Archives for April 2006

These yarn cakes are so yummy, I think I’ll just ice them and eat them. . .

The two smaller balls are Wool2Dye4 Supersock, and the large one is Henry’s Attic “Monty”, also from Wool2Dye4.

I’m really happy with my results. The Wool2Dye4 Supersock dyed beautifully. I have started knitting Pomatomus with it, and the twisted stitches have a really wonderful texture.

Since one day of dying is just not enough, my mom and sister came for a visit today and I taught them to dye. They are quick learners! Look at their fantastic results.

The yarn in the back is my mom’s she dyed Lamb’s Pride, and started with a creamy color. My sister dyed some Henry’s Attic “Monty”, hers is the soft colored yarn in the front.

That’s all for now, back to knitting my Pomatomus . . .

It was a beautiful morning!

So off I went to the yarn orchard, dressed in nothing but my jammies and a chipping pedicure,

to pick some sock yarn.

Back at the house, I got set up for some yarn dying fun!

I poured on the Wilton colors,

Sent it off to the microwave to fix that dye,

and hung it in the sun to dry.

To be continued . . .

My yarn came for the Dye-o-Rama swap! It’s Wool2Dye4 Super Sock. I got a pound of it so I can have fun dying up some for myself too. I’ve been wanting to try this yarn. It looks similar to Koigu once it’s dyed.

Speaking of sock yarn, my sister, the avid sock knitter, knit up these beauties in silk yarn. (Sorry, I don’t know who’s yarn it is, maybe she’ll tell us in the comments – hint.) As I’m sure you all know, it’s Grumperina‘s Jaywalker. My sister, LJ, is very active on the Sock Knitters forum. She doesn’t have a blog . . . yet. LJ is a computer genius, and helped me sort my way through the start-up of this blog. It was so much easier because I had her help.

In my quest to get some of the bulkier stuff out of my stash, I started a new sweater for one of my girls. It’s in Katia Denim that I got on Elann last summer. I will be a pretty quick knit and make room in the stash for new yarn! Maybe I’ll post pictures of the new WIP tomorrow.

As I sat knitting in my Weight Watchers meeting earlier this week, another woman asked about my knitting.
“What are you making?”, she asked.
“A sweater.”, I replied.
“Oh, is it a childs sweater?”
“No, it’s for me. It’s just that it’s cropped. I always make my sweaters cropped because I have short legs and that proportion is best for me.”

But then I got to thinking. . .
Is this really the whole story? What are the real reasons I knit everything so small?

To start off, I’m cheap. Yes that’s right, I’m here to tell you that I’m cheap. Why buy 9 balls of yarn when you can get away with 8? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stopped knitting sooner than I should because I was afraid I would run out of yarn. (This works well if you knit your sweaters top-down.) Many of my sweaters also have 3/4 sleeves. I buy a lot of my yarn on sale, on e-bay or on Elann, so you’d think that would be enough savings. No, I’ve just got to skip that last ball of yarn.

Then of course there is the issue of simply getting bored, or wanting to move on to the new more exciting project. It doesn’t take nearly as long to knit a sweater that hits at your waist as it does to knit one that hangs to your hips.

So I’m thinking my next sweater needs to be a little longer. Maybe one of those beauties in . I should give the longer length a chance. Maybe I’ll see that it’s not my short legs after all.

On another subject, more or less, I have a finished object. It’s my bright orange cardi made from Arunciana Patagonia Nature Cotton. I’m calling it “Sunkist”. And by the way, it’s small enough that my 12 year old daugher wore it to school today!

Added Later:
I was just driving home from the grocery store, thinking about my knitting, as usual, and it occured to me, most of my socks are anklets. I think I see a trend here. It’s knee socks and tunics for me from now on!

Check out the pattern on Ravelry!