So close!

We had two snowy days this week, so I had lots and lots of knitting time!

First, I started anoter pair of socks. I've only done one of the green crazy color socks, but the Knitpicks Lovers group on Ravelry started a Sock knit along this month, and I wanted to join in that.  I decided to make Valentine's Day socks using the Heart's abound pattern that came in my Stroll Tonal sock kit.  With it, I'm using Stroll Tonal in Gypsy.  I had the yarn up in my "For Sale" section of my stash, but once I decided to make Valentine's Day socks, I knew I had to use it! I'm making them two at a time, on two circular needles.  The first repeat of the pattern made me nervous - it's not difficult, but it's 20 rows and I had a hard time intuitively being able to see what the next row should be.  Now that I'm on the second repeat (of about 7), it's coming along a little faster.

Yesterday I also got a lot done on my Owls sweater.  The cabling is all done - I can see owls! I only have about five rows to go on the neck, plus seaming the armpits, adding button eyes, and weaving in the ends I tried it on last night to make sure it was going to fit. It's snug, but I think it will block nicely and fit perfectly.  My husband was pretty impressed with it, also. He always seems so surprised when I finish something and it looks like it's supposed to. I guess I'm just impressive :) I'd like to wear the sweater Sunday, so tonight will be the night to get it done! Here's hoping the armpits come together like they're supposed to - I'm a little nervous right now :-/

Chugging Along

I've made pretty good progress on both the Moderne Baby Blanket and my owls sweater.  I'm almost done with the first sleeve on the sweater, only about an inch or two to go (which is nothing when it's in bulky weight yarn). Hopefully I'll finish that up during the MSU basketball game this afternoon, and start the next.  The blanket is coming along as well, although by looking at it, you can't really tell. It's incredible how much longer it takes to do a row by just adding a few stitches. I'll just keep chugging on both of these, someday I'll be able to say I'm done!
I've picked up spinning again, and I can tell I've gotten better.  My problem now is that I'm making the yarn too thin. Also, my plying is off. I think I'm underspinning each single, which is making it harder to ply. I spun up one of the PhatFiber samples from September (Farmers Market) that looked like a watermelon. I lost the label for it a long time ago, but it was a bright, fun fiber.  I'm thinking I should have left it unplyed, though, because the act of plying really muddied the colors and it doesn't look nearly as bright anymore.  I just tried to take some pictures, but the lighting was awful. I think I'm in struggle mode today. . .

Housekeeping

As per usual, I haven't updated this blog in about a bajillion years.  Oh well.

I've been working on a Moderne Baby Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting lately.  I'm using Knit Picks Shine Worsted yarn in Creme Brulee, Cream, Clementine, and Begonia.  I purchased 5 skeins of each color. Based on stitch count, etc., I think it will be more than enough of cream (I should have plenty for an applied i-cord border, I hope), just a little extra orange and yellow, and not enough pink.  I'll have to reassess the pink when I get closer to the end, but it's looking like I'll need to buy another ball. I'm hoping maybe I can send one ball of the orange or yellow back and just exchange it.  We'll see what happens!
So far, I love the yarn. It is super soft, and the stitches just look really nice.  Also, as the name implies, it has a nice shine to it.  Sometimes I lay it out and I just smile because of how nice I think it's turning out.  Right now, I'm a few rows back from finishing block 6. I'm starting to get a little tired of all of the garter stitch, which might be a problem since I'm only 36% of the way done :/.  Oh well, its potential recipient isn't due until July, so lots of time!  It is not known yet whether the baby is a boy or a girl. I really wanted to make this blanket in these colors (and have for some time), so I figured I would start, and if it turns out to be a boy I can make something else.
I've been doing a few other little projects here and there, but nothing huge.  I have one sock finished from the Threadbare yarn I bought awhile ago, but haven't begun sock #2 yet. I really like the yarn AND sock, but I've been spending all of my knitting time on the baby blanket.  When the baby blanket gets less portable (as it quickly is), I'll start the next sock.
I've also started the owls sweater. I have an extra skein of yarn, so I made it fairly long. Now I'm at the armpits and I've quit.  I need to make the sleeves and keep going, but once again, the baby blanket distracted me.  I am typically a super loose knitter (socks on 0's are still pretty loose gauge), but for some reason, have an iron grip on this sweater. I actually had to go UP a needle size, which is completely unheard of for me.  Because of this tight knitting, it's hard for me to work on it for too long. My hands start to get tired and ache.  The actually knitting moves pretty fast, so if I just dedicate a few nights of knitting (or a long weekend), it should be done. Maybe that can be my project today, once I finish up block 6. . .

