Green Tea Raglan

Another neverending WIP finished! I weaved in the last end at 12:30 am last night.



Pattern: Green Tea Raglan, from Interweave Knits, Spring 2007
Yarn: 7.5 skeins of Patons Country Garden DK in Ginger, which I got at the Knitsmiths swap
Needles: size 7 for the body, size 6 for the sleeves
Modifications: Where to start? The pattern called for the body to be in seed stitch and the sleeves in stockinette. Instead, I did about ten rows of seed stitch at the bottom of the front and back and did the rest of the body in stockinette. I also sized up the pattern to better fit me, and eliminated the belt called for in the pattern.

And here's a lousy self timered shot of me wearing my new sweater!



I have a feeling my next project won't involve so much stockinette...

Stariel went to sock camp and all I got was...

Yarn!



She got me a lightweight mill end in a pretty pink, yellow, green, and purple, as well as a skein of Undertoe (the one on the right). Yay for more sock yarn!

And to prove that I will never ever run out of yarn for socks, I dyed another skein yesterday and I will be very interested to see how it knits up.



I'm thinking Lemon Lime for the name...

the neverending sock

Or, at least that's how it felt.

I started these socks while on vacation in March and, for awhile there, it seemed like I would never finish them. But, in reality, they've only been on the needles for about five weeks, so that's not nearly as bad as it could have been. And here's the finished product:



(It's very gray here today, so the light is not great for picture taking. These are the best I could do.)

Pattern: Slipped Stitch Rib socks, from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Regia 4fadig in an entertaining multicolored neon tweed
Needles: Inox size 2 (2.5 mm) circulars, magic loop

And here's a detail shot, showing the stitch pattern and the colors a little more clearly:



After spending all of that time trying to get these done, I have no idea what to make next!

Cuteness

Remember my modified Miss Dashwood hat? Here it is again, this time on its adorable recipient:



It's a tiny bit big, but that's good, so she'll be able to wear it for a while.

Also, at Catherine's urging, I've signed up for Sockapalooza 4. Got to use up some of that ever growing stash!

I'm considering instituting a bit of a yarn diet, since I have no money to be spending on yarn. It would have a few exceptions, most notably yarn for dyeing, any sales on Noro Kureyon (as I really want to make Lizard Ridge someday), and if we make it to the Webs tent sale next month. Exceptions might also be made for buying yarn for very specific projects, but no general stash buying!

Playing with color

We've been trying to get together to do yarn dyeing again for awhile, and each time we've failed in the attempt. Until last week, that is, when Amanda brought all of her cool professional dyes over and taught us how to use them.

All of us in the kitchen, except for Amanda who was taking the picture:



That's Catherine, me, Ariel, and Cassandra, while Catherine and I were wrist deep in dye.

Here's Cassandra, working on her yarn. You can see all of the bottles of dye Amanda made up for us to use.



Here's my semi-solid skein soaking in dye:



All of our finished skeins, hanging to dry:



And my finished yarn:



The bottom one I'm calling "Tie Dye Sunset," but I don't have a name for the top one as of yet.

We had a lovely evening of hanging out and playing with the dyes. We took a break while the yarn was steaming and went out for ice cream. The guy behind the counter asked what we girls were up to that evening and when I answered, "Dyeing yarn," gave us an odd look. Apparently, he thought I said "dying young," and couldn't figure out why we all had a death wish!

Thanks again, Amanda, for the dyeing lesson!

Creatures and yarn, oh my!

It appears I've been going crafty crazy lately and here are the results. Last week I made another sock monkey, this one as a birthday gift. The sewing on this one is much better than my first monkey and this time was a lot speedier, now that I have some idea what I'm doing.



Happy Birthday Megan!

The second creature I've been working on was a bit of an experiment, since all I had to go on was an outline published in Martha Stewart Living. But he didn't come out too badly, so you can all meet my sock puppy!



He's supposed to stand on all four paws, but I've learned for that to work that I need to make the front paws a bit longer than the back and that all four of them should be shorter. But I've got another pair of socks in mind for a second puppy, where I can see if my modifications work.

(And I haven't been neglecting my knitting altogether, but I'm feeling a little reluctant to pick up two neverending WIPs.)

Saturday, along with Catherine and some others, I helped Ariel move out of her apartment. And look what I got as a thank you gift!



Koigu. Pretty, pretty Koigu. The photo doesn't begin to do justice to the color, it almost glows. Now to figure out what sock pattern will make the most of the pretty...

Flash Your Stash 2007

I divided my stash into two parts for the purpose of these pictures*. The First is General Yarn.



If you look close--I'm sorry I didn't take any close up shots--you can see some Lamb's Pride, some Paton's Classic Merino, some Knitpicks Gloss, some balls of Cascade 220, orange Cotton Ease frogged from a disastrous attempt at a shrug, and there's one skein of ArtYarns supermerino hiding somewhere in there.

The Second picture is, of course, sock yarn.



I have been greatly influenced in the matter of knitting socks by Ariel, who was also the one who taught me to knit Magic Loop. The student has definitely not outshone the teacher in terms of stash, but I'm building a nice little pile. Let's see, up top we have some Sockotta, some yarn I dyed myself, some Sunshine Yarns by Dani, a skein of Sugar Bunny Boulevard that I got from Alison, Ellen's Half Pint, Trekking XXL, and Koigu. And on the bottom, there's Socks that Rock, Regia, and Lorna's Laces.

And that's my stash!

*what these pictures do not include: yarn involved in projects currently on the needles, yarn to be dyed, half skeins of acrylic from when I first started that are waiting to be donated. I also took these pictures a few days ago, and a couple more skeins may have made their way into the stash since then. :)