sokjes, dyeing and manon

I finished the socks for my niece. They turned out as anklets, but I think they are cute. I hope she likes them. They are the Rushing Rivulet socks from New Pathways for Sock knitters. (Ravelry details)

ivana’s socks

Last week Anabel and I had a mini dyeing party. She wanted to dye some curtains and I had some undyed Panda Cotton and Henry's Attic Soie Naturelle that I wanted to dye and some Henry's Attic Riviera that I wanted to overdye because the hanks were two different shades and I didn't like the color. Here are before pictures, notice my very cool homemade PVC niddy noddy!

And here are after pictures. The very dark purple is the Riviera and the orangey-red is the Soie Naturelle. The two two-tone hanks are Panda Cotton.

These aren't real after pictures because the yarn is still. Not. DRY! Right now they are spread out on a drying rack with a fan underneath and they are progressing much more quickly towards being dry. I like the purple of the Riviera (sorry, Cookie) but I'm a bit disappointed in the silk and the Panda Cotton. Both have lightened significantly as they've dried. Ah well, it's my first try. Maybe I'll get better, if I get up the nerve to try it again. The rinsing was endless.

drying yarn

In other news, I started a new sweater project. On Thursday evening I was talking to Anabel about my failed sweater projects. Well, failed as in I don't wear them: Tomato and Ribbi Pulli. She encouraged me to think about the projects that I've made that I do like and wear, in other words: Rogue. She asked me what it was about Rogue that I liked so much. I've decided that two of the biggest selling points about Rogue for me are that it's All Seasons Cotton, which I love knitting with, and it's a cardigan, which I find easier to wear. So after talking to her I went home and started a new cardigan in All Seasons Cotton, Norah Gaughan's Manon. So far, I love it. I hope my love continues. I think it will, I also really love this color and how the yarn looks with the cables and texture.

manon in progress

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a finished sweater and some random stuff

My dishcloth mania seems to have abated. I'm actually picking up other projects. I got the ball of yarn I needed for Ivana's socks, started them and then had to rip them out because my gauge for Panda Cotton has changed (huh??) and they were too huge. Meanwhile, I finally put the buttons onto the Baby Surprise Jacket I was knitting for my cousin's baby. She's three months now so I hope this will fit her through the fall, at least. (Ravelry details)

baby surprise jacket

My friend Jennifer was admiring the sweater at Sunday's Boba Knit and commented that she liked the yarn so I destashed the rest of it to her! I was pondering what to do with it since I has swatched a few things with it for myself and didn't like the way the color pooled in an adult sized sweater but I have boys so I can't knit it for my kids. I'm glad she wanted it, I was looking for someone to give it a loving hand. I think that this destash should count towards my purchase allowance. I'll see what Kristi says. If it does count then I have used up or gotten rid of 1265 yards or 24 oz of yarn and only purchased 182 yards or 1.75 ounces. I still have to figure out if it makes more sense to count by yards or ounces. In any case, I am currently allowed a purchase of 450 yards or 10 ounces of yarn. I don't need yarn right now (do I ever?) but it's nice to have a small buffer anyway.

The random stuff in the title is not knitting at all, it's jewelry. I was digging through my bead stash looking for a charm Tracy needed for her Ravelympics project. I really thought I had it, but i was wrong. Instead I discovered a bunch of beaded bracelets and some bead and wire stuff that I made years ago.

It's gotten me thinking about making stitch markers to sell on Etsy again. Thinking, thinking.

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dishcloth mania continues

I'm not sure why I'm so into dishcloths right now, but I am. I think it's the practically instant gratification, especially when they are crocheted. In any case, I have finished three more since my last post.

The green and white and blue and white yarns are Lily Sugar n Cream stripes and I really like they way they both turned out in these dishcloths. That spiral cloth on the right is a neat pattern but mine doesn't lay flat, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. It could simply be too tight since I have a G and an I but no H hook, and that's the size suggested by the pattern. These three total to 182 more yards of yarn used which brings my usage total to 530, which means that I am now free to go to Purlescence and get that one ball of sock yarn to make my niece's socks. Whew! I can pick up a size H hook while I'm there.

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dishcloth mania

Whenever I feel like stash busting I head for the dishcloth cotton. These days it's often the dishcloth cotton and the crochet hook. In the past couple of days I finished up the last of one of my two cones of Peaches & Creme dishcloth cotton left. I made another double flower dish cloth, two diagonally crocheted potholders coasters and another totally utilitarian dishcloth which I think will be a face cloth. I like the texture.

These dishcloths used up the last of that yarn, about 233 yards. I also used 90 yards of the red for the first double flower cloth and I used some of the ecru on the utilitarian cloth, abut 25 yards of that. That comes to a total of 348 yards, which means that I need to knit one more cloth or something

Unfortunately, with all of this diligent yarn usage I also acquired two bags of All Seasons Cotton from Juls and the yarn I used up wasn't in my Ravelry stash which means that my stash number is now 19903.7 yards. It's going up, not down! That's not good. What is good is that I seem to have enough All Seasons Cotton to make a Susie Hoodie now! Sounds like a good plan for fall.

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I knitd U a sweatr

I love Hobotopia.

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half a stash?

My stash number seemed a bit on the low side to me, after all it "only" came out to 11.25 miles. I remembered posting that I had 12 miles at one point and then more later. I decided to go back and see what I used to have. On January 5th of this year I had 22.5 miles of yarn. I have managed to use or destash half of it while buying more yarn? That doesn't seem possible. According to my Ravelry projects page I have finished 28 projects since January, many were small such as toys or dishcloths but there were two sweaters for me, one short-sleeved, one 3/4-length, two pairs of socks for me and one pair of kid socks among that. Maybe it's possible that I used that much yarn. Ravelry doesn't lie though, does it?

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making a deal

I have been busy, traveling and knitting and… buying yarn. You saw the yarn I bought in the Netherlands. I then bought some hemp yarn in Philadelphia and Teenuh picked up some Sugar' n cream for me at Michael's because it was dirt cheap (DIRT CHEAP!) and then I had a bag of All Seasons Cotton waiting for me when I got home.

I finished an Ilene Bag, a double flower dishcloth and the socks for my nephew Sven.

So, I'm realizing that I'm drowning in yarn. I keep buying sweater quantities but not finishing sweaters. I made a deal with Kristi, a yarn deal. The deal is that if either one of us buys yarn we have to pay each other $5 per 8oz of sock yarn or fiber or 16oz of sweater yarn. The exception is if we have used up twice what we're buying. I updated my Ravelry stash page tonight. I currently have 19805.7 yards of yarn. I used 90 yards of that to make the dishcloth, so I am counting that towards my next yarn purchase.

Now I'm off to work on my socks so I can get yarn to knit another pair. Wish me luck!

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