Leaves of inspiration...

So here is the wool dyed with inspiration from the rainy drop leaves..of a salal I think...but the colors of the wool were irresistable so started another pair of socks...so easy to work with on the road, and doing them in the magic loop, with the pattern of knit two rows, kl pl,for one row....this is a great pattern and keeps the socks from slouching without having to do too much purling...not that we don't love to purl...lol...
Love the tones of green and pink, very juicy and the yarn is too...

Leafy days of spring

Here are the photos I liked from todays walk with my friend who is 82 and has wonderful eyes, she is always seeing things I miss, and has such a beautiful eye for them, and leaves are one of her favourite, so she reintroduced my mushroom seeking, moss delving eyes, and had me focusing on leaves, and voila there were some sweet ones...It was a beautiful sunny spring type day and the leaves where colorful in there deterioration...so the textures were wonderful, and so many colors very inspiring for dyeing yarns...the lower one is especially dyeable.....On the knitting front I am working on dyeing sock yarn which I think profit wise is a bit of a right off, unless you are selling it yourself, because with the galleries putting on their percentage, I really don[t think it is worth it for me...but I do like to dye some just for my socks and for the market...but don't think I will get too far into it, as it is too much work for not enough return and life is too short...I could be out there taking pictures of leaves....but am working on a cashmere/silk :"ice queen" as I like my yellow kid mohair but wanted one a little heavier so I am knitting it in white and I will dye it later...it is very soft and necky.....and am working on finishing two pair of socks, and one old shale scarf and still waiting for my new blocking wires...very thrilled with that purchase....so more pictures to follow...

sock it 2 me, one more time

Here are the newest colors and I love them both...the yarn is the merino washable sock yarn, and they were both handpainted and micro dyed...I used at least three different dyes in this process...telana, jaquard, and gaywool, and mixed them with water and a bit of vinegar, and soaked the yarn in vinegar and water first....then microed them for a total of about ten minutes altogether with time in between, and they came out totally exhausted and I wasn't...it is a great way to have a dyeing day without lugging big vats of water, and I have it down so there is little mess, and all happens quite quickly...one thing I have learned in doing this process, is that after I have soaked the wool in vinegar and water, I then put it in the washing machine and spin the water out, then dye it...that way there is no pooling in liquid as it steams...minimal liquid in the saran wrap...and then I dry it and skein it in 50 gram skeins...this is rather work intensive for the money you get for sock yarn...what with the gallery or shop taking ther percentage...not a very lucrative business if it goes in shops, although when I sell at the market in the summer and I get all the money for it , it is more lucrative. But I do love having all these socks to knit, as I c annot resist making socks out of all the colors I like so usually I get a pair out of each dye lot.


Now am working on a pair which has a great pattern on the leg part...two rows knit, one row pl kn l , and I love the look and the elasticity of this. so off to knit more socks...

Under the weather with the ice queen

Here's the latest finished gooding, the Ice Queen, from Knitty....without the beads, and shortened, to ll final repeats, because I could never see myself wearing it over my head, but do love to where high neck covers, for the warmth it gives, and for the chins it covers...seem to be liking them more the older I get, but really they are incredibly warm...so this is done in silk haze and certainly took the whole ball, and if I had followed that pattern it would have been more , which is kind of a shame as a one ball pattern is always good to use up those balls... it has a provisional cast on, which I got to practice and a picot edge bind off which I learned to do and took forever. All this while listening to a book on tape...which I love doing if knitting as I get to "read" the book and not lose out on knitting or spinning and also because sometimes the brain just doesn't want CBC...This is how I get through some novels that would have perhaps been a slog to read...and as long as the narrator is good and it is unabridged I really enjoy it.



Here is the close up of the ice queen although the buttery yellow of the silkhaze seems to be lost.
Next is a string bag which I am going to make from organic cotton which I bought on Ravelry for a more than reasonable price. So as the island turns ......

Twist and shout

Here is the sock yarn all twisted and a pleasure to see and irrestible to me..I have balled some up and must make some socks...seems I have to make socks from every color I dye...pathetic really...just color gluttony....but some is being shipped off in a trade for two ply alpaca, and some I am keeping for myself, and the reest I will sell...it is the washable merino and I love this twist...it is so endearing to me to clearly see the twist in the yarn, must be the basket weaver in me because even though I love other sock yarns seeing this twist has the most appeal...

and here we have some 50/50 silk/merino and some blue face roving drying by the fire...I love how the silk sucks up the dye and even though I only used two colors in the bath so many variants...all the tiny sprinkles that make up the shade get absorbed into the silk....now to dye some cashmere/silk next...think I will micro dye that..I read in someone's blog last week that putting it on low for 5 minutes, then resting and dyeing 2 min on and off, makes for better color, the starting low, so I will try this method and see if it makes a noticeable difference. As the island turns....and snow falls, we dye on...

Down and Dyeing

Been down with the local plague for a number of days, which at least found me undating my blog, and a wee bit of dyeing...here is my latest washable merino, although the color is slightly askew...more olive in that gold ...but it works...
and next in the photo parade..voila, German heel, taught by Frenchette, and practised here for the first time on a normal, relatively, sock...do I like it? not really, will I do it again? sure if its for the felted footie...it worked great then and used less yarn, but give me the old flap...of course I will do it again, as I need that second sock to match to pictured one.. I like the process just not the fit for my foot...
Photo number three: the sweet blocking of the cashmere old shale scarf...still can't believe what simply blocking does, might be magic...and I can hardly wait for the real blocking wires to show up ....I must get knitting so I have more scarves to block when they arrrive....and the finale is the newly spun mushroom dyed bfl tops....how sweet it is...my eyes are becoming more attuned to the pastel palette, much to my surprise and delight, and good thing too, because I can't seem to get bright mushroom dyes...you need much mushrooms, like 70 grams dryed for l00 grams of fibre, now that seems like a lot of mushrooms but come fall, I;ll be out there picking and drying...
so for now I leave you with the softest of hues....and go back to those damn Harlot Hamsters.....