Sun Dying, Christmas Cowls (FO’s), and WIP’s
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| From AKQGuy |
Yesterday I started my day by mixing up the Kool-Aid and getting some roving set to dying in the sun. The forecast was for an 80+ degree day with little wind so I set to it and by mid morning had a batch of dye sitting on the roof of the car (out of the reach of marauding animals) and soaking up the sun for heat.
By the time I had it all drying in the evening I had a good batch of dyed roving I hope to take with me to the Grand Canyon with the easily packed sidekick for late evening around the campfire spinning.
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| From AKQGuy |
I think the lovely cantaloupe kettle dyed looking stuff that the Peach Mango flavor produced is my favorite at this time.
I also have a batch of cowls for Christmas knitting done and blocked.
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| From AKQGuy |
And more to come unfortunately. I’m about tired of coming up with ideas for these, but by far of these my favorite at this time is the tri-colored linen stitch one I blocked last night.
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| From AKQGuy |
Looks like fancy color work, right?
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| From AKQGuy |
Nope, just the way the color changes lined up with the stitches done in the round in a linen stitch caused this effect. And even better is the thickness. All four are made with Berocco Ultra Alpaca so they are wonderfully warm for the necks of Wyomingites, several which are ranchers. The lacy ones aren’t going to the ranchers.
I found today as I work on a spiral ribbed cowl, that I’m tired of cowls. In fact, I’m sick of them for at least a few days. So when Andrea and another yarn store customer started discussing the Ilene bag, i got sucked in. You see, I’ve been looking at starting a market bag from three skeins of hemp I have downstairs in a rather unattractive color. I had an idea brewing about how to make this thing when this pattern was put in front of me and besides a few changes I would make (and did) it was exactly what I wanted! So, I had them print me up a copy off ravelry (it’s free, titled Ilene Bag) and bought some Classic Elite: Firefly and hacked into it tonight.
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| From AKQGuy |
So far, so good. I wanted a firmer knit so am working only on the smaller sized needle, but added more stitches tot he bottom of the bag to account for the size difference. I also picked up a couple additional stitches along the floor of the bag’s edge to add decrease tot he corner points to give some additional structure. We’ll see what more I insist on doing, but I’m happy with it at this time. And when I say that I did these changes, it by no means is meant to say there is a lacking to this pattern. It’s a lovely pattern and fine just the way it is. I just knit like I cook, patterns and recipes are more like guidelines that sure and true directions. I always have to play with things and make it mine, and when it all goes to hell because I deviated from the tried and true method, it should in no way reflect poorly on the designer who gave me a perfectly good pattern. It reflects all upon my insistence that it could be better fitted to my wants.
Anyway, me and the kids are heading to bed so I can go play at work tomorrow night, you all have a great week, and keep knitting/crocheting/macrame’ing/playing with fiber in all ways wonderful.
G’Night,
Q.
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