I made my nephew a hat using some Madelintosh DK I had left over in my stash. I didn't follow a pattern and I am happy with how it turned out. Tiny modeled for me.
Lately I've been obsessed with gradient yarns. I love the look of a hand knit that has color gradually fading. I have been looking for months for good gradient yarns. I have asked around and now with a new KAL coming up and a pattern that will be perfect for a gradient yarn the search has gone from browsing to MUST HAVE NOW. Also my plan is to have Freddy buy me the yarn as a Christmas gift. I have found a company that has offered to dye me up some roving in a progressive blend. I am so excited about it. In the mean time I've been playing a little with some dye.
I made some kettle dyed / cake style yarn. I had some yarn I didn't like the color of. I thought it was a subtle pretty pink, but once I knitting it up I just didn't love it. I had two skeins of it originally and I had one whole skein left. I decided it would be my guinea pig yarn for the cake dye method. I've taken a dying class before and like my teacher said "Dying yarn isn't rocket science. It is fun!"
The skein was 668 yards and I broke it up into one large and one small loosely wound cakes.
I brought by dye pot to a simmer and added white vinegar and all the food coloring I had left in my cabinet (I didn't have much). I mixed up blue, green, yellow and red.
I put the two skeins in and submerged them. I covered the pot with a lid and let simmer. At first the water was so dark you couldn't see the yarn. I left it alone for hours and hours and hours.
Before I went to bed the water was almost clear. Most of the dye had been absorbed by the fiber. I turned off the heat and left the pot to cool over night.
In the morning I pulled the two cakes out of the water. At this point the water was crystal clear.
Look no more unloved pink yarn.
I unwound the cake into two skeins. See how the dye is absorbed! It is dark on the outside and gets gradually lighter as you get to the center. There are little flecks on the yarn where it was touching the other yarn. I love it.
The outer edge is a very deep hunter green and as you get to the middle it lightens up.
Walla super fun yarn! I included what the original pink looked like below.
Fun stuff I tell you.
In knitting projects. I finished up a climb sock. It is one of Jane Richmond's new patterns that was released in the book Journey. It is the most comfortable sock in the entire world. I thought it was the funniest looking sock as I was knitting it. It is a different construction of a sock than what I'm used to, but it is the snuggest comfiest sock ever. I can't wait to finish the second one! I am using some stashed alpaca yarn for the sock.
I finished up my Wurm hat with Fable Fibers yarn. I love how it turned out. It is supposed to be a gift, but I might have to keep it. There is still plenty of time to gift knit before Christmas right???
My labels are no where near as fancy as the Crazysheeplady's, but hey I like them.
For reading (or listening in my case to audio books).
I am now listening to The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and narrated by Allan Corduner. I have been staying up much later than I should lately because I am enjoying listening to it so much. I really like the narrator and how he uses the appropriate accents, it really makes it fun.
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