Winter Break Dyeing

Winter break is officially dead, but I'm still enjoying it through this batch of yarn.

As I wound the first skein into a few balls I was able to separate out the grey portion. I'm going to make a sweater that has a higher proportion of the red yarn than is shown in the swatch.

lace progress

Wabenschal is getting longer!

Bro's b-day sweater

I got ambitious when my little brother turned 40 and decided I would make him a sweater using yarn I spun myself. I finished about half of the spinning when I realized I would not have enough yarn to make a sweater, so then I decided it would be done in a 2-color pattern, which was looking awesome before I realized I would STILL not have enough. Now brother is 42 and still had no sweater, so I bought the yarn and gave him the sweater when he was 42 1/2 years young.

It looks rather great!

Here is a close-up of the cable pattern at the neck, which extended from the narrow ribbing on the center of each sleeve and the border of the raglan sleeve and the body. The rest of the sweater was done in Andalusian stitch, with a brick color cast-on border at the body and sleeves. I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca in the color "potting soil".

Gossamer lace challenges

This is Victorian Ruby from Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace Today book. I've reached row 14--one of the earlier rows took me 45 minutes, and then I finally K2tog at the end because I kept having one too many stitches. It's so satisfying to reach the end of a row and have the right number of stitches. It's not easy to see the silver flecks in this picture, but they are looking cool in this pattern. This is the border--the center of the scarf is a very simple slip stitch pattern that will let the yarn do the work.

Wabenschal unearthed!

Look what I found! Actually, I found what was left of the yarn and the instructions. I believe I have thrown out the foot or so of scarf that I had finished because I was not pleased with the electric yellow color. The original is pictured on Dec 23, 2008 post below...this bit is what I knitted today.

I think this will be a better balance of yellow, orange, and honeysuckle (?).

Happy New Year!

Rats in residence:

The official beginning of this year's theme, making lace projects, is hanging in my kitchen. Nice job oogyknitter!

There is great potential for lace making, as one can see by the collection from my stash.

The falling leaves scarf is there to show that I really can make lace projects, and the other stuff is waiting patiently. The blue and silver Gossamer is up first.