yarn

Stained glass – more adventures in dyeing

Posted on October 17, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I can’t actually believe that I made this.

This is a mystery skein from the lovely and fabulous MsGusset (who quite rightly is a finalist in the Australian Etsy Design Awards – go vote for her here)

It’s dyed using food colouring and set with vinegar and heat still using the same technique as my first attempts at dyeing. I got a little bit experimental with a coat hanger to dye different parts different colours, particularly as black is a bit tricky to work with.

The ‘What a kool way to dye’ group on ravelry’s October Dye-along challenge was stained glass.
I think my submission meets that criteria. But I’ll let pictures do the talking.

Also I made a video thing where I also gush about MsGusset and YarnvsZombies and The Golden Skein

Imagine the stash you could keep in a TARDIS

Posted on October 7, 2014October 7, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I had so many Doctor Who and yarny related goodies in the mailbox recently I don’t know where to start.

Ok there was two. But they were both awesome that it seems like more.

First up, I managed to nab a Tangerine 8 project bag! I have been trying to get one of these for ages, but they sell out almost immediately.
One night I was lieing awake at 2am, surfing Twitter and saw a shop update. I set my alarm and then later that morning scored myself the project bag of my dreams. How could I possible not have longed for a knitting bag with yarn rolling out of the Tardis. *swoon*

I’ve now located all of my Midnight Scribbles Doctor Who stitch markers and this did seem like the perfect place for them.

I now have 6 of these stitch markers, one for each month of the Doctor Yarn Club by Yarn vs Zombies.
Another 2 yarns arrived in the post this week!
Australia Post hasn’t been kind to Kiki and there have been missing packages all over the place so I got two at once which was a very nice surprise.

So in the mail arrived the 12th Doctor and the 2nd Doctor.

Which was good timing because I just last night finished off the 9th Doctor (plus nanogenes) which I made into 22 Little Clouds.

And have started knitting the Of The Moon using the 3rd Doctor.

I cannot wait to see how this one turns out. I love all of Caitlin Ffrench’s patterns. (Who by the way has just released her first book! Which you can buy in PDF onlyor in hard copy book format. It also includes natural dye recipes to recreate the yarns perfectly.)

*disclaimer- as much as I gush about these products, they were paid for with my own hard earned dollars. Although if anyone ever wants to send me free yarn please feel free, but my honest opinion can not be bought!

FO 3 – mystery yarn socks

Posted on March 18, 2014March 18, 2014 by bekswhoknits

The first pair of socks for 2014 are off the needles.

They’re made with mystery yarn that I forgot to catalogue on ravelry, didn’t keep the ball band, and couldn’t understand the language it was written in.

But I liked the colours and figured it was probably a fingering weight.

As my beloved 2.5mm addis currently make my fingers all tingly when I use them (thanks old lady bones) so instead I found a pattern that used 3.5mm needles.
Which doesn’t sound like a lot but that 1mm makes a big difference on my tingly fingers.
I’ve got three pairs on the needles at the moment, 2 on bigger needles again (3.75 & 4.5mm) which also are helping the old lady bone situation and one on 2.5mm which are in hibernation due to the finger tingles.

The pattern is ampersand- upside down, and predictably was knit toe up & two at a time. Let’s not get too crazy here.

I substituted in a fish lips kiss heel which looks pretty good and is really comfortable to wear.

There is still enough yarn left over for at least one other pair of socks. Or maybe something else. Lets see what the mystery yarn tells me to do.

Thanks to Moo for modelling but they are a bit too big for his tiny cow footsies.

Next Step Sock Sockalong

Posted on February 12, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I’ve gone a little cable crazy. I’ve cast on two cable projects in the last week, one of which is dangerous turns.

These are a good candidate for the Next Step Sock Sockalong (hosted by crafts form the cwtch and is about stepping out of the sock comfort zone and trying something new).

Firstly I’m knitting these out of cotton. Which I haven’t knitted with before. I have no idea if they’ll make nice socks but I wanted to give it a go. I’m a bit tired of using Noir all the time and I’ve promised myself not to buy it again, but I was in Spotlight and wanted instant gratification yarn, so I bought Panda Regal 4ply Cotton.

Secondly I’m knitting cables without a cable needle. I’m a cable beginner, who naively assumed that there was only 2 types of cables.
Well there aren’t. And last week they had me beat. The tutorial I used didn’t cover what to do when there was purling involved. And stubborn old me wasn’t about to use a cable needle.

Fortunately the answer came to me in a dream.
After nearly throwing them across the room, frogging them, and sobbing into my cotton, I wisely decided that I would sleep on it.
After dreaming about knitting (is this common?) I had the answer.

All of a sudden the cables fell into place and I knew what to do.
So I manually transposed the stitches. Once I had done that I could knit and purl as I pleased.

And then last night I figured out how to do it in one clean swoop, the grumperina way. And it seems so simple I don’t know why I didn’t get it before.

So these are my next step socks.
I’m hoping now that I’ve got the cables figured out for good and the early cables don’t look too rubbish in comparison.
Or that I forget it all and can’t figure it back our.
Or that I have actually ‘got it’ and haven’t just made something up which doesn’t work.

Eep, maybe I’m not as confident about cables as I thought I was!!