Love dyeing yarn!

 

No words required :)

Teal Dreams

I recently was offered the wonderful opportunity for a custom yarn-dye order. It was very special as the yarn wanted was pure cashmere laceweight to match a dress fabric sample for a wedding shawl.

I've never tried to dye a yarn to match anything specific before, but there was plenty of time so I was more than happy to accept the challenge!

We settled on two laceweight yarns - a pure cashmere and a cashmere-silk blend. They both have their own special qualities - the pure cashmere is sumptuously soft, whereas the cashmere-silk almost glows with a gorgeous sheen.

I settled on three different combinations of two dye colours (teal and turquoise) in the dye bottles and, with a little trepidation, set to work!

I'm so pleased to say that the yarns turned out beautifully. They were both slightly variegated, as intended, and both yarns took up the colours amazingly. The colourway named itself - "Teal Dreams".

The result - one happy customer and one happy yarn-dyer with a little more experience gained!

I'm looking forward to more of these opportunities, so if you'd like some custom-dyed yarn for a specific occasion just let me know!

Peek-a-boo Project

White cashmerino fingerless mitts.... lush!

You can tell it was Christmas..

.. because I actually knitted a project for myself!

Finished but unblocked

Quite a while back I bought a skein of heavenly Violet Green Silk & Cashmere 4ply yarn in the gorgeous Trance colourway.

I decided to knit myself a Good Luck Cowl with it.

The pattern is very easy and doesn't take long to knit up.

Yarn sadly now discontinued

The yarn feels gorgeous but the colour did bleed all over my fingers each time I knitted with it.

I guess I'll be washing this a few times before I wear it!

Update:
I gave the cowl a real good wash and soak until the water rinsed clear and have worn it for 2 days now. It's gorgeously warm and soft - and my neck hasn't turned purple... Fabulous!

Revisit a past FO

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - Day Six

I don't think cashmere is the most durable yarn for a pair of socks, but sometimes you just have to go with your heart instead of your head!

I knitted my Tidal Wave cashmere socks in March 2008 from a great free pattern which I think I'll probably knit again. I used some Hipknits cashmere sock yarn in a gorgeous Raspberry Ripple shade which I had bought at a great price from the Knitting and Stitching Show at the Birmingham NEC.

In November 2009, disaster struck - the most enormous hole in both heels! They had actually lasted over 1.5 years, which is pretty good going for a luxury yarn I suppose. They are still in the same state today, as I haven't got around to fixing them yet. One day..

Oh and by the way - Happy 70th Birthday Mom!

Sock disaster

Warning sock knitters....

If you are of a nervous disposition, avert your eyes now - graphic scenes of sock disaster coming up...

There - I told you it was nasty didn't I?

The most enormous hole in my beloved Tidal Wave cashmere socks in place of where the heel was when I put them on - and the same in the other one too!

This calls for some serious investigation into repairs.. watch this space..

New Year Thoughts

First up I hope you all had a great holiday. We did, and although it seemed to fly past at warp speed it was thoroughly enjoyed.

We visited family and friends in the West Midlands and exchanged more gifts.

Here is my beautiful 9-month-old niece wearing her cashmerino shrug that I knitted as her Christmas gift.

It looks great on her, although she has a while to grow into it properly. Better too big than too small at that stage!


This was our hotel window view on New Year's Eve morning as we were packing to come home.

Yes that canal is frozen with snow on top of it!

Thankfully the roads were clear and we got home without any problems. We were glad to find that Cornwall was about 8 degrees warmer than the Midlands, although the temperatures have dipped down to about -8 degrees since!

I have started the new year with new nails. I've bitten my nails for over 30 years and it's about time I stopped.
I normally bite them when in thought in front of the computer at work or in meetings, so I managed to grow them a little over the holidays as usual.

In an attempt to continue this trend I visited the Top2Toe beauty salon in Newquay last weekend and treated myself to a french manicure with a seaweed-based gel treatment to harden the nails and encourage growth. So far so good..

You can see them here when I modelled my latest crochet handwarmers (listed in my Etsy shop) - made from pure cashmere in a gorgeous lacy design - lush!

Thanks for your lovely comments about the lengthways stashbuster scarves.

I'm still knitting them - in fact I find them quite addictive as each one turns out different to the last.

Here's the Chocolate Mandarin one - this is my favourite so far.

That's a taster for you - if you want to see more, take a look in my shop!

Brrrrr!

This cold weather makes me knit faster! It must do - I have 2 FOs to show, and I'm finally on the decreases for the Snuggle crochet blanket - woohoo!

But first - Halloween.

