Persistent Knitter

I started this sweater a long time ago. It was one of the things I wanted to finish before starting anything else. I had started the sleeve; but stalled out. I always have to recalculate sleeve decreases and in this case I wasn’t completely confident in my calculations and I had other more pressing projects going on; so it languished. Here I finally got the motivation for sleeve #1, and before I did the cuff we had to do a sleeve-length-sanity-check:

Katie’s always been really good at holding still with lots of DPNs sticking out. Remember when I made her a pair of socks here?

The sleeves should allow for a bit of growth and the cuff is tight enough they just bunch up a tiny bit rather than dropping over her hands. I managed to finish the whole thing, weaving in ends and all:

She didn’t want to model it for me for the picture; was too busy running around like a maniac.

It still needs to be washed/blocked, but for the most part this is what it will look like as the cables don’t need too much blocking. It’s an XO cable; which is really fun to knit, and the collar is a shawl type collar. It’s the first collar that I’ve done like this and I’m not sure I did it quite right. I think I needed to pick up a few more stitches to allow for more fabric in the folding back part. The instructions had me switch needle sizes part way through to give the outside of the collar more stretch than the inside. (You knit it back and forth and then sew down the front parts). The cuffs are really quite tight compared to the rest of the sleeves; if this had been for me, I wouldn’t have made them that way. For a little girl; it looks really cute.

Overall it knit up quickly and the yarn was a good one to work with (Rowan Handknit DK 100% Cotton). It’s not the yarn the pattern called for (of course) but worked well. It’ll be interesting to see if it grows in length when she wears it, I think if it did that would be OK. It’s not very heavy since it’s only a small girl’s sweater so I don’t think it’ll get all stretched out of proportion like an adult sized cotton sweater might. The pattern was easy to follow (I didn’t even chart the pattern stitch which is amazing!) – Bright Traditions by Fiber Trends. I would definately make this sweater again, but next time in a wool yarn. I could make one for Alex in a more boy-ish color; the pattern shows both a boy and a girl wearing it.

Who wouldn’t want one of these line following robots?

http://www.robotroom.com/Sandwich.html

Ever happen across one of those sites, that you say yourself, "Wow- that’s pretty cool!". Well here’s one:

http://www.sublimestitching.com/oneindex.html

Really cool embroidery patterns with "no ducks allowed".

A recent inventory showed me I have too many projects started, but not close enough to completion. I have decided to power ahead and finish some.  And now I have made progress:

One and a Half pairs of socks.  The blue socks are my Inside/Outside socks that I designed earlier this year for theknitter.com (Kits & pattern are available there still). They are made with fortissima cotton and soooo soft to wear. I have a feeling these will become some of my favorite hand knit socks.  The other one is a new sock of the month kit, Hawaiin Leies (Wow, I’m sure I mangled that spelling). It’s a quick and easy knit, made with Trekking XXL. I still have one more sock to make to complete that pair; but wanted to show how hard I’ve been working.
I need to finish more projects before starting the next one, the pair of koolaid dyed socks for Katie. I do know that I’ll have another sock to test knit in another week or so.

One of my goals with The Knit Foundry is to help share information about knitting/designing, and using tools to make those jobs easier.  My first step in that is a short tutorial I’ve written on reading charts.  It’s in PDF format, and you can download it from the home page of http://www.theknitfoundry.com. (the tutorial will move later into a Tutorials section, but I haven’t had time to add that to the website yet) Any feedback is welcome. I hope you enjoy it!

My daughter has two pairs of hand knit socks. One made of Opal and one from Lorna’s Laces Sport Weight sock yarn.  She really loves them both – and she recently expressed interest in some striped socks I was making for myself.  Knowing that she’d love some really bright colors, and having a need to do some experimenting, we did a bit of Kool Aid dyeing this weekend. Here she is with our end result:

Not bad, if I do say so myself! I was aiming for short stripes – since her socks have a smaller # of stitches around, I think this will come out to be 2 or 3 row stripes of each color.  Only knitting them up will tell me for sure.

So how’d we do it? Well, we used unsweetened Koolaid packets. I like the colors you can get with chemical dyes, but the extra caution and pots/pans/setup you have to have around the house really means I’ll probably not do that on a moments notice. The Koolaid cost me 20 cents per packet (we used two) and I felt safe enough with it that Katie could help me while we were doing it.  Here’s the basic instructions:

(Update: For a great color chart on koolaid colors, go Here.)

Materials

• 2 packets of Koolaid. 1 Cherry, 1 Orange
• Saran Wrap, or a Ziploc bag
• Casserole type container to hold yarn while in microwave
• Microwave
• Water
• Two disposable cups
• Two spoons
• Ball of superwash sock yarn, white. (I used Zimba Top)
• Niddy Noddy or something to wrap yarn around into a skein form.
• Rubber gloves (if you want. I didn’t use them)

Make a skein out of the ball of yarn.  I used a 1 yard niddy noddy for this skein.  If you want longer stripes, make a longer skein.  Tie the skein in 4 places using figure 8 ties. This will prevent the yarn from being tangled while it’s wet.  Fill your kitchen sink with enough lukewarm water to cover the yarn. Submerge the skeined yarn into the water. Let soak for at least 5 minutes. Make sure the yarn is really really wet.
While the yarn is soaking – Put the powder from each packet of koolaid into one cup. Orange in one, Cherry in another.  Add approx 1 cup water to each.  Stir with separate spoons to make sure the koolaid is dissolved really well.  Warmer water will dissolve it better.  Wash your hands in a different sink than your yarn is in. Make sure you don’t have any koolaid crystals on it, otherwise when you pick up the white yarn, you’ll see spots of color forming. Ask me how I know :)

Lay out enough saran wrap to lay the full length of the yarn skein on it on your counter.  This area might become a bit messy so make sure it’s somewhere that you can clean up with soap and water afterwards. Take the yarn out of the sink. Gently squeeze as much excess water out as you can.  Lay the skein flat on the saran wrap so that it’s at it’s full length. 

