Off the needles, out of the pot, but still on the loom!

 Another pair of socks off the needles.  I wore them yesterday and they are quite comfy.  They are definitely striking in colour and pattern, perfect to wear on a grey day.   They were a fun and easy pattern to knit.  I held off on trying a slip stitch pattern because I thought the slipped stitches would catch or some such thing.  I had no problems with them and would use a slip stitch pattern again!  It sure put a bit of life into an otherwise plain stripey pattern.

It seems like eons ago,  I made these socks from yarn I'd dyed with food colours.   However many washings and line drying in the sunshine later, they had faded badly.  I rather liked the bright pinks, blues and purples but sometimes the food colours don't stand up to that much sunshine.   So I heated up a pot of water, added a glug of vinegar and a dollop of pink dye and overdyed the socks..  They are much more pink than I'd planned but I love the colour.    I used too much dye.  I had to add some fibre in to assist in the take up.  If I'd have added half the dye, the stripey contrasts would have been brighter.  None the less, they are happily back in the sock rotation, for days when warmth and pinkness are needed!


On the loom, after the basket weave towel was finished, I started a broken chevron pattern.  It's simple enough to treadle and looks nice in the natural and blue colours.  It was a fairly quick weave as well.


Then I did a straight, plain twill, putting in some yellow stripes at each end with a reverse treadling.   They are pretty too.  I'm rather liking the simplicity of these patterns.  The bobbin of blue was almost empty and while I'm pretty sure there is enough blue 2/8 cotton left on the tube for another towel, it would be cutting it close to do another blue towel.  I switched up to a deep red, also 2/8 cotton.  


The handwoven shawl project was a fussy weave.  The threads were a bit sticky and the selvedges were a bit of a nuisance.  It's nice to have a straight forward weaving project, which proceeds effortlessly and weaves off quickly, if one so wishes to do so.  The next weaving project will most likely be a bit fussy, so I'm enjoying the speed and simplicity while I can.