Colours for Knitting

I want to knit a cardigan/jacket - and couldn't find a yarn which combined appeal with affordability (I take after my great-grandmother in having expensive tastes) and availability in the quantity required. So, what's a girl to do? I bought some undyed bluefaced leicester yarn from Violet Green which arrived by return of post - wonderful service - and straight into a soaking bath it went, while I dug out my small collection of acid dyes and stockpot (which is reserved for dyeing adventures rather than culinary ones) and got mixing the pigments.

After a steamy period in the kitchen, all seven skeins were dyed, washed and dripping on the washing line, suspended from coat hangers. Here's a photo of the finished product, in today's strong autumn sunshine.

I used a kettle-dyeing technique, which produced a very subtle variation of colour: teal, petrol and peacock, using lilac, spruce and blues (brilliant and sapphire) from the Jacquard Acid Dyes selection. Whereas a handpainted and steamed treatment previously gave quite specific areas of colour (when last I dyed wool yarn), there are elusive changes in shade which are clearer in reality than in the photo above, but still very gradual changes, as one might expect.

It will be interesting to see how this works out as a knitted garment and it won't be long until I cast on and start finding out.

Mirth in the Garden

Better colours in the daylight, as promised. The shawl looks great after blocking and feels light but warm and cosy on my shoulders.

It even goes quite well with one of the t-shirts I made and dyed earlier in the summer, and the indigo-overdyed linen trousers I made over last weekend (just visible below).

My son took these photos, which is why the back point isn't too centrally positioned above. But - a very satisfying and useful project this has proved.

Doing A Stretch Inside

I finished my latest knitting project last night, and today I am blocking it to show the lacy pattern to best advantage and for maximum shoulder coverage.

This shawl is from Stefanie Japel's new pattern, Mirth, which I worked in a sock weight/4ply yarn (Regia hand dye effect in shade 6552) on a 3.75mm circular needle. It wasn't worked in the round, but back and forth. This clever design is effectively a lace square which is divided to the centre point along one of the diagonal lines, and the shaping allows a graceful moulding to the lines of the body.

It looked like nothing until it was stretched out: the first opportunity to enjoy the three lace patterns I had worked to follow the instructions, and I'm very pleased with this shawl now.

The colours are not true as I took these photos in artificial light, so I'll snap it again in daylight tomorrow, when the sun should shine upon it and show the jewel-like blues and greens in their true glory. We may be enjoying an Indian summer at the moment, but I am sure I will be reaching for this shawl in the chillier evenings as soon as it is dry.

Time to choose another project!

New Knitting - Mirthful Blues

Glampyre's Mirth, a raglan shaped shawl, in Regia Hand Dye Effect Sock Yarn. Yep, blue again!

Annie teaches Sue to Cable without a Cable Needle

I am so lucky to have met a cyberpal today: Annie Modesitt has shown me (and some other really lovely ladies) how to do the twist without extra equipment. She is such a fun and effective teacher that we all acquired some very useful skills and in an extremely friendly atmosphere. Thanks so much, Annie, for sharing so much with us.

Update

I'm still not too well: an infection with cellulitis on the end of my nose wrote off much of the past weekend. Happily it is now resolving but my gut doesn't like the antibiotics and I've been somewhat over-purged of late. GP recommends Imodium and natural yoghurt, so that's what I'm currently taking in addition to everything else.

I'm hoping to venture out this afternoon. I'd hoped to attend Annie Modesitt's classes at Fyberspates this past weekend and had to revise those plans as the journey would have been too much for my very depleted energy levels. However, I managed to get a place on the afternoon class she's running today at Get Knitted (up the road in Bristol), so I'll be thrilled to meet her at last. I've been following her blog for ages and she's a charismatic and inspirational knitting designer.

This outing will hopefully also allow me to pick the necessarymaterials up for my next knitting project, as I finished my Barcelona (my Mona Strickt) socks last evening. They are pictured in the photos accompanying this post. I'm thinking of knitting Glampyre's new pattern, Mirth, which looks to be a very wearable shawl, as well as an interesting knit. I'm not yet sure which weight I'll decide to make, but that means that the options are many and exciting.

I'm going to try out an on-line class shortly too, on http://stefaniejapel.ning.com/. I'm very excited about this means of delivering classes. I hope to take the one on recycling t-shirts into yarn, due to start next month. Should be fun.

The reality at the moment is that I'm spending most of every day in bed, doing very little, because I'm so run down post-flu. I hope to be sufficiently recovered in ten days' time to spend a day learning how to extract indigo dye from woad and other plants at the University of Bristol's Botanic Garden - a belated birthday present from my family. So it's keep on with the resting up. At least fixing a meal last evening was survivable without any new ailments occuring!

Time flies....

In the past month I've spent a wonderful fortnight in Austria and then a less joyful period doing battle with Swine Flu and Tamiflu, so it's not been a very productive time in terms of things to show. DH had to rush off to Istanbul to see his mother, who had managed to start a week's holiday there with a fall and a broken hip, no fun when you're 87, and he took my Lady of the Forest shawl with him as a gift for her - so I'll be making that again, for me, before too long. I knew it would be well received and it was my way of sending a hug as I couldn't give her one in person. I've felt very cheated by this illness, as it meant I missed both Festival of Quilts and Fibrefest, with opportunities to meet friends real and virtual, as well as doing a bit of shopping...

However, I've been doing a lot of thinking about where I'm coming from, creatively, and I hope that soon I'll be able to leap from my sick bed and start putting some of these thoughts into action.

I've just come across an excellent quote in my latest companion book, "The Mermaid's Child" by Jo Baker:

"He that would see marvels, it behoves him sometimes to wend out of his way."
- Sir John Mandeville, Mandeville's Travels.

So here's to plenty of off-road wending in the near future!