Take the cup of cherry koolaid and starting at one end, slowly pour it over the skein of yarn. The yarn should still absorb plenty of the liquid.   To make the color more uniform at that end, fold the saran wrap over the yarn and give it a good squish or two.  Do the same with the Orange Koolaid from the other end.  One end of the skein should be orange, one should be red, and the color in the middle some mixture of the two (I left mine a little bit white in the middle where they meet)

Fold the saran wrap over the skein and pat it together so it sort of seals on itself.  Now you can fold this in thirds (another opportunity to squish the koolaid through the yarn here) and place in your microsave safe dish.

Place in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. Let rest for 2 minutes. Repeat on high 2 mins and rest 2 minutes a few times until all the dye is absorbed. Mine took three cooking cycles.  Open the saran wrap carefully; as it will be super hot – it’s best if you can be patient and wait a few minutes first.  Rinse the yarn in warm water – it should run clear immediately (if it doesn’t – wrap it back up in the saran wrap and cook for another 2 mins)  Hang yarn to dry.

I used this method because I didn’t want completely solid colors, and the variations you get with the squishing add to the character of the yarn. If you want your two colors more solid you can use the "dip" method.  You’ll have to use a lot more water because you’ll want to dunk each end of the skein in the different color koolaid mixtures.  The cherry was super red and really made the yarn dark. The orange didn’t work as well – I might use two packets next time, or add more water to start with so I get it a bit  more evenly on that side of the skein.
Looking at my yarn I’m not sure the orange is dark enough yet – I might just put it through another cycle, but probably not. I’ll probably just do something slightly different on my next sample skein. I want to try and come up with a blue/purple combo. :)

Long ago I posted about Andean plying – and had found a website that does a good picture walk through.  Did you know there are tools you can use besides your hand for Andean plying?!?

http://www.pjhandcrafts.com/plyer.html

This version isn’t as pretty, but probably works just as well: http://spinnersflock.com/spin.html

I am just gonna have to get me one of those!

I finished my Rocks and Trails socks:

I included the amount of yarn I had left in the picture.  It ended up pretty balanced, although I did have a bit more left in the gray color (I had to rip out the mutant sock in order to get enough yarn to finish the second sock). I made the larger size, which is 60 sts.

The socks were quick and easy to knit; and they look great.  My daughter has already requested a pair of her own stripey socks. I’m thinking pink and purple for her.

PS. For Joann and Debbie, my previous posting did include this bit: "In fact, I just picked up enough Pearl Cotton to make a Slytherin and Ravenclaw version as well." :)

Well, I just couldn’t resist making the Harry Potter bookscarf (pattern here).  Modeled here with Book #2, which I haven’t quite finished:

I chose to be traditional, and use Gryffindor’s colors as suggested in the pattern. I did choose a different gold color. I’m not sure how true the colors are, but I like them, and not being a total fanatic, it’s Ok if they aren’t completely accurate.  The Pearl Cotton is kind of a pain to knit with. I used 2mm Pony Pearl DPNs (the 6" length).  Mainly it was a small circumference and you went round and round and round.  Lots of nice details in the pattern, and very well written.  In fact, I just picked up enough Pearl Cotton to make a Slytherin and Ravenclaw version as well.  As I was taming the fringe, the husband expressed interest in the bookmark. He claims to not have one to use….

The other bookmark is a cross stitch bookmark I made years and years ago (over 10 to be exact. I signed the year on it: 1993)  I got the dragon motif out of some cross stitch book I had (and probably still have on a shelf somewhere in the house). I don’t think it was designed to be a bookmark motif, but was way better than any of the stupid cute bunnies or flowers you’d see on some patterns that were intended as bookmark patterns.

The fabric I used was a fairly soft flexible one- it’s not the stiff feeling low cost Aida you can buy at Michaels. It was leftover from another project I did, and happened to be just the right size.  I made the fringe by zig zagging over the ends, and then pulling out the weft threads so it left the warp threads still attached.  Kind of a mechanised hem stitch.  The sides are sewn down with a scant 1/4" seam on the back with a straight stitch in thred that matches the fabric.  This bookmark has really stood the test of time. Being light colored I have to wash it every so often.  A quick rinse and some dish soap (usually whatever’s closest) and then I lay it flat to dry. (It’s actually wet in this picture – since I had a new bookmark to use, this one could be washed finally)

I originally made the bookmark for my then-not-yet-husband.  He used it for a while, and then I noticed it sitting idle. I’ve been using it for the past 5 years or so.  Maybe that’s why he’s all interested in a new one?

I’ve also made bookmarks using card weaving. I’d show you a picture, but for some reason the one I know of that we still have has been viciously chewed on by the cat, and really isn’t fit for public display.  Card weaving is fun; and I have several books on the topic. As with any weaving project, most of your time is spent in the planning/setup phase.  Maybe someday I’ll find my cards, my books and get back to it.

How about man-made islands that are shaped like palm trees? 
http://www.thepalm.co.ae/