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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Fun with colors...

Oh boy oh boy oh boy... I had fun with colors last week.  I would have posted sooner but life and well a little illness ran away with me.  So I am sharing now.

I actually did some dying last week, and it turned out fairly well.  No I am not kidding.  I like how it turned out even though I did over-saturate the dye a bit.  But let me start from the beginning.

I started out with a blank KnitPicks Yarn in worsted weight.  And with an experimentation wanted to try not variegated yarn but a sort of stranded from one color to the next with no repeating of color.  So when I hanked it for dyeing I did it in three parts...


Another use for my warping board.  I did two skeins this way and stuck them in three jars in my dye pot to ensure that the colors did not blend.  I liked that method the best when I checked things out on-line.  I added the dyes and when about boiling it.


I definitely over saturated the color.  I used the whole packets of dye... I know, I know... there are times I should call this blog 'Confessions of an Artistic Slob', I just read half the directions and go headlong into it.

But I do like how the colors turned out even though they were not what I was expecting.


Washed and somewhat rinsed... it took a lot of rinsing.



And then drying.... I didn't split the first skein very well so it went from blue to dark blue to teal back to blue but at least is still only had three colors.


And all hanked up.  So pretty.  Now on to knit the wonderful stuff.  Squee!!!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Pretty Skies...

Well I finished the poncho... and I think it looks nice.  Really really nice....

I started out with less than two balls of James C. Brett's Marble Chunky.  They are really big balls of yarn... and really soft and really neat.  I like them a lot but never know what to do with them. 

The first thing I made out of the yarn was my mom's Einstein Coat.



I really liked how this colorway striped.  And my mom loved it because of the colors and the softness of it. 

I had purchased this yarn to make another jacket but it took me forever to make the last one and I didn't know if the person would have even liked it so I let the yarn sit.  I made a had and scarf for my nephew and that ate up some of the yarn but then I had a ball and some left over.

Well my roomies birthday was coming up and I knew she liked ponchos... and one looked like a lot of fun to make.  So off I went.  I loved knitting it and it was wonderful yarn to work with.  Until I came close to the end.  I wasn't going to have enough.  I was going to be short.  Not by much.  So out I trekked and found a complimentary color and added a little on the bottom and an edge around the collar and voila....



It worked... I was so happy.  Now I probobly would have been fine with the yarn I had, if I had not wanted to add fringe. 



I think it looks a lot better.  It holds the edge down and shows off the colors very nicely.


I even got her to show it off and smile too. So pretty... oh yeah, the poncho is too.

Friday, January 13, 2012

On with the monsters....

I really do like knitting toys.  Unfortunately I have this stupid practical side that says I should not create something that doesn't have a purpose.  (I am working on that.)

So I thought I would share some of the toys I have made recently as gifts... yeah they are gifts, after all this is the year of Creative Giving.







These are the first group of little guys... a tropical bunch with horns to boot.






These are their mortal winged enemies who fight for territory in a bucket.





See they all fit....

Actually this is a bean bag toss game that I made for my nephew... I had hoped to get some pictures of him throwing these at his siblings but he was more interested in opening wrapped presents. 

Then I made a quick little toy for my Chavi girl... because she is awesome and I needed some distraction knitting...





... I would show you more but I think she wants to tell you about her new E.Y.M. (Evil Yarn Monster).

Now on with the parade so that I can finish more stuff.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Oh the grand and wondrous road...



What do you see when you look inside this box?

Do you see a bag full of string?  White-ish yarn waiting to go on a shelf?  A bunch of that wooly stuff old women turn into things?

Or...

Do you see what I see?

Possibilities... Potential... A blank canvas of maybes.  That is what I see.  Color waiting to happen.  Shape waiting to take form.  That is what I see when I look in that box.







It is the same here.  Where someone else might see blue yarn, or the sky and the sea... I see a ferret.  I wonderful muse who kicks my behind and tells me to write more. 

Possibilities ... they are grand and wondrous things.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Want to but what I actually did...

Okay I wanted to work on a different project tonight...

...but I didn't.

I wanted to show how far I am right now...

...but I'm not.

What I did work on tonight as I watched the new Frightnight movie was work on some blanket squares.





No they are not very big and yes I am going to have to make a ton of them to make the size I want to but that is okay.




Here is a close up of the texture of the squares.  It is really an easy knit for me, which is nice.  This is what I am planing on knitting for social knitting, at least until I get my non-dyed yarn and I start knitting the blanks for my experimentation dye project.

Now why I am I not posting other pictures?  And why did I not work on the project I really wanted to?
Because I was watching the movie with my roomie and sat with her for a bit afterwards and what I want to work on is actually her birthday present.  She knows what I am making for her, a poncho, because I totally blitzed and let it slip, but she doesn't know what pattern or what yarn I am using.  And dangnabit I am not going to share that with her.  She will be surprised somehow with it.

The other thing that I am trying to keep on the back burner right now is the fact that there is something I want to knit for myself.  A sweater, I know, I hate knitting sweaters.  But it is a fun sweater and I am going to give myself a goal of three months to knit it up.  It is out of the book knit, swirl! by Sandra McIver. 




And I think it will be a lot of fun to wear.  It is the first pattern in the book and requires over 2000 yards of yarn.  But I know I can do it and I will wear it big time... so that will be my next big project.  I have some other little ones floating around but that is my big one.

I do have some other stuff to share but they too are presents and I want pictures with the receivers before I actually post pictures here.  So they will have to wait.  Specifically Ian's Toss Game, Flower headbands and the 60th Sweater (I know I finished it.)