Learning to knit again - sigh

The other day when I was giving DBF's mom a refresher course in knitting she mentioned how some of her stitches were twisted. I thought she had done something wrong so I knitted a few rows and compared it to her work. Exactly the same, with the twisted stitches. I couldn't figure out why.

Tonight, I looked up some stranding method videos on knittinghelp and I noticed that she somehow knitted differently. I took a look at the basic videos again. OMG.

It turns out I purl combined, but I knit continental which produces a twisted stitch.

I could correct my purl but I tried it on a bitty swatch and it was so tedious and slow. I decided to learn how to knit combined. Very sweet.

There's a whole thing about how decreases and increases are different due to the twists. I guess I'll have to learn those again.

Colors make me giddy - new yarn!

These colors just amaze me. Its a wonder how I can get these colors with Kool-Aid. It makes me wonder what I can come up with if I used "real" dyes.

The last few skiens have a little dirty secret. The original yarn was from a frogged sweater... an Abercrombie and Fitch sweater! Here's my proof:



Yarrr! That was some nice booty over at Goodwill. I'm gonna head over to the one near here pretty soon. I also picked up a gray sweater with cables. Unfortunately, it fits me great and is very warm.

Here are some more yarns that I dyed yesterday. I am so in love. The colors, oh my!





I'm really on the fence about listing the first one on Etsy. If I do, it'll probably be at some exorbiant price (ten million dollars!) Okay, maybe not that much.

The second one I like. When I did this one, I followed the handpainting instructions I gleamed from a dye book at Borders. I'm a cheapy so I just read the books and make mental notes in my head.

There's also another one in the process of drying. A handpainted in the roving, handspun mini skein. I'm guessing its about 50 yds at most.

As for knitting, oh boy. Haven't done much of it (except making bitty swatches) I'm expecting the mailman to send some knitpicks my way. I ordered Shine in Butter and Green Apple to make a baby blanket for Ryan, Tiffany and the baby. I'm thinking about doing color work. Something simple but it'll be the first time I knit with two colors at a time.

*excited*

I take it back, its quite nice.

I wrote earlier that the other two skeins were pretty crappy. However, after they dried, I balled them up and knit a short swatch, not bad! I kept thinking "I wanna keep knitting! I wonder how the color will change!"

Here are some pics! One is lighter and that's the one I like more. The shocking red-pink just isnt my thing.




What do you guys think? leave a comment! :)

Damn Beautiful

I messed around with more Kool-Aid dyeing today. I decided to use blue, red and mix of the two (purple) BAD IDEA. The red was hideously bright and took over most of the skein. The blue was alright, but the purple... mmm, purple came out amazing.

Of course its more of a red than a purple because this red takes over all. I call this skein of 50 yds or so "Deeply Blushed."

I like it so much, I might not be selling it on etsy. I mean, hey! its 50 yds. what are you gonna do with it? xD I find that I just like dyeing yarn, skeining it and staring at it.

Mossy-tastic

I decided to put my most recent creation on Etsy.com. I plan to do some more dyeing through the week. I made this really pretty pale green, yellow and beige yarn. When it came out, I was like "ultimate baby yarn!" Best part is that its machine-washable!

Anyway, onto the Mossy, here's a picture:



I'm more excited about etsy than anything else right now :D I added a link to my shop on the links list to the right.

As far as knitting is concerned, I've been a bit apathetic about it. I'm working on Glorianna on frogged sweater yarn, it looks really nice even without blocking.

I ordered some knitpicks Shine so I'm waiting for that to arrive to make a baby blanket for Ryan and Tiff's new one (due in June.)

I want some sock yarn to play with! I need to go buy some.

Grayurple yarn!

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to call it yarn. I call it a disaster. I spun the singles without enough twist and so when I plied, it because all loosey-goosey on me. I hate it, BUT...

I so LOVE the color! Sam helped with with the dyeing process. We used grape koolaid and didn't stir to even out the colors so it was splotchy as roving. After it was spun up though, very pretty colors.

Of course, the internet, computers, and your monitor may not accurately display its true colors, but here it is anyway!

On the spindle with some roving:


Here's the skien, its tiny! 56 yards only:


Obligatory close up. You can see all the fibers in the front, but the color is nicely represented here:

Corriedale Cross - plied!

Just wanted to share a picture :D



This is the Corriedale Cross in the previous picture plied. I managed to fit all of those singles onto my hand to Andean ply it. It took a good hour and more to get it all done, but its done! yay!

Spinning Pictures!

Pictures as I promised!

This is the brown Jacob roving I was talking about. See the supreme lumpiness? That is the work of a new spinner. I really like how it looks, but I dont have much of it. 24 yards I think. *sigh*



Here is my second attempt with natural Corriedale Cross which is fantastic to spin. it drafts really easy but then again, it might also be because I improved vast amounts. You see how everything is more even? IMPROVEMENT! *applauses* I worked on this one after re-reading instructions and sleeping on it. I can't wait to ply it. I'm not sure if I should Andean ply it cuz I dont know if it'll all fit on my hand! Eep!