What have I been up to?

Sorry- fell of the "Blog Wagon" there for a while. I've been busy, knitting and staying busy with the kids. Here's a couple of project updates:

Christmas Balls

Baby Sweater

Felted Basket

"Hey Teach!" Sweater

I'll try to be better about blogging!

Natural Dyeing Experiments #2 and #3

Here's my next two experiments with natural dyes. This one is a superwash sock yarn, dyed with Logwood Blue, Lac (burgandy/purple-ish pink) and Cochineal (lighter, reddish-pink). I totally love how this turned out!
Reskeined, it's a beauty!
Next, I dyed up almost 2/3 of a POUND of wool roving in the five different dyes, and got interesting results with the exhaust. From left to right, Osage Orange, Madder, Logwood (was BLUE! I think I should have added more dye or less wool, but it is a nice beige shade!), Cochineal, and Lac.
Once it dried completely, I folded, braided, and rolled it. This pancake is HUGE! (10 1/3 ounces!)

Natural Dyeing Experiment #1

Wow- two whole months! I'm such a slacker!

Not much exciting to blog about- just a couple of pair of socks for the SAM5 knit-a-long. BUT- on to the title- I aquired a bunch of natural dyeing supplies from Maiwa and got BUSY!


Behold- Experiment #1

Yarn: Cascade 220 (1 skein) Originally natural colored.

Dyes: Madder Root, Osage Orange, and Logwood (blue), premordanted in Alum & Cream of Tartar
Simmered at 140 degrees in quart jars for about 1 1/2 hours.

Rinse- it took about 8 rinses for the Madder section to (finally) run clear.

Outside Drying! These colors are SO vibrant! I have plenty of dye left in the jars- I'm mordanting some spinning fiber now to use as exhaust.

I also have dye material steeping (Lac and Cochineal) to try some more tomorrow. I have one skein of bare sock yarn premordanting now, but I have plans this evening, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow (at least.)

I found MY summer time-waster! LOL!

Slacker! Couple of FO's

I won't bother trying to explain how busy I've been or give excuses as to why I haven't posted. Let's just gloss over all of that and go directly to my most recent F.O.'s, shall we???

Finished my Salto socks today! I used Zitron Trekking Pro Natura in a lovely chocolate-brown color. Worked these on 2.0 and 2.25 mm needles (Harmony wood Knit Picks DPN's) and they came together pretty quickly! Love the cable work, and they're much more impressive looking than your average plain sock!
Next up (actually- I finished this before the socks- kind of an interlude between sock 1 and sock 2!) is my first Baby Suprise Jacket. I aquired the pattern leaflet (an Elizabeth Zimmerman design) from ThreadBear in Lansing, but I owe much thanks to Dawn for her online notes, as the EZ pattern is definatley not a line-by-line guide! Absolutely will be making another one of these!

This one is made from Elegant Yarns Fantasy, also found at ThreadBear, and it's 99% done. Needs a little crochet edging around the neckline and some buttons, which I haven't looked for yet.

Finished Noro Socks

Finished up the Noro Socks today- here's the specs:
Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock
Colorway: S-40
Needles: 2.5 mm Opal Bamboo DPN's
Pattern: Improvised- based on my usual sock recipe (toe-up, gusset, short-row heel) but with a tiny cable running up the top of the foot. Topped off with a couple of inches of 2x2 ribbing so I can fold them down in the spring/summer.

Spinning Update

I purchased this fiber from "All Spun Up" on Etsy (see post below) a couple of weeks ago. It's 70% superwash Merino wool and 30% Alpaca. Tonight, I spun up about-half into 3-ply (Navajo-ply) sport-weight yarn, approximately 12 WPI. This skein is about 65 yards, and is around 2.1 oz. Lovely, isn't it?!?! Once I spin the other half, this will become a pair of socks for me. I love the "neutaral- goes with jeans" color scheme.
Hopefully I can get some more spinning time in soon and get the other half plied up!

Red Wings Shorties

Just finished this cute pair of cutsom shorties for a friend of mine. Made from Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (White) and Patons Classic Merino (Red.)
(The legs are actually the same length- I obviously didn't lay them exactly flat when I photographed them!)