knitting kitchen

I dyed this corriedale in April, 2008.

Then, Mark made me several spindles.

A little bit of time, The Girl Who Played With Fire on audiobook, and I turned the corriedale into yarn I knit into this:

Pattern: Road Not Taken by Lisa Lloyd

Needles: US 6

I’m not sure why this project gave me so much more satisfaction than many of the other things I’ve knitted.

I’ve also decided to break out the dye pot and over-dye the reader’s shawl I knitted in June, the one with the unfortunate color changes between skeins.

It’s drying now…

Then I redyed the clown-colored shawl. Alle and I took samples of the leftover zauberball tropical fish yarn and over-dyed it turquoise, red, and yellow. Here are the samples:

We settled on over-dyeing it turquoise.

It still looks scary when it’s photographed, but it’s a big improvement in person. We soaked up the excess dye with knit picks merino lace weight yarn.

the leftover turquoise

The leftover red

I haven’t dyed anything in a while and the thought of breaking out the enameled pot made me want to take a nap. After a few hours of playing with colors, I wonder why I ever stopped.  Added bonus? In my storage box of dying stuff, I found a binder of sweater patterns I have been looking for since 2008.

Yes, there has been knitting, but not things that I necessarily want to talk about.

I knit this lovely shawl with crazy-colored yarn because? I have no idea why. Nothing a bit of dyeing won’t fix.  You can’t see my incredible, show-stopping lace knitting. You’ll have to trust me that it’s there. I swear. The pattern called for a skein of zauberball sock. Most sane people did it in tonal stripes, not Tropical Fish (the color name). I knew it wasn’t a great idea when I started it, but I will say that having all those lovely colors fly through my fingers was a lot of fun and it is all about process for me anyway.

Then I started doing this:

so I could do this:

and this:

Once my hyper-ventilation stopped, I was able to do this:

While this is my first project on a 4-harness floor loom, I did have help. As a birthday present to myself, I hired my friend Kari to give me weaving lessons. I’d bought the loom 4 years ago and it’s been collecting dust ever since. I’ve threatened to sell it a number of times and M always talks me out of it. Now I’m really glad. I had no idea what I was doing when I bought this Nilus LeClerc 4-harness loom. I stumbled across it by accident and only started the conversation with the seller because I had the sneaking suspicion she was the mother of a friend’s wife (she was!).

On a recent cleaning spree (yes, they do happen from time to time), I hauled the thing out of the corner and began to clean it up. At the time, I couldn’t imagine what all these moving parts are for, and after all the warping and weaving that’s gone on, Nilus and I are much better acquainted.

The pattern that I’m weaving is Jonathan’s Blanket, a baby blanket I saw when I went to Webs in search of cotton for my warp. Kari is an amazing teacher, never discouraging me from having my first project be an overshot weave.

This has been so much fun, I’m ready to break out the Kromski rigid heddle loom!

I bought this as a kit from Adirondack Yarns in Lake Placid, NY.  I want to be very clear about this: I think the world of the people at Adirondack Yarns. They are always nice to me whether I see them in their store or at a show. They have great kits, projects that can be knitted by and worn by real people, and they have yarn I adore.  Like Fleece Artist BFL, which I’ve bought from AY and used twice before.

This is the first time I’ve used the BFL in brown and was in love with the color until…

Abbey doesn’t mind the odd color changes because the yarn is so soft.

After I took the photos outside, I realized that the third skein of yarn was a very different color than the other two. This can happen when you use hand-dyed yarn but still, it makes me very sad.

I had been hoping to enter this in the Bridgewater Fair because, why not? Now, I’ll only be thinking about that if I bother to over-dye the shawl.  Ah well.

The pattern, by Bergere de France, and the yarn are lovely all the same and as soon as it starts getting chilly again, I have plans to snuggle up by the fire with my shawl and a good book.

Last week I blocked two lace scarves that had been languishing in my ‘unfinished projects’ bin. I broke out the 1001 T-pins, the foam interlocking exercise squares, and I took over the dining room.  After that experience, I swore that I would either quit knitting lace or buy some blocking wires.

I love Knit Picks and have contemplated buying blocking wires there a few times, but as I watch all the other stuff add up in my shopping cart, I usually realize something has to go. That’s how they keep from finding their way into my house.

Savannah, Ravelry member Salt, shows how she made a set of lace blocking wires by making a trip to the local welding supply store.  According to Google (so it must be true) the closest welding supply store for me is Air Gas. While I have no problem heading over there to pick up some welding rods, I am a little concerned that one thing will lead to another and I’ll end up having to explain to M the wisdom of having my next new hobby involve a torch and a mask.