We had a family party which was great - the only time I make my hair extra-frizzy on purpose!

It worries me every year how good my eldest DD looks in black clothing and pouffed-up hair...

The best part was the mummy wrapping game!

Not exactly eco-friendly with all the toilet roll, but very good fun.

As for the knitting...
Another Christmas present is done.

It's the cashmere cowl I knitted in the round in double rib using the hand-dyed cashmere yarn from The Knitting Goddess. I used a mere 14g of yarn for this!

I'm quite tempted to put this one up for sale in my Etsy shop and make another for the Christmas pile. The cashmere items I've done seem to be quite popular...

The other FO is yet another Christmas present - a stocking filler this time.

It's the Garterlac Washcloth again - this time in the Beach Ball colourway of the Lily Sugar 'n' Cream yarn.

I love this pattern so much. It's great fun to knit, and makes the perfect texture for a facecloth.

Of course it has to be done in variegated cotton to show off the pattern to the max. This colourway matches with the recipient's bathroom tiles, so hopefully it'll go down well. :-)

Christmas FO

The first Christmas present is done!

I finally seamed the Cashmerino Baby Shrug and added a double crochet flower embellishment to use up the last few remaining yards of yarn.

That yarn is so smooshy and lovely that I didn't want to waste an inch of it.

Here is the intended recipient (my sweet little niece), when she came to visit with her family almost 2 weeks ago (wow, where did that go?!).

As you can see, she's in the stage where she is fascinated with labels - I remember mine being like that.

We had a great time all together; it was lovely to have my family here as it was the first time they've visited since we moved here 20 months ago.

We had fantastic weather too - good enough for ice-creams and sandcastle-building on the beach! A little weird for October but much welcomed after this summer's rain.

Uninterrupted knitting!

Had a lovely day today with some fellow knitters at the Watering Hole in Perranporth. 4 hours of uninterrupted fibrey-fun!

I forgot to take my camera of course, but I did make a good start on my latest project - a simple ribbed cashmere cowl.

I'm using Knitting Goddess 4ply hand-dyed cashmere yarn (yum!) and double rib to make a simple neck-warming accessory in the Purl Bee style for a Christmas present.

There should be enough left for a similar item for me too - but mine with be a more lacy affair I think. Maybe something along these lines.

Cosy toes

Presenting... the Tidal Wave socks.

Knitted in Hipknits cashmere sock-weight yarn using a 2.5mm Addi circular needle.

Easy peasy, comfy and quick. Never thought I'd say that about knitting socks. Just goes to show what you can learn.

Now I just need to make some of those sock blockers - hmm, should I go for the plastic or hanging type? Maybe both! :-)

In the meantime, here are the socks in action.

And believe me they're going to get plenty of that. ;-)

(P.S. The ballet was wonderful and much enjoyed!)

Culture and Cashmere

Look - I have a cashmere Tidal Wave sock! Just the one so far though.

There won't be much knitting today as I'm having a cultural day - I'm taking my DDs out for dinner and to see the Snow Queen ballet in Truro.

DH wasn't so keen, so he's going to the pub with a friend. ;-)

Look what I received yesterday! A gorgeous skein of Bamboo sock yarn from YarnAddictAnni. I'm looking forward to casting on with this soon - possibly for a pair of the infamous Monkey socks.

I also received my Amazon parcel including Norah Gauhan's "Knitting Nature" - I've had a bit of a splurge as I resisted any knitterly purchases for about 3 months.

The last acquisition for yesterday was "Fabulous Flirty Crochet" from the library. I'd reserved it and they sent it over from St Austell library to Perranporth for me, for just 50p. What a great service!

Spring clean and conundrum

I know the weather is distinctly wintry right now, but something is inspiring me to clean out. I'm not destashing as such, but I feel the need to clear the decks a little.

Not only have I been finishing off all my WIPs, but I actually want to use up a good deal of my stash yarn too. A strange concept, I know, but I would like to be able to buy some new yarn and start knitting with it soon after purchase, without feeling immensely guilty about the enormous stash occupying our small bedroom.

The other weird thing that's happening is that I'm getting around to knitting up some of my more longstanding stash and finding that the pattern I originally bought it for is no longer what I want to wear. So then it's back to pattern hunting, and finding that I don't have enough of that yarn for the patterns I do want to make... which comes back to the first idea of buying yarn and using it soon after.

So as part of the clean-up, I finished the aran lace cardigan. Not a huge task, as all I had to do was sew on the beads, sew in the ends, and block it. Now it's done, and I'm disappointed to say the least.

