ADD much?

Oy! The pilot that navigates my flights of fancy has been putting in overtime.

Have I finished any of the vowed completion knitting since the last post? NO.

Have I made any of my dresses? NO.

Have I patched any more of Bart's pants? NO.

Have I worked one tiny bit on my planned freeform foundation piece? NO.

Have I begun a new sweater? Why yes, yes, I have.

I really need someone to be my personal task master cuz just a tiny glimpse into my workroom will confirm beyond any doubt I can NOT manage my own urges.

I started this sweater the night before last. It is my second Petal Sweater, a pattern from the early 60's.


I made this sweater a while back in wool, this one is in reclaimed cotton. If you recall, or followed the link, you'll know I had some size issues with the first rendition of this sweater. It's one of those sweaters that has multiple sizes to it (in two different booklets) but the sizing is merely changes in gauge and the pattern is a tad skimpy with finished measurements (they don't exist). The first time I made the adult size touted to fit sizes 10-18. (the first clue I ignored) This time I'm making it in a gauge that is ever so slightly larger than the child's size 8/10! I love the big sloppiness of the wool one I made, it is the perfect wintertime, slob around the house sweater, but I think I'm going love this fitted summertime cotton version just as much.

Oh, btw I made the exact same error on this one as I did on the first. I put the first buttonhole in the wrong place....sigh I assumed the first time around I misread the pattern, this time, either I misread the pattern in exactly the same manner or, the pattern/designer really does think the top buttonhole should be that close to the edge! I don't agree, I've made HUGE notes-to-self on the pattern now.

I've been holding on to this cotton since last summer with plans for something else I've been working on for quite some time. I completely forgot about those plans when I grabbed the yarn and cast on the night before last. In fact, I just remembered about that previously planned project as I began writing this post. Oh well, there's plenty of other stuff where this came from!

This week was Joe's "long weekend" which translates from his work-speak as the entire week off, so we've been hanging out together. :o) In addition to Joe-time, the weather has been great, lots of time spent outside, lots of grilling, and a few trips into town, makes a week of few fibery pursuits. Although I did manage to get a couple more rug squares done.

I also followed through on my thoughts of the other day regarding keeping the loom warped on the chance of a stolen moment row woven from time to time. It's been working out fairly well.

Today I'll work on the body of the new Petal, and think about what other summer tops to make with the remainder of this cotton. Oh brother, I really do need personal task master to keep me focused.

Weaving and Dyeing

OK first things first, pic of the impetus for my posting today.


Yes, I'm into the blues and greens. Yea!

Next up, yarn barf.a.k.a knitted lace.

It's going pretty well. Yes I've had a few oops. Primarily forgotten YO's, but I caught them soon enough. 6 more rows of the edge chart and I'm done. Wonder how many oops there will be that I didn't notice! :o) Oh, and can I tell ya how much I despise working on these pole vault worthy length needles?!? UGH! I went merrily along on my convert vintage dpn needles clear up to the middle of the last repeat of the chart for the body. Then I couldn't cram anymore stitches on the needle....sigh Couldn't find my vintage circs in this size and didn't dare switch to use metal ones. My gauge is out the window when I use metal needles, so out came the needles whose length is akin to the proverbial 10 ft. pole. Again I say UGH, but I must give them their due, cuz if I didn't have them the yarn barf would stagnate until who knows when.

I loath metal needles. We just can't see eye to eye. Pity that, I have 100's of them. :-/ If anyone out there is looking for some metal needles any length or type, circs, straights, dpns, any size email me. I'd love to see them go to an appreciative home. Conversely so I'd be thrilled to give a warm and loving abode to any of those vintage needles that were made of nylon, casein, (sp?), or that plastic like stuff from way back when. Any length and type would be loved and cherished, even those of the pole vaulting variety. Anyone? Anyone? BTW if you have any made from Bakelite do yourself a favor and sell them on ebay they get a pretty penny.

Let's see what else is there today, oh yeah, I tried a new-to-me KA dye technique. (I've never seen anyone else talk about this, but I'm positive someone out there has done it before) IMHO I think this has great potential.


