Happy Memorial Weekend

Well, I hope everyone had an excellent holiday weekend! I know I did. Here in Northern Nevada it was as absolutely gorgeous as it could get...Warm without being hot, breezy, but not windy, clear skies and bright sun!! My apartments opened up the pool, so I got me a little color. Especially on my legs - winter white that they were.

I was able to relax completely this weekend, as well as being quite busy. You know, that busy-ness of doing something you love doing. I got a lot done the last 3 days - namely dying on Saturday then spinning on Sunday and Monday. Also did some knitting, but I didn't make as much progess as I had hoped. More on that later.

Dye Day

About a month ago, on another dye day I did the skein to the left. (It was in roving form, then.) I so love the color that I'm calling "Orange Juice" that I wanted a pair of socks out of it. So that was first. I also threw in some pieces of silk on top to see how they took up the dye:

I just love the sheen, and the kettle dyed look.

Then, while that was perking, I handpainted the folowing:

Allison calls them "Hannah colors", I guess because they are mainly pink! :-) I like pink!!

Then, came the spinning:

This became this:

I not as happy with it finished as it looked spinning up. It looks kind of washed out and dingy. Maybe it will look better knitted up. One can only hope... None of the dye washed out, either after rinsing after dying nor after spinning, so I thing it just might be the large amount of white left between colors while painitng. Hmm, I'll have to try somehting else, then.

I also spun up the silk:

Oh, yeah - that's what I'm talkin' about!! That little mini skein is only about 6" long, but the stuff spun up so fine and even, and only drifted apart once while chain plying it. I love it! The shine, the cool peachy color, the feel (sorry, Blogger doesn't have an interactive virtual interface yet) (though that would be really cool, then we could actually feel and smell the yarns our blog buddies have posted pics of, as well as yarns at online shops, as well as...) the distinctive silk smell (although I recently found out that that smell comes from the saricin of the cocoon - the stronger the smell, the less clean the silk is). This is actually the first time I have spun bombyx silk, and I like it so much better than spinning tussah (which I have.)

I am planning now on dying the full pound I have in this same color. I am already envisioning a light and lacey shawl.

Knitting

On the knitting front, I am still plugging away at my Shetland Square Shawl out of "Folk Shawls." I am almost done with it, and I had hoped to be done this weekend. This is the progress so far:

On Friday I finished up the inner border, and was going to start in on the outer border Saturday morning. I did do that, however, being as this is the first time I have done a knitted on border, it took me a little while to figure out how it goes and get it going. At this time I realized that I have totally underestimated the time left. It is going to take a little while longer to finish. Oh well, it is coming a long swimmingly, and I am still so in love with the color (and the yarn.) I can't wait to block it and see the finished product. The picture above shows the one side that is done (there are three more to go!) :-/

Yesterday, the guild had an impromtu spin-in at Bartley Ranch Park. It was a lot of fun. That's where Allison saw my colors! :-) This was the first time I had been to this park, not only was it absolutely lovely, but it's only 2 miles from my house! I am now thinking of this place for my birthday party in August. I need to call and get prices, and make reservations. The place where we sat yesterday has six tables covered by a roof, a BBQ, lots of grass to play around on, and a nice breeze. I think it would be really nice to have it there. I could still decorate - string streamers and balloons from the rafters of the roof. There is even a rock wall around part of the area, where people could also sit, if there's no room at the tables. Hmm, this sounds like a good idea. I think I will take M. up there this week to show here - get some ideas from her.

Anyway, enough posting for now. Hope everyone has a great week, and may God bless you abundantly!!

What Kind of Knitting Have You Done?

This is a “What have you done in knitting?” that is going around the blog community. I thought it would be fun to share. And ask yourself – what have you done in knitting?

