One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish...

My Koolaid-dyed shorties are done!! After posting on DS for help naming, I got lots of good suggestions (Dr. Seuss, Poppies on the Mountain, Popsicle). One of the kind ladies there, after seeing the shorties, posted the above title...so here they are!

The drawstring's a tad bit short, but I wanted to make it three strands and use the red yarn I had leftover. I didn't dye enough of the red for trim (and subsequent attempts to match it failed), so I did a thin (two rows) red stripe on each leg before the cuff. Now I'm thinking I should've just left well enough alone, because I think it makes them look a tad bit girly (along with the kind of flare to the leg-used a much bigger needle for castoff because mine is always so tight, and should've used maybe a size smaller, LOL). And my seedstitch cuff is a bit wonky in places. ANYHOW...I like how the colors turned out; they're very bright and vibrant, and summery and fun!

My newest yarn!

So I'm ready to venture into my first object that's NOT diaperwool...I decided on socks. Living Light (or rainbowed, in Andy's words), socks. This is Harmony (from Zenstring... http://www.zenstring.com --go to their site right now and look at all the yumminess that could be yours!), which is a blend of superwash merino and tencel...i.e., so soft it makes you want to bury your face in it. I went to my LYS (awesome place...find them here: http://www.mainstreetyarns.com/) and got my teensy-tiny DPNs, and the most basic sock pattern I could get (KPS, or for those of us who aren't familiar with the lingo, Knitting Pure and Simple--they make a ton of awesome patterns, and you should check them out if you haven't already).

Oh, and I'm nearly done with the Koolaid shorties (see June's posts for my Koolaid-dyed wool). The leg is flaring out just a tad, making them look a bit girly; I'm going to block them and try to gently stretch the rest of the leg out, so they don't look quite so flared. I love the way the colors look, though; I'll finish them tonight and wash them, and post a pic hopefully tomorrow! Here's a preview, though...

More Dyeing to Fly!!

Let me just rave about Amanda's dyeing work even more! Not only is she a super-sweet mama (she sent me the trim for these, a whole skein, as a surprise), but she does a beautiful, beautiful job! I'm not at all happy with the grafting in the crotch on these; it doesn't help that we were driving through downtown Savannah at the time, and the boys were raising a ruckus in the backseat. ;) Ahh, well; these aren't going anywhere, anyway, and Logan doesn't care that the stitches are wonky.

"Strength" colorway in Peruvian wool, with 3-ply purewool trim...





Yummmm!!

Adventures in Koolaid Dyeing, take two!

My second Koolaid dyeing adventure (minus dyeing solids, which I don't count-that's a lot easier and not as fussy) turned out okay. It's growing on me, anyway. This is Riverstone worsted weight wool yarn from Louet, from a recent co-op. It really did NOT want to absorb the dye (even after soaking in a vinegar bath), so there are lots of mistakes...erm, variations in the dyeing. :) I dyed the red trim to match; this will be shorties for Logan (third on the list, after the two in progress, LOL)! Honestly? I think I'm going to leave the yarn dyeing to the pros. While I love the idea of it, I love knitting with beautiful yarns more. I love winding, by hand, a beautiful skein of yarn that the "master dyers" have created, seeing the color variations... I don't like standing over a casserole dish, praying that the red doesn't bleed into the blue AGAIN, and cursing at the yarn for having white spots. So yarn dyers, fear not... I am definitely NO competition, LOL!!! Though I think the shorties are going to turn out cute; it's VERY vibrant. I should have an in-progress pic for you tomorrow; I've got about an inch done into the body.

Oh, and did I mention that I HATE PURLING?? It's my mantra every time I do a waistband! It's almost what the name of this blog was, but I decided against it. I should look at purling as an essential part of knitting, not as a thing to be dreaded every third/fourth stitch in a waistband. :D At any rate, the dyeing mistakes do indeed look like they're deliberate, and are turning out rather nice, in my very humble opinion! While I still think I'll leave the dyeing to the experts, it is a fun thing to knit something with yarn you dyed up yourself. Very rewarding.

Re-skeined with trim...

And a knitted-up swatch...

Catching up!

My, it's been awhile! It's full-on summer here in Georgia, and boy, is it HOT!! I've been staying inside, keeping cool, and knitting away!