Yes these are the same skein. I'm thrilled that I can now take pix in a decent size and they aren't bleary, correct coloration will have to wait. The true color is somewhere between the two of these. A new friend of mine, who seems to be a long lost sister, posed the question about how to get a pink/orange mottled/heather/tweedy yarn with KA. This skein is the result of experiment #1.

I used my standard sure fire mottling method with pink lemonade first. Big pot on the stove, 6 pkg of pink lemonade KA, with a dash of vinegar (I don't like to wait) and quickly throw in a hank of DRY yarn. I let the air bubbles in the fiber itself do the work for me. The only cautionary tales regarding this method is that you must act quickly to get all the yarn submerged or run the risk of a graduated skein or large splotches. I've never had any problem with felting the yarn as I manipulate it in the pot to make sure it stays submerged, the water isn't that hot yet, and I don't really agitate it, I just keep pushing it below water level so it's not floating. With particularly lofty yarns this can take a while. To remedy that problem, (I do things quickly, and I don't like to babysit yarn) I purchased a round cooling rack. You know the kind of wire racks you'd cool a cake or cookies on after baking. I snipped one outer ring of the rack which gives me enough play in the ring to be able to wedge the rack into my pot below water level, thus holding the more lofty fiber submerged.

After the dye was exhausted I removed my nicely mottled pink skein and let it cool enough to handle easily. I'm using "pink" here rather flippantly, I would have called the color pink salmon or perhaps peachy melon, not really a true pink. I know/have heard to add a bit of grape or some other blue based KA to make it more pink, but I wanted to see exactly what color I'd get with just the pink lemonade.

Now comes the new part. I took a small 2 oz fine spray mist bottle, put about two tablespoons of vinegar in it, with 2 pkg of orange KA and then filled the bottle with water. I laid the skein out in the bottom of my sink spread out as much as the ties would allow and spritzed the orange on it. I continually turned , twisted and fluffy the skein, sometimes even shaking and fluffing it in the air while spritzing. (No, I did not wear gloves, and yes my hand was completely orange.) After the entire contents of the bottle was used, I placed the skein in a steam bath over my big pot and let the color set. As for the orange hand? No problem, a sprinkle of baking soda and all was well,

All in all I'm pleased with the outcome, there is great potential here. I would rather have had a truer pink, but up against the orange it did "pinken" up a bit. Experiment #2 will use the same procedure but with colors not so similar. I'm thinking yellow and green, maybe blue and yellow that could produce some nice greens within the skein too. hmmmm.....

Weaving Wednesday!

Ha ha ha, bet you thought I'd forget. I know I would have placed that bet. :o)

All warped up:


Done:



The next pic shows today's square (bottom right of photo) and a square I did a few days ago. Below that are a couple other squares I've done. (ouch a sunlight photo, oh well)


For right now I'm working up all the yellows/golds/oranges/reds that were already plied when I purchased the fibers. I "stole" these plied yarns from the "project bundles" which were part of the motherload. I've got a total of 6 or 7 squares done, (only about 28 more to go!) all different but somewhat similar. There is prob'ly enough of these pre-plied fibers to make another 6 or 7, and I do have many cones of the individual yarns to ply more if I need to. I think I'll weave all the pre-plied yarns including the boxes of blue/green fibers, blue/purple/pink fibers, and the browns/rusts just to see what I've got and what I'll need. Perhaps they will all go into the same rug or maybe they won't. :o)

Each of these are 18 inches square, made on my homemade 18 inch weave-it loom. Eventually they will be a rug(s) for the patio. I'm thinking/hoping for an 8x10 and then of course there is the hemp rope rug that will be 5x7. Joe is questioning the sizes I'm planning saying the patio isn't that big. LOL it's 30 x 22 I think it's big enough for two rugs! :o) There are plenty of places I could use a throw rug in the house considering the house has hardwood flooring throughout and not a single carpet anywhere. Ooops that's a lie, there is a vintage handwoven rug in one of my workrooms up stairs. I think I've mentioned it before.....a $65-ish estate sale find. 12x14 handmade of cloth (wool) strips, and judging by the materials used, I'd guess it was made in the early 40's. I LOVE that rug.

I do have some knitting news, but I'll leave that for tomorrow cuz today is Weaving Wednesday!