December update

I updated my operating system in early December and bam, I was unable to post any photos to my blog.  All the suggestions made no sense, since there weren't any of those options that I could find in my settings.  Finally though, this morning, I found a hint, tried it and poof things seem to be back to normal.   I did some dyeing over the holidays.  These red mittens were supposed to be made with the Newfoundland mitten pattern.  However the grey was too similar to the blues and yellows in the yarn and the lack of contrast made the mittens dull and unexceptional.  I even tried two different greys, one quite a lot  darker than this one.  Neither looked good, so I settled with a simple cable up the centre.   They look fairly nice, although simpler than I'd wanted.  They are mittens though, so very warm and wearable.

The yarn was leftover commercial wool from other projects.  I had some white which I didn't think was enough for two mittens, and bits of grey.  Both were similar weights.  I'd wanted to dye the yarn pink and blue, with the dyes blending where meeting to make purples.   I had been using quite old dyes, and while usually they are fine, these had obviously started to thicken.  When the pinks started turning red, I mixed in some yellows to change up the colour way a bit.   It looked really good in the skein!   It's nice enough knit up, but this does show how you really can't necessarily gauge how a skein will look when knit up.

Also, more dyeing, these two skeins were dyed in the same vat, at the same time.  They are totally different greens.   The small dark green skein was a slightly off white compared to the lighter green, but not dark enough for this difference in colour.  They were obviously two different breeds of sheep, but both were wool so the take up shouldn't have been quite this dramatic.  Luckily, this yarn is for a shawl with light and darks, so it should work just fine.

Also, sometimes commercial sock yarn doesn't look like you think it will knit up.  This yarn looked bright and cheery in the skein.  I knew it wasn't red and green type holiday colours, but it looked festive and so bright that I made a quick pair of socks from it.  Once knit up, I could tell that they aren't Xmas socks though, they are spring socks.   Pretty and pastel.   Nice enough and it's a German yarn, so a very good quality.  It knit up like a dream.   I've found though that a lot of the imported German super washes, do fine in the washer, but don't like the dryer, so these are hang to dry only, just to be sure.

I hope everyone's holiday time was full of good things.  We got to see family only because we could all only find one day that worked for everyone.  It turned out to be the only day without freezing rain, or ridiculous snow squalls and blizzard conditions.  We had it far easier than other parts of our province, but still, I didn't leave the house even for groceries for a couple of weeks, between the weather and holidays. 

 

Inadvertently Monochromatic Photos

Recently it's felt both busy and so slow!  We've had snow squalls and storms arriving early this year.  We've had Alberta Clippers coming in off the lakes one right after  another, making miserable driving conditions as well as some unseasonably cold weather!  I missed one of my guilds  holiday gathering due to miserable weather,  track bare to snow covered roads and a crazy amount of snow in my driveway.   The other club travelled down to Port Rowan to visit a member's studio and have lunch at a local restaurant.   The day was sunny and lovely when we left.  It had clouded over and had started changing when we left the studio for the restaurant.   It was snowing when we left, with freezing drizzle.   I didn't get a photo of the harbour when we left, but you couldn't see the end of the boat houses or the end of the pier due to the weather.  Lunch had okay food but great company and the drive home wasn't too horrible.  I wasn't driving though, so that was helpful.

I cast on a pair of mittens.  Usually my mittens are fairly utilitarian, plain knit with anything fancier being in the yarns that I use.   Sometimes I dye some fancy yarn, blend fancier fibres or blend rolags on the blending board to make unique colour blends.   This time I decided to try cabled mittens.   I actually used a pattern to make sure I knew how to set the cables into the mitts so they were on the top of the hand.  I also tried a new finishing technique for the ends of the mitts, which I think I may try a few more times.  They still need blocking, but they worked out well.  I didn't like the pattern's placement or size of the thumb, so I did rip the first one back to the cuff and used a simple peasant thumb.  It doesn't look quite as clean as the other one, but I'll dig up another pattern and give it another try.   It's always good to have other techniques to use.

I also cleaned up and tried another knitting machine.  It is a LK100, a chunky gauge plastic machine.   I had to change the sponge bar.   That's the bit of foam that holds the needles in place and is a pretty easy, although fussy fix on this machine.  The fussiest part was re-inserting the needles.  I had to wipe off some gunky stuff and clean up some needles too.   It assembled easily.   I tried it out a few times and decided I wasn't up to the learning curve at this time.   I have a Bond Ultimate Sweater machine.  It's a very basic, manual machine with a fairly big learning curve, and it's a bit noisy.  This machine is a slightly fancier, less versatile version of the Bond.   The plus side is that there are extra base pieces, that can be attached to make a frankensteined knitting bed that is really long.  That would be great for afghans or baby blankets.   Anyway, it didn't take long before I'd packed it all up in its box and set up the SK151 again.   

The SK151 is also a chunky machine.  It's also manual, however it's a metal bed machine and more complex knitting carriage.  This means it's quieter and a bit easier to use.  Also because I'd played around making a bunch of hats with various yarns, I also have some of that learning curve mastered.   I do believe that my Circular Sock Machine, albeit antique, had a much smaller and easier learning curve that this flat bed.   So with the 151 set up, I put on another hat, but this time to try cables.   The hat is a little smaller than I wanted and took a fair bit more time than I'd anticipated, but I learned a lot.  I was getting faster at the end.  It's also my own pattern, which made me really happy.

My next project is a really simple sweater.  I should probably make a small sweater for a child or baby, but I have no little ones to knit for.  I cast on a learning sweater for me.   I got to the shoulder with minimal issues.  I managed to drop a few stitches , caught them all on stitch markers and took a break.  I read a machine knitting forum while I had my tea, and I normally don't find basic questions silly or dumb, but really, there were a few of them, and the questions that I view as common sense and intuitive made me feel pretty confident about my few skills.  I fixed the errant stitches and finished up, totally realising where I made my mistake in the first place.   So I have the back of a sweater done and am just writing out the instructions for the sleeves and front  so I can hopefully finish it up in a few days.

I also finished plying the last of the fleece that A gave me last spring.   I have probably about 2000 - 2200 yards of 2 ply yarn waiting for me to decide what to knit with it.   I think it will be a sweater for me, but will I dye it or use it in its natural colour?   Also, I haven't quite found a pattern for it yet.  Once I decide on those things, I'll get tit started.  That will be a good winter project.

The Weaver's Fall sale was quite successful.  I was happy with selling 5 scarves, maybe more since for some reason I didn't get back my inventory sheet and I only had one copy.  Most of the scarves were acrylic blends, acrylic or cotton blends and they get a bit of a bad rap in the guild as most of the members like fancy weaves or expensive fibres.   Since I don't have that budget, I've been weaving with what I can afford, and it certainly paid off in this economy as I sold the most in the guild!  Go me!

I can't wait for the days to start getting longer.   The dull days, combined with few sunlight hours is quite wearing.  In order to weave or knit, machine or by hand, I've got extra lights on during the day as well as lights on plants, despite them being in the big windows.   Maybe spring will be as early as our winter started!