The charm of color changes

I am a fan of color changing yarns, so it was a question of time when I will try dyeing one myself. I've been playing around with dyes quite a bit lately, and this is my latest experiment.

I used a very soft wool for baby knits, although it does not say on label that it's merino, I have a suspicion it might be -it is a very nice, squishy yarn, 100% wool. The original color was white. I had divided it in 6 mini skeins and dyed each one separately.

 It's a 4-ply yarn, I have 100g here, about 450 meters total. It should be enough for a small shawl.

 While experimenting with this, I also wanted to try some tie-dye method, dyeing yarn in skein, then re-tying skein differently and placing it in another color. For third color change I tied my skein loosely in two places. First dye bath was a bright yellow, second - spring green and third - a lovely purple. I am thinking now, that I really should have done a fourth one with just one knot, masking some of the color with an even darker purple, maybe adding some black even, but well, I had run out of my play time :) There will be a next time, too :) I don't know what will I do with it yet, there are about 70g of the yarn here. I might combine it with a solid color, winter is coming fast and everyone needs warm accessories.... Here are some pics:

Getting into rhythm

The last two months have passed with a lightening speed.... So many things happened! I went to Latvia in August with both my kids - and I did not have time to knit a single stitch while we were there.... The start of the school year, changing the preschool and organizing all other activities for Alexandro took a lot of time and energy. Adriana, who is ten month now, is crawling super fast by now and wants to walk whenever possible. I think she'll walk by herself before her first birthday. So my life is all about kids and house stuff lately.

But, I had missed knitting so badly! I had promised my mom a winter shawlette, and I bought the yarn while I was in Latvia. It's nothing really special, a simple sock yarn and a simple pattern, but I love the color and the texture it gives. It's a small to medium size shawl, so she can wear it as a scarf with a coat and keep her shoulders warm. Here are some pics:

It's simple stockinette with some garter rows and a crochet finishing. I did the flower brooch on a loom, really love that little thingy.

This set me on a shawl knitting spree and I knit a few more:

This one is done with On Line "Lorena" 15% alpaca, 15% mohair, 70% acrylic. This yarn was a little pricey for the high acrylic content in it, but it's really amazingly soft and silky, and it drapes well. I could not resist the colors. :)

Another yarn I bought in Latvia was "Texrena" by Midara. I wanted to try one of these wool yarns with long color changes, and I got really disappointed with Aade Long - it's just way too scratchy! This one is much softer and colors are beautiful. I've knit the "Diamond for a girl" with it, and one skein made a nice small to medium size shawl. Here are the pics:

Diamond for a girl, blocking

All these were quick and pleasant knits, but I don't intend to keep these for myself. I had a cone of beautiful cashmere delivered recently and I am craving another shawl... for me this time. I just need to really think of how will I knit it - the yarn has a slubby strand twisted in and so far I haven't found the perfect pattern for it. It looks nice in simple stockinette though, I'm just torturing myself, since I had a textured shawl in mind.....