I Wasn’t Going to Post Today

But some idiot is on my TV interrupting my soap, so I need to do something else. 

Here is the progress so far on Clapotis

Better view of the dropped stitches

Close up because I like them

I would just like to mention how hard it is to drop those stitches down, I expected they would just fall, but no, not my knitting!

Re-Do

I got to redo the yarn dying escapade from the other day.  I’m a hugely pleased with the results. 

Skittles

(my husband says I’m going to get sued, but it’s for personal use so whatever)

At first, I was really worried about how badly it looked like the red muddied it all up, but I think it is going to knit up very cool.  I LOVE how the green and blue worked together and cannot wait to do one of just those two.  I’m thinking of replacing the red with yellow too, but I am worried about finding a decent yellow dye formula.  You ever notice how little yarn you see yellow?  Here’s another picture since that one shows very little blue, but about half the skein is blue. 

 

I really beat up the skein when I dyed it, so I had to rewind a mess after:

Took me nearly 2 hours to wind that.

Here’s my 5 yr old trying to prevent the baby from eating my yarn, which is exactly what she is trying to do.

On the knitting front I have been working on Clapotis like mad and am about 1/3 of the way through the straight rows.  It’s going slower than I expected because the twisted stitches really slow me down.  They just break it up so much. 

The Skittles yarn is going to be used for a hat in the pattern I am working on for Gabriella to go with her new longies.  I just can’t figure out what to do with the longies color-wise.  Any idea?  I want them to match the hat, but I just don’t know how to accomplish that.

Thoughts

I’ve gotten a commission to knit 2 pairs of longies in time for Turkey Day.  That includes waiting for her yarn to get here, she bought yarn from DeliciousPear over at YarnyBits, and needed someone to knit them up for her.  Quickly.  This also includes getting it back to her in Georgia before she leaves for Ohio for T-Day.  What does this mean, you ask?  It means that Everything Else is on hold.  So let’s take stock:  Clapotis and hopefully the Clapotis Cap by December 1st, in time to go to Williamsburg.  My mom would be pretty mad if I didn’t finish the shawl since she bought the yarn for me to wear with my dress on the vacation she’s paying for.  Then we have the Purple/White, which it would be nice if the girls both have their sweaters for vacation.  The Purple/White has sleeves and yoke left.  Then there is the hat to match the longies for the little one, which is also going to be a for sale item, and needs to be done so I can example it as it’s getting cold.  Lastly, is the 2 washcloths and soapsacks for the older one’s teachers for Christmas, those need to be done by December 22.  I wonder if I’m missing anything?  Oh yeah, we have a birthday party this weekend and have no money for a gift, so he gets a gift certificate for socks or a hat, not sure which. 

So needless to say, I hope, is that I won’t be doing much blogging or reading for the next couple of weeks, or from whenever I get the yarn until whenever I ship it out.

For now, I will leave you with pictures of what I do to my kitchen when I am dyeing:    during mixing    after dyeing

Really, you ought to put the paper down like people say   And the dye was over my entire floor, don’t ask me how, and all over my stove.

Devastated

I am so devastated.  I had just enough yarn left for a hat I am designing to match the longies.  I handpainted it and then popped it in the microwave to set it.  I’ve never used a microwave for it before because we didn’t have one until this house.  Well, not only did I manage to yet again crack Pyrex (WTF?!) with heat, but I BURNT the yarn! 

 It’s kind of hard to see in this picture, but that dark spot in the center and on the right hand side is burnt wool!  I can’t buy more for a bit either   I may end up selling the longies now.  Great colors though, huh?

A Lot to Say

This is going to be quite the post.  I’ve done a lot in the last few days and have lots to say.  I’ve been taking lots of pretty fall pictures on my walks to and from picking the older one up. 

  I really love digital (free), rechargeable (free) and the macro setting all rolled into one.  

 

 

Look at all those beautiful colors!  Orange, and red, and green…Oh My!  I love when there are all the different colors to look at, the contrasts are amazing!  I have more, but I think I will pepper them into future posts instead of all at once.  Especially since I have more pictures to post in this entry, I don’t want to overload anyone. 

I actually finished the older one’s Halloween costume.  There wasn’t all that much to do, I just had to make a skirt.

Why does satin photograph like plastic?  That underskirt looks better suited to being a diaper cover than a flow-ey skirt.  Here’s a close-up of the pattern on the tulle: 

 Since this is supposed to be a blog for business, I suppose I should actually post something business related: 

That’s right!  It’s those longies!  Now they need to be dyed.  I wish I knew if low-immersion dying would be effective on the wool.  Otherwise I think I am just going to dip-dye them.  The waist tie is going to be twisted-rope with a hand-painted yarn in whatever color I end-up using.  I would like to low-immersion dye them a bright blue and deep red, but if I can’t do that, it’s going to be dip-dyed red.  I am also going to make a matching hat.  I have this great hat pattern that I have decided to offer up for sale too.  They’re so cute, I bet you can’t wait until I have a photograph for you, huh?  Uh oh, I have another idea.  Now I don’t know what to do!  We’ll see.I promised that after the longies were off the needles were off the needles I would share what else I have on the needles: 

 It’s a cotton washcloth called Smocked Cloth.  I love it and I love the colorway.  It’s Sugar N Cream Partytime and it’s doing some very neat things.  This one is for me, but I also have a washcloth with an apple on it that I am trying to chart out for the older one’s teachers’ Christmas presents. I have gone back to this chart so many times it’s not funny.  I have the written pattern, but the work even rows are the right side, and the pattern rows are the wrong side, then trying to add in the monograms so they are the right direction and the right stitch has got me all turned around.  I think I got it, but I doubt I will ever chart a wrong-side pattern again.  Along with the monogrammed washcloth, I am doing a soapsack and some bath fizzy and a candle.  It’s going to be a cute little bath basket.  If I were working full-time this year, I would do them for everyone, since each basket will cost me around $5.

 I am also doing the infamous Clapotis.  That’s what I decided to do for my dress for Williamsburg in December.  I’m doing it in black wool, it’s going to be so warm and so pretty!  And it’s so mind-numbingly easy! 

There’s not much else to say, The Purple/White hasn’t been touched in days and she’s mad at me for that, but it’s like 70 degress here anyway.