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July 29, 2007
Things are looking up...
The gloves are ruined. I'm looking at the bright side though. I'm going to reknit them in Knitpick's Palette. I will also soak some the black yarn first to ensure no bleeding. On Ravelry, the editors have asked to use my picture (pre-ruination) as the main picture for those gloves. That's pretty cool. Anytime someone looks up Selbuvotter they'll see my gloves.
I'm working on the Crystalline Lattice Socks in Panda Cotton by Crystal Palace Yarn. It's really a lovely pattern and I think they will be some of the comfiest socks yet.
As you can see, I'm just past the heel gusset now. The designer, Janice Kang, actually sent me a message to see how the pattern was going in the Panda Cotton, since it was designed for the Panda Wool. As we know, cotton doesn't have the bounce the wool does, but this is a very elastic yarn and it fits perfectly.
In spinning news, I just got invited to participate in a certain batt club that was previously full. I'm excited because I'm getting fiber from an incredible spinner and dyer. I can't say who's club I'm in, since she's just adding a few people and this is on the down low, but Peggy is already in the club, so there's your hint.
I also added a few batts to etsy to test the water and see if anyone is interested in my spinning fibers. In the coming weeks, I may have a seperate blog set up with PayPal buttons to sell fiber from my own page. Keep an eye out! I'll let you know when it's up!
Posted by Holly at 10:49 PM | Comments (5)
July 26, 2007
I feel sick right now.
***WARNING! If you don't like cussing, skip this entry now!***
Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck.
I finished my gloves, the beautiful Annemor #8 from Selbuvotter. They were knit with the same comes of Jaggerspun Maine Line that I knit my steek swatch with. The steek swatch I SOAKED and blocked. The steek swatch that was perfectly fucking NORMAL!
My beautiful gloves, freshly completed.
Gorgeous aren't they? Just needed to be blocked for the state fair. So I soaked them and let them dry.
The white turned blue. The black's blue parts haven't been totally exhausted yet. I ran straight to ravelry when I realized what had happened. Someone else had a similar issue with a different yarn, but they had to keeps soaking and rinsing until all the excess dye was gone. The excess also came out of the parts that had been bled on.
I'm hoping that happens with mine too. Because look at the shit I have right now.
Fuck.
Posted by Holly at 08:41 AM | Comments (10)
July 20, 2007
A short, pictureless update
Two orders of business today!
Today, the Secret Stash Exchange begins accepting sign ups! You can check out our blog HERE if you are interested. I'm very excited about this and I have a great co-administrator, Reesa who's already done a lot to make this idea a reality.
Second...
Beware of Ravelry! It will eat you soul. Or at least every second of free time you have. Trust me, since getting on there Monday, I've spent hours playing with it. Kirstie (a.k.a. "KnittyDragon," "My Best Friend," "My Boo," and "My Hetero Lifemate") is in town, so I got to show her all the cool features and why it rules my entire existence now.
If you are on Ravelry already, I'm drivebyknitting there.
Posted by Holly at 01:38 PM | Comments (3)
July 15, 2007
Big things are underway!
I know I haven't posted in two weeks. Eh, that's life. I'm almost done with my gloves, I just need to sit down and really work at them. I am in the process of organizing a fiber secret pal swap! I got the idea a few days ago, and I've already found a co-admin for it, so hopefully it will start coming together soon. The swap with focus on hand carded/combed fibers and batts. A few responses I got wanted painted roving included, but there can be a big difference between dyed roving and batts. I hate to tell people no, but it is my brainchild and I have my own plans for it.
I've also done a bit of fleece washing. I'm starting with the border leicester fleece since it's courser and less prone to felting. I didn't pick out the second cuts or VM before washing. It wasn't that I didn't know you were supposed to do it, it's just that I didn't want to. Honestly though, the fleece has soooo much hay chaff, that I don't see the point in picking through it twice.
For bath tub washing, I used 2 small plastic storage bins. I filled both with very hot water (part from the faucet and part a pot full of nearly boiling water). I used cheap dish washing liquid for soap. As soon as I submerged the fleece to soak, the water turned brown. Yuck.
After 15 minutes, I moved the fleece into the right hand bin. It also turned brown, but not as much, as you can see from the side by side.
I did a total of 4 soak cycles. In the end, I had clean... um, -er wool. It was filled with a ton of hay chaff as I said.
I then hand carded the dry wool to get most the chaff out, and drum carded to get even more out. I STILL haven't gotten everything out, but you can see what a difference carding made here as I got ready to oven dye today.
The oven dying was fun. I poured warm vinegar water over the wool in a foil pan and let it soak after I pressed all the wool down to get wet. After that, I squirted dye where I wanted it (didn't really matter where, it's all getting carded again later). Finally, I covered the pan in foil and turned the oven on 350 for an hour.
Voila! Oven dyed fiber!
Posted by Holly at 05:24 PM | Comments (5)
July 01, 2007
For the love of gloves.
It's been another busy week of knitting. I was working on a glove with the leftovers from Kirstie's mittens (which look great by the way), but to my disappointment, the purple and light gray were far too similar to use together in a design. Instead of pouting for long, I got to work on a pair of Selbu gloves from the book Selbuvotter. By yesterday, the first one was complete.
I love it. Very, very much. I was going to enter Kirstie's mittens in the fair, but well, not now. Sorry, boo! These gloves rock my world. I believe I'm giving them to Becky, my mom's best friend. She tried it on last night and was amazed at how well it fit, since she can never find ones that fit properly. I can always knit another pair. I'm also working on a pattern for some Norwegian inspired mittens. If they turn out well, I've approached Ann about teaching a class in the fall. We shall see.
I've also reserved one of the most incredible shawl patterns ever! The Princess Shawl is a shawl I've only dreamed of knitting until now. It's being reprinted in November in a limited number. One of those is mine. I've even already bought the yarn and I'm just waiting on it to arrive. This shawl will take me ages to complete. I'm not talking 4 months like the last one. YEARS! Or a single year, at the very best. But it will be an heirloom. The yarn I bought was a 1 kilo cone of wool/silk cobweb weight in ivory. 1000 yards/ounce. The shawl is between 4500-5000 yards. If I ever get married, you can guarantee I will incorporate it into the wedding.
Posted by Holly at 09:35 PM | Comments (6)