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.....

Love, Hate and Heat

My Hanami Sprint is turning into a long distance run. With a constant 36`C it's been some really hot days, running around the Greek bureaucracy and packing for the trip, which I just started, doesn't help my knitting quest much either. However, I have managed to do something, at least.

As of half an hour ago, I have finished half of the shawl. I absolutely loved the first three charts (A,B and C) and they went by like a breeze. Around the middle of chart D I was truly and honestly hating this pattern. The fact that I could not find my stitch markers (hid them from kids in a really good place....) did not help the situation. I grit my teeth and I just knit through it fearing the deadline (don't ask me if I cursed, I would hate to admit it...), but I could not force myself to pick this up for a day or two after that. Then, I found my stitch markers - YESSS! :) Knitting went more smooth and with little (or a lot) patience, I slowly got through this thing.

I discovered a few things. First, I don't like to knit patterns, where lace is not easy to read. I love the look though. Second, I am seriously re-thinking weather I should knit the second half with the basket weave pattern instead of doing both halves identical. Looking at the finished shawls on Ravelry, I start to think that the whole magic of the pattern is within combining the order and the chaos. And I think that the pattern looses a bit of it's charm if one is taken away. Well, the fact that I seriously don't want to knit through charts D and E any time soon again might play a small role, too...

My half of the shawl, unblocked, measures 80cm x 33cm and weights 42g. Which means I have used about 400 yards, plus/minus a few. I am sure it will stretch more with blocking, so I will not add any extra rows in the middle.

I plan to finish it in Latvia, I still have enough time till my mother's birthday. And what can be better than knitting in my best friends country home, sitting in the garden..... :)

Sidetracked by butterflies

One would think that with such a close deadline on my Hanami, I would surely stay on track.... well, one would be wrong. I think if anyone would count the projects I have completed while I knit something else, the side-trackers' numbers would be much higher. That is just the way I work, I guess.


So what is it this time? Two things, actually. First, I really wanted to try out Moebius cowl and I have dyed last week a beautiful DK weight merino, just enough for a small project. I actually started it before the shawl, so technically it might not even count.... I did a couple rows yesterday just because the day was so frustrating I could not concentrate on anything by the time I had time to knit...


 The second one was a true distraction though. And I am not even at the knitting part yet!!! I just officially finished the test-knit for "Darling Blankie", and one of my test knitters, when finishing, said she's been asked for a butterfly blanket... Butterflies.... they have never really been my thing, but somehow this morning I must have been in a really creative mood. My design is inspired by a tattoo(!), and - it is NOT lace. An interesting mix of cables is what I have in mind, but I shall say no more at this point. I probably won't have time to cast on before September though (unless I find a really good excuse...) and I am not confident enough to give it for testing without having knit the design myself. It looks really pretty though on paper and I have to restrain myself from not going through stash for suitable yarn....

Anyhow, back to Hanami. I have managed to complete charts A,B and C for the first side (there are 4 more to go) and am currently on chart D. Photos tomorrow, when - hopefully - I'll have more to show!

Hanami Sprint - can I do it???

I really have no idea, how it happened, but time simply slipped and before I knew it, deadlines are right around the corner. My mother has a birthday in 11-th of August, and I want to do something special for her. I just thought I still have plenty of time.... but I don't. I am leaving for Latvia in 9 days, and I really want my present to be ready.
I picked the most beautiful yarn I have in my stash and it also happens to be one of my moms favorite colors - I just know she will be thrilled!!! It's a 70% cashmere/ 30% silk yarn, in a absolutely gorgeous color, called - viola. It is a silver-grey-lilac with an amazing sheen. I have it twisted for me in heavy lace/light fingering weight at 1300 yards/150g. Although originally I had a different project in mind for it, obviously there was a reason I delayed casting on.... I am glad though.

So, can I do it? I picked "Hanami Stole" to knit, and I will be doing the cherry blossom version only. So I started with provisional cast on, unfortunately I only did 8 rows last night, so I really need to speed things up today. There are about 200-ish rows for each half, 95 stitches each row, so that would mean something like 40 000+ stitches in total, since there are also some rows in the middle and ruffle at the end.... Ehh, a little math tells me I would need about 20 hours or so to finish the whole stole, we shall see..... Worst case scenario - I will finish it in Latvia. I hope I can manage though. Fingers crossed!

Here's how much I have so far. Do You think I'm crazy? :D

My Turquoise Project

So, here is what I am doing with my hand dyed yarn. I tried out a few patterns, but since I don't usually knit with tonal/variegated yarns, it took a while to find something I was happy with. And, I think this really looks great, as the colors are interesting, plus the pattern really brings out the softness and squishiness of a DK weight merino.
This shawl might remind you of the Icelandic Sunrise Shawl, and at first, that was what I tried to knit. But, the purling part was not coming smooth to me and it was a bit of a struggle. I admit, I did not try the Norwegian Purl method, I went for a more easy option. So, my version doesn't have a single purl stitch in it, and each cluster has 5 stitches instead of 4. The effect though is very similar, shawl will be very very warm, it looks interesting and has a great texture. One minor problem - I ran out of yarn. Yes, I used both skeins and I still have a couple rows I'd like to do for finishing and a FRINGE. I think this one really needs a fringe for a nice, finished look. So, I am up to a challenge to repeat my dyeing adventure... we'll see how that goes...

Trying out some acid dyes

I could not resist, I just had to try it.... I had ordered some undyed yarn as well as some professional dyes. The yarn I used is extra fine merino, DK weight. It's not superwash, so I was being really careful with it. I used turquoise and I think it came out pretty nice. I wanted to try the graduated dyeing method and I learned a few things - although I had placed the whole skein in dye pot, the color did not set immediately, and later washed off completely, leaving the lightest part almost completely white. I kind of like it anyway. I think I should probably place the whole skein in microwave to set next time, as a lot of color came out in general. I was reading it is to be expected with this dyeing method, but still, maybe there is a way around it...
I have started a shawl with it, and I am sure I'll use both skeins for it.