Knitters Love Winter

It snowed last night!  And it is still snowing.  Sometimes there is nothing better than weather that tells you, "Just stay inside and knit."

And what will I be working on?  Why, my Even Flow sweater, of course.  The last week or so hasn't been all that great, but I tell you what, sitting around and watching movies sure helped me make progress on this sweater.  I'm starting to get excited about it.  I'm not so excited about picking up the stitches along both sides of the front to make the edge, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

And to anyone who is wondering, that curl will come out when the edge is added.  And if there's any left after that, that is what blocking is for.  Wet it down and shape it nicely, there will be no curl at all.

Tons of progress for less than a week.

Last Saturday was my wheel spinning class at Fall River Fibers in the Ace Hardware Store in Hot Springs, SD.  It was great.  I took a sleeping pill the night before so that I could be up in time to make it to the 9 AM start, and then I slept through my alarm.  But I wasn't too terribly late, thank goodness, and it was awesome to be around other people who love yarn.  Ok. it was awesome to be around other people period.

I found out that I am a fast spinner!  I am a productive spinner!  I make "art yarn"!  These are all really nice ways of saying that I should slow down and that I may need some more practice before I can be consistent.  Well, everyone starts out as a beginner, and I really did have fun.  Throwing myself headlong into new things is really how I learn best.

But Fritz thinks it's awesome.

After washing and setting the twist.  I think that little bit of plain white is probably my best piece.

And I am still working on dyeing yarns.  I now have pH paper!  I'm not sure that it makes me a better dyer, but it makes me feel more confident that I know what I'm doing.  This latest skein, I tried coffee and my new neon McCormick food dye.  I also tried a non-immersion dye method. 

I really like the blue.  I am very happy with the food dye results, but I am pretty nonplussed by the coffee.  I think that I will have to overdye the coffee part of this one before I am satisfied.  I think I may go for a purple rather than a brown.

Ooh, blue!

I also picked up a 100g skein of undyed, New Zealand, 2-ply, wool yarn.  It is about worsted weight but I will check.  I was thinking that this skein has hat written all over it and I will have to dye it in colors that I will actually wear. 

Well, that was the weekend for me.  Pretty dang productive actually.  And now I have to leave you to work on the crochet design project that I have become obsessed with.  I have a few more knit designs currently on the needles, but they have to stay under wraps for now.

Publish or Perish

Ok, so the title of this post is meant to be a really bad pun on dyeing.  I may occasionally be guilty of awful puns; I blame the geology degree.

It was a pretty good weekend.  I even managed to have a somewhat relaxing day on Sunday in which I only knit for some of the day.  Otherwise, some very exciting firsts happened:

I published my first pattern:

Double Heart Dishcloth

It can be found here, as a free Ravelry download or from the links on my brand new Patterns page!  Seriously, download one even if you don't need one; just to make me look good.

It actually is a kinda fun, quickie project and the cotton yarn it's made of is dirt cheap.

I also swatched for my Joji Locatelli Even Flow sweater.

Mmm . . . swatches

I have to admit: I hate swatching.  I want to just cast on and go!  That is why so many of the projects I do are items that you don't need to swatch for or that (like socks) you can measure your gauge as you are knitting it.  I know that you are supposed to swatch on pretty much everything, but I find it very boring.  

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that I would be more annoyed to knit an entire sweater only to have it not fit.  And judging by the fact that my swatch on the recommended needles didn't match the gauge in the pattern, it is time well spent.

Then, the most exciting news:

I am teaching myself how to dye yarn!

I started with food dye on some cream colored Cascade Eco Wool that I had lying around and came up with this:

My first attempt

Not too bad for the first time.  Of course it leaves plenty of room for improvement though. 

This was done with just water, white vinegar, and McCormick food dye.  Apparently if your dye bath is too acidic, the red will be taken up into the yarn faster than the blue and instead of getting a purplish-blue, you get red splotches with blue around them.

In order to prevent this from happening again, I have ordered pH paper from the internet.  When in doubt, apply science.

Finally, tonight I may go check out the Black Hills Fiber Arts Guild meeting.  I don't necessarily feel like going out and talking to people, but I think I have to remember that it is never as scary as it feels before hand.  And I have baked an apple spice cake to take with.  How could I go wrong if I'm bringing a cake?