If at first you don’t succeed, dye, dye again

Sorry, couldn’t pass up the pun! I have been going through my stash mentally and physically over the last few days, and starting to make decisions about what I’m okay leaving behind (as little good stuff as possible), and how I might use up some things. I had a skein of yarn I had dyed with sunflowers a few years ago, and wasn’t wild about the results. It was a weird yellow color, and I wasn’t very inclined to actually use it.

Then, this weekend, the dying bug hit. First of all, I made up some dye, froze it into ice cubes, and put it out in the sun with some cotton yarn I had lying around. The randomness of this method appealed to me, and if it hadn’t rained this afternoon I think it would have worked better. I ended up cooking it in my crockpot all day Monday to set the dye; I’m very interested to see how that works when I go rinse it…

Then, as I was sorting through my dye tablets, I thought about overdying that weird yellow, and figured that purple might work well. So, 4 purple tables, a blue, and a red later, I threw it in the pot and got this lovely result:

I LOVE it when a gamble pays off like that! I want to play around with a self-stripping and some more tie dye, but I think that will have to wait till later. Dying takes a lot of time and space!

On the knitting front I have finished not one, but TWO hats! First, the Sausalito. I didn’t read the decrease directions carefully, thought I could live with it, tried it on, and then realized that I was going to have to FROG back and do it right. I’m pleased with the results; it just needs a bath now.

The second hat I finished was the super basic brioche baby hat. I also managed to mess up the decreases on that the first time through, so out they came and I tried again with better success. Still not sure how I managed to follow the simple directions so badly… I think I’m going to top this with a pom-pom to use up the last little bit of the yarn. Not sure how it will look, but I don’t have to actually put it on, right?

I finished the ribbing on my Sockhead hat over the course of my morning bible readings last week--yay! The stitch marker shows my total progress. Little bits of time add up!

Lastly, I've been having fun with a new level of madness--non-mirrored double knitting. I'm slowly working on a cotton potholder that has the character for tiger, my zodiac sign. It took a little getting my head around, but now I'm enjoying it so much I'm considering how to have two totally different pictures charted for double knitting!

Parting shot: I tried string art! I might re-string this floss as it is a gift and looks more leaf than feather like, but I'm loving the results!