Project Update

OK...I've been a Very Bad Blogger, but I have been doing all kinds of work on projects, fibery and otherwise...

I have done a ton of stuff in my studio room...Pictures will be posted when I'm completely finished and everything is prettied up...I might even dust!

Last weekend I did some more Kool Aid dyeing...I really like dyeing...A lot...*huge grin* And the pots bubbling on the stove fill the whole house with the 'delicious' scent of boiled fruit punch (???) so what more could a girl ask for? HA!

I redid some of the original experimental dyeing...Overdyed the !ORANGE! skein and now it is a lovely orange-red color, which I quite like...


If you squint, it almost looks tonal, like I did it on purpose or something...

I also did the purple one over again, to darken it and take out some of the errors I made when I tied the skein too tight and the dye didn't take under the string...


And I did another skein with some Black Cherry flavor, which made a nice red as well...


I'll probably end up using the yarn for hats for Afghans for Afghans, since the amounts of each color are quite small...Now I'm going to have to hide my credit card in the freezer until after I get some bills paid, lest I lose it and buy that way cool sampler dye pack from Dharma Trading Co. and a metric ton of blanks...

I've just finished a new iPod cozy for my BFF Fred...


His old coat was starting to look pretty nasty...(That's Sticks & String by the way, in case you're wondering...)

And I had a pleasant surprise as well...I had been working away on the whole Babette deal, assuming it would take me the rest of my natural life to complete all 4 billion squares (especially those stupid little 2 round ones!) but when I decided to lay out what I had so far, I realized that I must be just about done by now...Since I'm doing it without a pattern, I fully expect that when joining time comes I will have a few more to do to fill in some gaps, but it seems like I have very close to enough...I was a Good Girl this time, and did my best to work over as many ends as I could, and also took a couple of evenings to just weave in ends, but since I spent a good part of the weekend in a 2 Round Square Frenzy, I have a ton (a ton!) of weaving in to do...*scowls*

The Supersekrit Project is just about complete...There will be pictures, there will be coolness, hopefully there will be no arrests...I'll let you know when it's Mission Accomplished...

Auf Bitten von die Strickerinbesucher

Online dictionaries are great, aren't they? *grin*

Oh wait...Or should it be Strickerbesucherin? Ack! There's a reason I stopped studying German...It's freaking hard!!! *enormous grin*

Anyway, here's the Noob Dyeing...



You can really see a gap in the color where I tied the skeins so they wouldn't tangle...It's not pretty, but it made me think of a possible future dyeing project--I could kind of 'tie dye' skeins...For example, starting with a white skein, and a couple of ties, and dye it light blue, then tie it a couple more times, and dye it medium blue, and then some more ties and a dark blue...???

The orange turned out...um, really orange...I was figuring that since it was wool, I could use these experiments for Dulaan hats or something...But I don't think I will inflict that orange on a poor defenceless Mongolian baby! All his little friends would make fun of him, and keep making deerhunting jokes behind his back...

The handpainted stuff I did ended up a disaster...*scowl* The primary colors one basically rinsed out (I don't think I microwaved it long enough), and the other one faded quite a bit, except for the red, which went to a hot pink...Ergh...I may try and overdye them, and play with the Kool Aid a bit more...

Still gonna buy a handpainting dye kit though...Anyone need some Noobish sock yarn?

Done!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you...The Brownnoser Blankie...







I will be posting a free pattern for this very soon, but right now, well, it's 3 am, and I'm off to bed!

Don't Panic!

A few months ago, four women in my immediate department announced they were pregnant simultaneously...(I don't mean it happened simultaneously, though that could possibly have been the case, but honestly, I don't think that's any of my business...) It was at the same staff meeting, OK?

So in a fit of babylust and optimism, I decided that I would make blankets for everybody...Now, one of the women has been fired since, so that's one down, but I am still seriously lagging behind...Today it was announced that the office shower for one of the preggers is on Friday...I only just cast on her baby blanket on Sunday...


Can I do it? Ergh...

I am also having a serious love-hate relationship with this yarn...Baby Bee Lambie Pie from Hobby Lobby...

I am a firm believer in acrylic for everyone under the age of 20, so that's fine...And I adore the fabric it makes...Looky all the swizzles coming out all over the place! I love it!

But you cannot frog it...Also, I have never, ever had a tension problem with knitting (or crocheting, for that matter) but this keeps getting tighter and tighter as I work the row; I really don't know what the problem could be, since it's just individual stitches, and sections of stitches (the fabric created is fine, not too tight at all)...My fix at this point is to knit grotesquely loose, and just throw the yarn around the needle and when I pull through it comes up as a normal-type of tension...

I did finish my blanket for the Afghans for Afghans Mother's Day campaign...Now, before I go any further, I have to explain...The stipulations were for an animal fiber for warmth, and no white or light colors that would show dirt easily...





It's bright and it's cheerful, and I think it is disgusting-looking...*huge grin* I hope it will keep a little girl nice and warm all winter long, but this will be the last time I do a project for anyone, anytime, with colors I can't stand...

I made some hats too, with the same pink and teal variegated, and some in a blue variegated colorway as well, which turned out looking a hell of a lot cuter than this blanket...

Dulaan's deadline is coming up, so maybe I can figure something better out for them...But for now I think it will be a race to get that baby blanket done for Friday...

Not That Spooky

Been watching real-life ghost story shows on Biography all night, and now I'm too creeped out to sleep...*grin*

So here's the finished shrug, inspired by the Knitty.com design...

Brrrrr!

Since we are having a last blast from Winter this week, I was quite glad that I spent some time during the Real Winter making scarves...


This was the first knitting project I had done in about 10+ years, so I just did a garter stitch scarf in Noro Kureyon (one of my favorite yarns ever, even if it is a little scratchy for a scarf)...


Then I got a bit more adventurous with a pattern from Vogue Knitting...The pattern was shawl-sized, but I used different-sized needles than what the pattern called for...It is a very stretchy, almost lacy kind of stitch, which isn't really apparent from this picture...But I like the diagonal ends...


I used up some of the leftover yarn from a strip scarf which is still a WIP, and made this up as I went along, with red, black, and 2 shades of grey...

This is a throw I just completed for a co-worker who gets very cold at her desk by the windows...