In which my kitchen smells like vinegar and wet wool

I’ve been working on my Christmas knitting, and as one project finished I realized that I was not happy enough with it to send it across the ocean to the intended recipient—one of the colors was not right. So, as there is no LYS to visit out in the bush, I dug out my Easter egg dye, found some vinegar, and got to work. After soaking my yarn thoroughly I dumped it in a pot and added dye till I had a nice vibrant orange. After letting it cool, rinsing and giving it a bath with some Soak, I hung it out on the line this morning to dry and to let the smell blow out. I’m quite pleased with the result, and will be casting on take two this evening. Here’s the finished product after I wound it up:

The next afternoon I decided to play some more with dye, and set about attempting a two-tone kettle dye. I didn’t want to hand-paint the yarn, and I have been mulling over some ideas of how to get the results I want. I soaked the yarn a bit while heating it up, mixed up some blue and green dye, and then carefully poured the two colors on different sides of the pot. I knew that the yarn on top would be fine, it was just the mixing of the colors beneath and to the sides that I wasn’t sure about. Because I used a smaller pot, I managed to keep the colors fairly separate, and I’m pretty happy with the results. I had more dye in the pot, so I put another skein I had been soaking on top of the first one and added a bit more color. There was still a bit more dye left, so I put some roving in, poured the rest of the dye on top in stripes, and then put a smaller skein of wool (unsoaked) in the middle to take up the now mixed color. I was pretty happy with how the yarn turned out, but I’ll have to wait to take the roving out of the nylon to see how it dyed up. I’ll have to try handpainting again sometime—first I need get some more vinegar though!

I feel a case of ‘startitis’ coming on, and I’m trying to show self control in the urge to cast on more projects that I have already set myself and start a few cross stitch kits on the side. I have a lot to do before December when I’m going to be sending my X-mas gifts home with another missionary, so I’m going to have to stay on target and resist those wool fumes.

Nerdy Knitting and an abandoned project

Well, I’ve been doing quite a bit of knitting of different kinds of the last few days, and a bit of cross stitching too. I haven’t gotten around to taking pictures of it all, but I hope to do that this weekend. Back in the land of sketchy internet, it’s a bit harder to get things uploaded!

I’m in the home stretch on my wedge socks—they sure have gotten around this term break! Down to Lusaka, all over the city in my purse, they even were worked on at the US embassy! To the dorm while I watched and babied the washing machines, and through many movies. I’ll be almost sorry to see them done—they have been good friends! I’m trying to get them done so I can focus on another stealth Christmas project.

Among the many cool things that arrived on the container, were three little Christmas cross stitch kits from Regina, so I’ve been working on one of them. I had forgotten how much I hate ¾ stitches on 18 count… I’m continuing to think and plan for handwork this term, and adding to my stock of Christmas crafts.

A package from home also brought the yarn for my brother’s stealth knitting projects. I’m well into Flynn’s now, and I have to say that it’s a little scary how much I’m enjoying this project! Garter stitch with a dash of clever shaping is proving very therapeutic right now, and the fun behind the pattern is providing much amusement. I can’t believe that I’m setting such world records for Christmas knitting!

You know how sometimes you get so excited about a pattern that you start to think about staying up all night just to see how things turn out? I was looking through Elizabeth Zimmerman’s knitting almanac, and for some reason the woven squares blanket caught my eye. I had a few energetic rummages through my yarn stash looking for something suitable in a large enough quantity (the drawbacks of knitting from your stash when you have been a poor college student who loves nice yarn and only bought a skein or two of it at a time). I ended up using some sport weight wool-ease, and happily sitting down to puzzle out the cast on. After finally getting that bit and working through those horribly awkward first few rows, my ardor began to cool, and I decided that I didn’t like how it was knitting up. Part of that change of heart might also be related to the arrival of the wool for the brother’s projects, but I think it was also the part of me that realizes that I DON’T KNIT BLANKETS. Plus, despite my fevered reasoning that a ball and a half in sport weight is a lot, I would totally have run out of wool and ended up with a hot pad. Perhaps it’s all for the best—no offense EZ.