What I have done is in ITALICS, what I haven't done is in regular type, and commentary is always good. (Lets you know what I’m thinking!) ;-)

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch – um, yeah
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl – several , I can’t seem to stop!
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up – want to at least give it a try.
Knitting with camel yarn – but I will in a couple of days.
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL – (Knit–a–long, for non-knitters)
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn – I ripped out a off the rack sweater to make something else.
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn – huh?
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting – I actually am not sure what that means? I’ll have to look into it – somethng about knitting I don’t know?? (Gasp)
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles – uh, that’s all I have
Baby items
Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn – love it, because I made it.
Slippers
Graffiti knitting – not sure what this is either, maybe something like free-form?
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Participate in an exchange
Scarf - the first thing everyone learns to do
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with alpaca – love spinning it too!
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors – done it with food coloring though.
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting with someone else’s hand-spun yarn
Knitting with dpns – of course, you can’t do socks w/out ‘em.
Holiday related knitting – every single year, I can’t seem to help it!
Teaching a male how to knit – in my last class there was a man.
Bobbles – hate ’em
Knitting for a living – wanted to try, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to support myself.
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks – not yet, but that’s coming up.
Knitting art - every knitted pice is a work of art.
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously – I’m such a traditionalist, dpns are the way to go.
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool – do I live in the mountains?
Textured knitting
Kitchener stitch
Knitted flowers
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac – not yet.
Knitting and purling backwards – very handy for doing small back and forths.
Machine knitting – again, a traditionalist.
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn – always fun to see what the next one will be.
Stuffed toys – do cat toys count? :-)
Knitting with cashmere – not 100% but close enough.
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn – ugh, don’t like acrylic anymore.
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Free-form knitting - I'm too organized and neat.
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/arm-warmers
Pillows – does a crocheted one count?
Knitting a pattern from an on-line knitting magazine
RugKnitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting – supposed to be very warm.
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets – inadvertantly but, yes – my cats sleep on Noro Silk Garden
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair – not yet, but I have saved cat hair to spin up.
Hair accessories – and probably never will.
Knitting in public

Pass it on!

Spring is Finally Here

Remember this pic (from my dye day):

Well, that turned into...this:


I whipped it out this weekend for a co-workers birthday today. Made out of Patons Merino Wool, originally cream, rainbow dyed in my dying frenzy. :-)

Well, I guess I am officially now a Reno resident. (What, the drviers license didn't do it for you?)Nope, it had to be the... Librbary card! Yep, I got myself a library card for the Washoe County system. And look what I borrowed...
I love this book!! I've been wanting to try my hand at fair isle for a while. The patterns in this book are both stitch (colorwork) patterns in black and white so you can imagine your own colors, as well as garments with set colorways (changeable, of course!) There is also a section in the back about designing your own. Very cool! :-)

Now that spring is here, I fall asleep to the chorus of frogs across the way, and wake of to the very loud chorus of birds. This weekend was absolutely beautiful! Lovely warm weather, sunshine, birds flying to and fro, gettting their nests ready. And look what came to visit my balcony once the kitties went inside for a nap...




Not one but two cute little birds came (several different times) to gather fiber for their nest. They picked at the blue rug, then moved up to the cat bed once they discovered the riches of kitty fluff. The bed itself is made of synthetic fleece, so there were taking some of that, too. I snuck outside in between trips and deposited some more fiber from around my spinning chair for them to take.

There is one plush nest out there. :-) It brings to mind the word "twitterpated!"

Imagine if...

I found this on another blog. Pretty right on. Find out about yourself.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Miscellany

I am so glad this weekend is over. It was exciting and busy, but went entirely too fast, with not enough down time. So now, its "I can't wait for Friday to be here..." Although, I have cleared my schedule for most of this week, so I should have plenty of time to rest and relax in the evenings.

Before I get onto the knitting and fiberish content...Sunday was awesome!! There are not enough adjectives to tell you just how well the Easter presentation went! The church was packed (Thank you, Lord!) and the performance went off without a hitch. Here is a pic of the final scene:


It was the full Easter story, including Roman guards and Crucifiction scene. They taped both performances (Friday and Sunday) and will cut and paste and edit to create a nice DVD, which the choir will get to see at a party in a couple of weeks. I can't wait. From the comments and compliments it was truly awesome.

Now on to fibery things...

I dyed some more Saturday - straight BFL roving this time. It didn't felt or full at all, for which I am very please about. It was still very easy to spin up, as you can see in the second pic. (Nice sock yarn!) Very spring-like colors - very nice for this weekend. The orange I dyed by pouring in orange and yellow into the same pot and not mixing. I like the shadings that occured. Once I spin this up I'll see how it goes - maybe a hat or scarf.



