Fully fulled - ready for winter...

Well.
Perhaps blogger and I just plain disagree on how photos should be presented.
Perhaps something fundamental has changed in the software since I was a regular blogger.
Perhaps I just have lost my 'touch' for these things.
Regardless, here is the story of fulling my slippers (shown in last post) in reverse order:

Finished!

It's a good thing that I looked into the washing machine when I did, as the slippers were fully fulled to fit my foot. There is absolutely no stitch definition left, and they have a delightfully squishy, nubbly texture. I had given up hope on them by the time I'd thrown them in the washer with a bunch of pairs of jeans for agitation.

The photo above is the penultimate desperation point, when I gave up on being gentle and just went for it with the plunger and HOT water in our bathtub. The slippers were seeming to just stretch at this stage, so I thought I could put them in the washing machine as I had nothing to lose by it.

Here is the cold shock I gave them, hoping to make them start to lose stitch definition - or SOMETHING.

The photo above shows how gently I started. The bucket is filled with crazily hot water and a little bit of mild soap. Having accidently shrunken knitwear before, I thought it best to start with caution. Somehow the idea of abandoning the slippers to the front loader seemed a bit too rash...

At this stage I was still thinking it might be safe to throw DH's new sweater into the washer (these slips are using up a couple of the last skeins from that project). Now I know that would be disasterous.

And this, last and first photo, shows how big they were in proportion to my feet before I started the fulling process. I love the not knowing part, the excitement and anticipation that's all part of projects like these.

Now I'm ready for winter. Which is only 3 months away...

:)

Lisa

No, I really do still make small stuff, too....

I've been knitting a little over the past month since school let out. I started with these socks just around exam time - they're going to take a while. I'm actually further along on them than the photo records as I would work on them during breaks at work. I was calling them my 'grad socks', but I think they're more like my 'lunch break socks'.


While DH was away on a five day motorcycle trip over the Canada Day week, I knit a skirt:




And before that, I tried my hand at knitting a shrug:


Right now I'm working on these slippers (they'll be fulled down to size) using the leftover wool from the sweater I finally finished for DH. I put the book in there for size reference. These badboys are knit on 7mm needles - I feel like I'm knitting with cordwood!


My main project, though, has been this little 3/4 length sleeve cardigan. I really started the slippers as a break from the seed stitch (don't enjoy doing it, but love the way it looks once done). I'm in love with the colour, and with the texture of this particular knitted fabric. It's knit top down based on this pattern. I've made quite a few mods, though, and will probably pick out the cast on row at the neckline and do something different there. We'll see, I haven't decided.


What do they say...idle hands are the devil's..what? Idle hands don't get sore? Idle hands still have nice fingernails? Hm.
I just can't remember.
:)
Lisa

Mom's Day fun

I got to spend my Mom's day relaxing and working on things I wanted to do...one of which was a set of stitch markers for a friend at school. I hope she likes the star ones...the large one is the row marker one.





When we were in Nelson on Friday I'd picked up a few sets of charms that were destined to become stitch markers, as well as some other lovely jewelry-making tidbits.



I made this other little set for myself...I'm going to have to start a marker-heavy project of some kind. I've found myself looking at lace patterns (shawls, mostly)...is it completely backward to start on a knit project JUST so that I can use lots and lots of markers? Nah, I didn't think so either.

:)


And last night I finished my Noro socks...the first pair...and started my second pair.

This wool is too yummy for words, now I know what the fuss is about. I love it, too.

A little abrasive to work with (with the occasional stick or twig in there), but it softens up considerably.

The next pair are also Noro (a different colourway), using the Jaywalker (may only be available to Ravelry members) pattern. I'll stripe them working from opposite ends of the skein....love that look on other's projects, can't wait to see what it looks like on this one.

Happy stitching,

Lisa

We're here!!!

Jodi and I got in to Manchester, New Hampshire around 5:00 local time (our body schedules, still very much on coastal time, thought it was about 2pm...). The flights went well, we had plenty of time to make our connection in Chicago, which is always a concern with the sheer size of that terminal.

The second flight was pretty bumpy toward the end, and Oi! I came close to real, bona fide air sickness! I think my seatmates were ever so happy that I kept my -er- equilibrium...not as relieved as I was, though! Yike. It makes me think I should take some chewable Gravol or something with me for the return journey, just in case.