Here are the Fangorn Forest shorties; Amanda does SUCH a lovely job dyeing yarn! You need to check her out... http://www.dyeingtofly.blogspot.com/ is her blog, and you can find her instock store online at http://hyenacart.com/dyeingtofly/. She does amazing work, and this 3-ply 100% Purewool (merino) is cottony soft and like butter on the knitting needles.

Next, I knitted up shorties in Zenstring's Living Light colorway. This is a little different than the colorway looks now; this yarn was dyed when they were still Cinnamon Stitches, so it's a bit brighter/more vibrant than the colorway tends to be now. Not that the new one isn't beautiful... :) These shorties have a new home on the bum of a friend's little one; he was a bit less endowed in the booty area than Logan, so they fit him much better. I traded Kelley (his mama) for more Living Light yarn; we'll see if I can get the sizing right this time for Logan! I was sad to see them go, but I'm glad they're being enjoyed just as much as they would've been here. Anyhow, pics...

After that came a soaker in bulky BFL, yarn dyed by Lisa of Selah in her "Tomboy" colorway (http://hyenacart.com/selah/). Both Julie and Lisa are wonderful dye-mistresses; you should check them out for beautiful, soft, squishy yarns!! And yes, I have a baby boy, and yes, this is pink. I plan to make him a shirt in the gray-blue color, and put on it, "Real Men Wear Pink". This soaker, being bulky BFL, is totally bulletproof; it makes for a great nighttime solution!

And lastly (the last finished object, anyway; there are two more on the needles at the moment!) another pair of Dyeing to Fly shorties. I dyed the trim for these with Koolaid; these are Amanda's "True Emotions" colorway, and I adore the way they turned out. The color pooled in such neat ways! I am in love with Amanda's yarns...

Stay tuned as I continue my knitting journey; to come are much more purewool, Zenstring, Three Irish Girls...maybe even some girly stuff for another friend's little one! Hey, if I can't make girly things for my boy (well, not that many, anyway, and definitely not skirties, LOL), I can make cute girly skirties & things for friends!

Koolaid Dyeing: A lesson learned!

Okay, so I had my first Koolaid dyeing experience. What fun!! I decided to dye the yarn orange, purple, and lime green (with orange, grape, and lemon-lime Koolaid). I had lovely soft 3-ply Purewool in natural, and skeined it up (it had been wound). My first mistake was skeining it too small; I should've made the loop much bigger, so the yarn wasn't right on top of itself come dyeing time. But I digress...

I soaked the yarn (water & vinegar), drained it, and started. By the time I was done, my hands were a mish-mash of orange, green, and brown (apparently what you get when you mix the first two colors with grape, LOL), and my yarn was somewhat like I had wanted. The colors ran a bit more than I'd've liked, and I was aiming originally at natural spots in between the colors, but this'll do. It knits up neat, at any rate!! Andy, my 4 year old, says he likes the colors, but not the smell. :)

Yarn Bliss!!

Okay, so this knitting thing is really starting to grow on me. Despite the fact that I had to frog an almost-complete soaker that was knit flat (because I ended up not having enough yarn), and that too much knitting makes my hands go numb, it is incredibly addictive. I find myself dreaming about yarn; I take it in the car when I have to pick up my oldest son. And now, according to my 4 year old son, everything is knitting. We were reading Fox in Socks last night, and got to the part where Sue is sewing Slow Joe Crow's clothes (and vice versa), and he looks at the needles they're using and says, "Look, mom, they're knitting the clothes!" Even when I'm crocheting instead, to him, I'm always knitting.

Upon our trip day before yesterday to our local yarn store, http://www.mainstreetyarns.com, my oldest was totally incredulous that we were there yet again. He says, "What are we doing here AGAIN? Are you like a member or something?" I giggled all the way into the store! It is a cool place; who wouldn't want to be a member of a yarn store, I ask you?

So yesterday, I had a tangled mess of yarn. Zenstring yarn, to be exact (Living Light colorway). I was sick about it, but FINALLY got it untangled. Then in the mail, I got a new skein of yarn; Fangorn Forest from Dyeing to Fly. Oh, my goodness...it is so beautiful!! And it's on 3-ply merino, so it's super-butter-soft. I had to abandon everything else, ball it up by hand (I have no ball winder, boo hiss), and cast on for a pair of shorties last night. I couldn't resist!! Look above at this yummy stuff...