Continueing my fascination with all shades of green - I started (yet) another (rolling of the eyes) project. Another shawl out of "Folk Shawls":

I know it's kinda dark - on my computer at home the colors are rich and fabulous. This is the Fir Cone Square, in Harrisville Shetland, color Emerald. This green is so rich and deep, in the sunlight there are blue flecks. I love how it knits up, pretty quick. The inch or so that you see there was done just yesterday evening!

And of course it wouldn't be a post with out gratuitous feline pictures:

While Kitty played with the camera strap...

Lexy snoozed at the top of the kitty condo!

Stash Enhancment (or S.E.X.)

As you can see - I've been shopping!! Trekking XXL, which I have heard soo much about lately. 1 ball will make a pair of socks - 1 in reds, and the other pair in grays and blues. It feels pretty soft, but is superwash with nylon, so hardwearing! I got all this at the Yarn and Fibre Co (thanks to Claudia lauding them on her blog.) And they are fast - I ordered this last Friday and got it Tuesday! The Cherry Tree Hill skein on the right is their merino sock yarn in color "Northern Lights." All sorts of colors from dark purple to green to light pink. Can't wait to knit this into another pair of socks.

Now for the best part. The dark purple hank at the bottom is as you can probably tell - "Helens Lace" form Lorna's Laces. 50/50 Merino and Silk - I can't wait to knit this up into a lacey shawl. There is even a free shawl pattern on the back of the label.

Kitty was feeling quite frisky the other night and had fun while I was making the bed! :-)


Happy Easter, Passover, etc - "He is Risen, He is Risen indeed!!" Amen and Amen!

Saturday Dye Day

(Warning - Picture Heavy Post Ahead!) ;-)

Well, I certainly had fun on Saturday! I tried my hand (for the first time - I might add) at dyeing. I had read in the spring issue of Knitty about dyeing with food coloring and somewhere else about dyeing with KoolAid. So I grabbed some cream wool from Michaels, along with some merino lace weight I have from KnitPicks, and a sample of unspun BFL (for non-spinners - Blue-Faced Leicester), and I got dyeing!

The red is cherry KoolAid and the purple is grape. When they were first done, and I had rinsed and hung to dry, I was kinda dissapointed with the unevenness of the color, but the I realized it looked kettle-dyed. Cool! :-)

These two pircture are kind of before and after shots. The roving on the top was grape Koolaid, and before dyeing I had let it soak in vinegar water. So it pulled up the blues and reds at different rates of the purple dye, thus the variations. It also fulled a little, but after it was dry I was able to spin it up without too much trouble. I navajo plyed it into the skein you see on the bottom.

Now for the piece de resistance:
I just love these colors. Rainbow-dyed with easter egg colors (food coloring). I wish the red were not so pink, but I really like the intensity of the green, orange, and yellow.

This is the merino lace weight from Knitpicks. I dip-dyed it in the purple from the easter egg kits. I tripled the dye so the intesity would be high. The yarn was also soaked in vinegar water, so there is more variation in the blues and reds. The process is this: I dunked the yarn almost all the way in then pulled it out a little, let is sit for about 10 mins, then pulled another little bit out, let it sit for 20 mins, and so on and so forth. So as you can see it gradually darkens the longer that part of the skein was in the dye bath.

Needless to say - I had a lot of fun. Fortunately, not a whole big mess to clean up, and no spills! I might not be so lucky next time with cats running around!

Speaking of which, Kitty and Lexy relaxing (as usual):

On a completely different note:

I know its kind of dark, but this is the set for the Easter performance at Sierra Bible. Very impressive! On the left is the tomb with a "rock" to roll in front at the appropriate time. In the middle (the hump with the cross atop it) is the "cave" where we the choir are going to be crammed into. And on the far right is the Jerusalem"wall". It is going to be an amazing, emotional performance. I don't expect that there will be a dry eye in the congregation near the end. With the choir stuck in the batcave, we will miss all the good stuff, but that is probably to the good, so we can actually get through the performance. Pray for many people to have a seed planted this Easter. God is so good!!