Fishies

In April, I decided to start working on another afghan.  I found a fun pattern for little fish (Rav link) and decided it would make a fun baby blanket with the Loops & Threads Yarn Gang yarn I bought on sale.  I have approximately one billion skeins, in all sorts of colors, so I needed to do something with it.
I ended up picking out a subdued rainbow, and combined that with cream.  Finally, I decided a dark blue would work to crochet each row together plus add a border at the end (Evan helped me pick out the dark blue). Then I made some of the cream and pink fish and. . .put it away. I figured I could pull it out and make a fish or two whenver I was tired of the current project I was on.
Fast forward to last weekend. I finished my diagonal lace socks, I finished my hat, and wasn't sure what I wanted to start next (like I said in my last post).  I picked up the fish blankie, and started churning them out.  I also decided to start stitching the fish together.  I feel like I've accomplished so much - in addition to stitching all of the cream, pink, and orange into rows, I also crocheted those three rows together. There's nothing like working on the whole blanket as you go. It makes it look like there's actually an end in sight. For me, it's really disheartening when I knit knit knit blocks for what seems like months, and THEN I have to weave in ends and stitch together.  This way when I am done knitting fish, the blanket will just need a border! Excellent :) I will plan on taking a few pictures tomorrow - I also need to get one of my hat!
Oh, and GO GREEN!

Finishing Moves

I just finished up my Diagonal Lace socks today, ends woven in and all.  I also wrapped up a hat I started as a quick project, so right now I don't have any official project I'm working on.  I have a few big things that have been lingering as WIP's or hibernating, but nothing I have a deadline (self imposed or otherwise) for, and nothing small that would only take a little while. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.  I thought I would cast on right away with my new Threadbear yarn for a pair of gloves, but I've gotten a little tired of the sock yarn at the moment.  I picked up my fish blankie and figured I could make a few fish for that while I'm deciding what my next project will be.  Originally I planned to make my grandma a Haruni for Christmas, but between the socks and all of the other lace I'd been working on, I'm not really in the mood right now.  I think that is also due to using the Comfy Fingering from Knit Picks. I like the yarn, but I don't know how well it's going to work with this project. I need to start over on smaller needles and see how I like that.
For now, I'm back to fish blankie.  I can probably get one or two done while watching DH tonight :)

Rainy Day

I wanted to try and take some new pictures today, mostly of some socks and my Citron, but it is nasty out there, so that will have to wait for another day.
I really am a terrible blogger, and don't keep up with anything. I can't remember the last thing I blogged about before I dyed the roving.  That is still sitting in its drawer. I've started spinning the bare, I try to do 15 minutes a day, which translates to 45 minutes every few days instead.  Someday I'll have it all spun up, no rush. I have no idea what I'm planning on doing with it anyway, so no rush!
I finished the Citron a while ago, but finally wove in ends the other day and did some light blocking. I think it will work really well in two weeks for the wedding we're going to - just the right amount of color (Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Springtime) to go with my grey dress. Since I had two skeins, but barely tapped into the second, I used (some of) the rest to make a pair of socks. I picked the Dead Simple socks from Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up. My gauge is a little big, and I wasn't in the mood to use tiny dpns (I prefer two circulars or magic loop - harder to pull needles out accidentally) so I had to do a little bit of modification to the pattern to make them work. They are still just a little big.
Once I finished that pair, the next pair jumped on my needles. This time I chose to make the Diagonal Lace Socks from the same book.  I'm using Shibuiknits Sock for this.  It's the first nice (expensive!) yarn I've used, which is sort of fun.  I'm really liking these. Last night I turned the heels on both, so hopefully bumming around on the couch the next two days will result in some finished socks!  Today in Lansing I bought my next pricey skein - ThreadBear's Black Dog Hand Dyed Sock.  No idea what this hefty skein will become, but I'm excited to figure that out!
Time to finish those Diagonal Lace Socks!

Dyeing?

Recently I bought some roving from Knit Picks.  I went with the cheapest, mostly because I wanted to play around with dyeing it and had no idea how it would turn out. So today, with the gladiolus on my mantel as inspiration, I got to work.

I used four packets of lemonade, two and a half orange, and two red.  I lucked out at Marshalls the other day and bought their last ketchup and mustard bottles, which worked quite well, in my opinion.

After soaking the roving in a hot tub for a little while,I drained the water, put down some garbage bags, and went to town with the dye (I forgot to take a picture of this part).  I then rolled up the whole concoction, put it in a big ziplock bag, and microwaved it for three minutes. Once it was cool enough to touch, I unrolled it in the tub (with another garbage bag for protection).

After a quick rinse in lukewarm water, I hung it up to dry:

Here is the final braid (well, three braids, I split it up to make it easier for me to spin later on):

I definitely could have used less red and more yellow - it was hard to get the yellow to really show up. I think if I did it again, I would make the sections of red smaller, and a lot more yellow.  Orange probably wasn't even necessary.  I also should have used saran wrap to roll it up. That might prevent the red from taking over as much as it did.  My plans are to spin a bare single, then use a different method to dye it green (probably stovetop). Then I'll ply the two singles together and see what happens. Originally I wanted to do green on this roving, but realized it probably wouldn't mix well with the orange or red. We'll just see how this all turns out :)