The knitting is lovely - I adore the stitch patterns and the colour and feel of the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn, and even the glass beads which co-ordinate with it beautifully.

But I hate the fit. The sleeves are too long and wide. The body is too short. The front neckline is too high - a fastener at the top corner would sit on my throat. Not what you would expect from a knit-to-fit pattern. Sigh.

I'm not sure what to do with it right now. I don't really want to banish it as I love the yarn, but I know that I won't wear it. So what to do?

As it was a top-down knit, I could unpick the lower part of each sleeve and rework them narrower and shorter. Part of that problem was I only had a short circular needle in the right size, so couldn't so magic loop to decrease them further. So why didn't I buy another needle? Doh!

I could also unpick all the ends and remove the glass beads (ouch!) and lengthen the body - assuming I recouped enough yarn from the sleeves. I think I would probably cast off with a straight hem, as others have done (thanks Ravelry!). The beaded pointy hem is great, but looks way too dramatic and bat-like to get much wear.

But what can I do about the neck? I would prefer to have some kind of fastening, but I think it would have to be lower down. Would that make the neckline sit weird? If I undo it to the neckline I'll have frogged the lot. Maybe that's the only answer!

Any ideas?

Lucky FO and New socky project

Lucky is done - woohoo!

Still 3 weeks to go before the new owner is expected, so I went for a white button.

I love this pattern - so quick and easy, resulting in such a practical and cute little cardigan.

Hoefully it'll get a lot of wear soon. :-)

I have 1 more project to seam (remember the bamboo top?) and 1 secret project to felt, so time for a new occupant on those needles!

It's the turn of the Tidal Wave socks, using the vivid pink cashmere sock yarn I bought from Kerrie at the HipKnits stand at the last knitting show I went to before we moved to Cornwall.

The pattern is very easy, and this is the first time I've tried using 2 circulars as opposed to magic loop. Not sure which technique I prefer yet.

The yarn is yummy, although the pattern definition isn't too good atm - hopefully that we will improve as the sock progresses...

Cosy cashmere

The cashmere scarf is finished - 3 months after starting - phew! To be fair though it was my work lunch-break knitting for most of its duration, so progress was slow.

The FO is very long - 100 inches long to be exact (that's over 8 feet long, or 2.5 metres!), and 6.5 inches wide.

I didn't really intend it to be quite this long, but didn't want to waste any of the yummy yarn either.

I used one skein (75g, 700m) of The Knitting Goddess hand-dyed fingering weight cashmere in the Heather colourway.

On 4mm needles I cast on 58 stitches, followed Wendy's (very easy) Feather and Fan stitch until the yarn almost ran out, cast off, sewed the two ends in, and voila!
One fabulously soft and scrummy scarf. Just in time for spring. ;-)

Colour on a grey day

Wool Buttons
Look - I found the other button yarn that I already had in my stash!

I can't get the colours to show properly though - it's very overcast today. I may well use them separately; they are all brown bases but so look fairly different in real life.

Della asked what I have in mind for them - erm, I have no idea! I'm going to knit and crochet a sample of each colour and see what comes to mind.

I can't help wondering how this would felt up as it's apparently 100% wool with an outer cotton thread. I may try it with the single skein colour - maybe it would give a funky crunchy texture? Any thoughts or experiences?

I ended up skeining them last night; I couldn't knit during Bill Bailey's show on TV as I was laughing too much..

Cashmere scarf
I realised that I hadn't shown off my cashmere scarf for a while, so here it is.

I usually knit one pattern repeat per (short) lunch break at work, so it's taking a while. I reckon it's just over halfway through at the moment.

Do you like the arty shot on the right? The was a brief glimpse of sunshine this morning while I had the camera out. The pattern shows up beautifully in shadow.


And finally..
The back of the cable sweater is finished!

This is the largest piece, and a little scary with how much yarn it's used. It is beautifully soft, squishy, and stretchy.

I do hope I have enough of the merino to finish the design as I adore it. Only time will tell..!

Knitting extremes

I recently gave in to temptation and bought this skein of hand-dyed cashmere 4ply yarn in shade "Heather" from The Knitting Goddess.

It's an extreme opposite of my recent knitting projects, which have been some quick chunky collars and scarves on 10mm needles. This feels like I'm knitting with sewing thread in comparison, despite using 3.5mm needles!

I've chosen the simple Feather and Fan pattern as I wanted a simple lace project that would be reversible.

I am starting to love the way the colours are traversing as I work up the scarf, and the yarn is creamy soft although it feels more like laceweight to me than 4ply!

I haven't yet decided whether this will be a Christmas gift for somebody else - or maybe for myself as a special treat. :-)