Frankenblanket

So, Frank is coming along quite nicely.

He has fast become my favourite project.

This worries me, as I am fast running out of 'bits'.

Colour Your Wool

So, I've been a bad, bad blogger.

A busy knitter, but a bad blogger.

Anyhow, I've been up to a few things (not the least of which, planning my trip to France).

Naturally, I've documented them all photographically.

Firstly, my DPN's were driving me quite insane, floating as they were at the bottom of my notions bag. Necessity, being the mother of all invention, require I sit down and create some pretty funky DPN organizers.

The coolest part? Connie, proprietress extraordinaire of Pick Up Sticks, decided to stock them!

(Get there quickly, as there are only five left and I don't know if I'll be able to get more before I leave on Thursday.)

I'm working on a few other handy bits, so stay tuned.

***

I was also lucky enough to go to The Knitter's Frolic.

I managed to control myself and came home with only two items:


A gorgeous skein of Hand Maiden's Mini Maiden (SILK!) and a hand-turned Nostepinde. There's just something about the woodgrain that I find wonderful.

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My biggest project though?

Hand-dying.

Good Lord, I'm in love.

The Process (agonizingly long, but so worth it):


I purchased two 50g skeins of Louet Gems Merino in "Cream".


I decided I wanted the colour sections to be longer, so Husband and I reskeined them together making one huge 100g skein.


I tied the yarn together (no too tight!) every .5 m or so (this keeps it from tangling), then soaked it overnight in a soloution of vinegar (3/4 cup) and water (enough to cover the yarn). Notice the stratigically placed book on France.


The next morning, I mixed my dyes.
1 tsp of the powdered dye to 1/2 cup water.


After squeezing out the excess liquid from the yarn, I laid it out on the kitchen table, putting (good quality) plastic wrap underneath.


I applied the dyes, trying not to spill, or muck up the joins too badly.


I was fairly unsuccessful on both counts.


The plastic wrap was then wrapped around the yarn, placed in a small baking dish, wrapped in aliminum foil and 'baked' at 250*F for two hours.


After the yarn cooled completely and was rinsed under cool water to remove any remaining dye, I hung it outside to dry. This took FOREVER. I am not a patient person.


I'm very happy (ecstatic, more like) with the results. I could not stop petting the skein all morning.


I like how it knits up, too, with a minimal amount of pooling.

I am SO going to try this again.

bits

So, I've been wondering what to do with my leftover bits of sock yarn.



I picked up a bunch of solids to stretch the remnants into another pair of socks, but then I saw this and this and decided that I'd start one of those possibly-stunningly-beautiful-hopefully -wholly-satisfying-but-takes-a-hundred-years-to-finish projects.

With that in mind, Frankenblanket was born.



I'm really enjoying the whole process, and am not, shockingly, bored by knitting square after mitered square.

Starting it was rough, as I couldn't get any of the patterns I found online to make a square. They all ended up more ice cream cone shaped. Odd. I could have easily fixed the problem if I'd gone with a garter stitch square, but I was determined (obsessively so) to make them all stocking stitch.

The result tends to curl at the edges (I'll have to figure out something to do at the edge when I'm done) but it definitely has the look I was going for.

The problem? The blanket size is directly proportional to the number of sock pairs I've completed.

So, yeah, if anyone has leftover bits they'd be happy to part with...

Oooh! I also picked up a few more not-yet-bits of yarn.


Shiny!

suffer

Okay, so it's not knitting.

Deal.




This quilt took me FOR-frickin-EVER.
Cut fabric.
Cut batting.
Quilt 'sandwiches'.
Take a million years (and the entire dining room floor) deciding on 'sandwich' placement.
Sew 'sandwiches' into strips.
Sew strips together.
Snip every (EVERY) seam every 1/4".
Wash and dry.

I actually really messed my hand up during the snipping part.

It's been two weeks and I still have no feeling in the tip of my thumb.
Should I be worried?



In theory, I made these Matchy Matchy PJ's for Husband and I.
In reality, I'm the only one that will be wearing them.

I'm not totally in love with how Mili decided to display either project.
Clothing looks so much better on a mannequin, and you don't get any kind of sense of the colour variegation when the quilt is folded up like that.
Pfft.

Foot fetish

So, I actually have been knitting...just not blogging about it.


I finished the pair of toe-ups for my mother's Person of Interest.
They turned out nice, even if I don't approve of to whom they'll be going.
The yarn is Fleece Artist's Sea Wool in Ivory.



And since my Husband wouldn't stop whinging that I knit everyone socks except him...
These are the Whitby socks from Knitting on the Road in Fleece Artist (Cosmic Dawn).
He picked both the yarn and the pattern himself.

I also picked up this book.

I've got my eye on the Flame pattern.

MmmMmm.