practical, and I love the colors.

And they're pretty cute! Don't you think?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Thanks to my darling roommate for taking the pictures!

Procrastination Nation

I desperately want to be knitting right now, but I'm supposed to be writing a paper on West African influences in the blues. So, naturally, I'm ...blogging.

Some time ago, I'd bought two skeins of Cascade Pastaza in this lovely green, wonderful and warm and fuzzy. They seemed destined to keep my hands warm--especially when paired with the leftover Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals that I'd used to make mittens for my mom last year.

I'd loved the convertible gloves I made for a friend last year, so much so that I was tempted to keep them for myself, so sometime this fall, the yarn went from this:


To this (nasty rolling hem on the fliptop mitten part--bad mitten!)

Ripped out (note to self: they do not lie when they say that ripping mohair is a Big Fat Pain), reknit with k1p1 ribbing: much better.

"Fall-Colored Flip-Tops," pattern: my own, with generous help from Ann Budd and her wonderful book. Cascade Pastaza, colorway#huhIwonderwherethatballbandwent. About 1 1/2 skeins, I would imagine. Scraps of Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals in colorway...damn it. It's really pretty, though, really shiny with a nice halo.

Better photos coming soon.

Also, this was spectacularly awesome: on the plane on the way home for Thanksgiving break, I sat in a row that looked like this:

No joke. One mistake-rib scarf (me), one shawl (lady #1), and one cabled sock (lady #2). Incredible (not so much for the guy between me and lady #1, who had to put up with my leaning over his lap to talk to them. Ah well).

break time = knitting time

A week at home, a week away from school, a week not doing all the homework I'd planned to (big surprise)...a week knitting/dying/playing like mad. A week with no wireless at home, alas, so I didn't post like I'd planned...but here is a brief summary of the week's activities.

1) dying project #1, soon to be a Christmas present
2) dying project #2 (my favorite), now in the process of becoming:
3) gloves for an as-yet-undetermined recipient. Let's just say that whoever I draw for Secret Santa this year had better have women's size medium hands.
4) Manos hat, started as "dumb TV knitting." This is about the eighteenth project I've tried with this yarn--nothing has seemed quite right. I hope this works, because godammit if I have to rip one more time I might consider knitting a noose. Bonus points to the yarn for holding up really well, though.
5) Swatch for a Big Ambitious Project still in the planning stages--my first try at fancy cables! More on that later.
6) Yarn destined to become a similar swatch for the same project--again, you'll see soon.
7) Alpaca mistake-rib scarf--started on the train to New York last Sunday, finished in my living room Monday evening. Need to weave in the ends still, but hooray! A Christmas present for...someone.
8) School-colors headband, almost finished but then derailed by an unfortunate blocking accident (no, really). You can't see it in the picture, but let's just say white yarn + blue dye that bleeds = disaster. Still deciding whether I really want to fix it or if I have better things to do.
9) More dying experiments, little mini-skeins--definitely less than 50 yards each. To be incorporated in some kind of gift? Alternatively, to be carried around and petted. That works too.

Still working on my blogging/photographing skills--I'm envious of all the beautifully photographed blogs I see, because it seems like I have to take about a million pictures like this:

to get one like this:

Ah well. In the meantime, though, because I am getting better--look at the pretty Manos!

The purple on the left is the swatch for the Big Project. I'm still undecided about the combination of heathered yarn and fancy cables--I know they don't show up that well, but they do in some lights, plus maybe I want to go for the subtle look. Hmmm. The project's intended recipient did like the swatch a lot when asked, though (unsuspecting of my true motives), and especially liked the colors...we'll see.