Yesterday, in Colville, we went to a shop called EZ-knit...a huge repository of quilting fabric, books, magazines, beads, sewing machines and wool. I came across Noro sock yarn, in real life! Of course I had to buy 2 skeins...who can resist that kind of saturated colour? I bought some really wonderful knitting needles that I stashed in Spokane, and some really crummy ones that I thought I could risk having confiscated by the airline. I needn't have been worried, there were no issues at all with bringing my knitting on the plane. I listened to my book and knit on both flights and got a WHOLE LOT of sock knitting done! I'm almost done the leg on this honey and I started it late last night. This sock has sweet mock cables on it. And yummy Noro colour.


We're staying at the Hilton Garden here. The Hilton GARDEN because.....



TAA DAAA!









It has a baseball diamond! There was a big game just after I took this picture (you can see all the fellas out there grooming the field). The photo was taken from the window of our room. We're hoping to catch at least one ball game while we're here.

And did I mention the weather is glorious?

And tomorrow we're looking forward to lots and lots of good MQX vibes. I can hardly wait.

:)
Lisa

Socks - finished!

HAH! I finished Youngest's socks yesterday morning....and here he is holding the sum total of the remaining wool.

I think I got lucky this time! Boy, did I knit quickly toward the end there, though. Gotta finish before the wool runs out....



Here are a couple of photos of our feet, boy's feet and Mom's feet, all clad in our Kool-Aid socks. This is right before the big Kitchen Floor Slide Fest commenced...

I think I'm done with sock knitting for now, and am movin' on for a while. There are some garments I'd like to sew, and some more quilts to finish.

Thanks for all the comments, and for putting up with my sock-knitting whimsy.



Have a great weekend,

Lisa

More gratuitous colour

Doesn't the wool for Youngest's socks go well with my jammies?

I know, I'm such a colour tart.

Happy stitching,

Lisa

Socks and more socks - some dying, too

At long last, a photo of my finished socks (I know you've all been on the edge of your seats).

The sock I had to dye more wool for is the one on top in the photo, and you can see that the stripes are thinner. I think I know why this is, and could probably closer replicate the first yarn now. The socks had been worn, washed and dried by the time I took the photo...the colour did not fade one bit, but they don't smell QUITE so candy-like any more.

(*note* they are actually the same length, not different lengths as they look in the photo. Really.)

My boys think this whole process is pretty neat, and asked if I could make some socks for them. Oldest requested blue and red wool, and his are coming along quite nicely. I used Strawberry KoolAid for his red, not Fruit Punch as I used in mine, and found that his took longer to rinse out after dying. I'm hoping that this red is as colourfast as the one I used on my own.

Also, I pre-weighed the wool and needles before I started his sock, and at various points throughout weighed the work in progress. I'm pretty sure I have a 25 gram sock. I have 25 grams of wool remaining. Cross your fingers for me that I'll have another 25 gram sock! Oldest's feet are only 2.5 cm shorter than my own right now. Soon his socks will be as big as mine!

Youngest wanted to try something with three colours, so we have dyed his wool blue (using Ice Blue flavour), green (with that oh-so lovely Lime), and purple (two packets of Grape).

The dye baths for this batch exhausted really quickly! Does anyone who does dying out there know if it's because of the lower amount of water-to-dye ratio? I used two packets of each colour, but only in about 300ml water (otherwise it wouldn't have fit in the microwave). The green exhausted in the first 3 minutes, the blue not long after (that white stuff in the blue bath does not attach itself to the fibres, but remains in the glass...and people drink this stuff???). The purple never really did completely exhaust, but I didn't really expect it to as seems to be the case with my limited experience of KoolAid red dyes.

Here's Youngest's after rinsing in the sink. I've since dried and rolled it, and that purple has kept it's dark plummy colour.

There. More than you ever wanted to know about our socks!

:)
Lisa

Kool Aid, that amazing substance...

It's another knitting post! (Vicki, feel free to surf on...you don't have to hang around for this!...then again, it does involve dying, so you just may want to stick around....)

I've confessed to my late night love of sock knitting...but I have a hunch that the last 12 hours are going to take my knitting to a whole new place...

I tried Kool Aid dying. In my microwave. It was so simple that I'm already contemplating more....


I started with my long time standard sock yarn. I tend to use Kroy (75% wool, 25% nylon) for most of my socks, mostly because it is easily available in this very tiny town we live in. It's the only wool that I can walk downtown and buy a skein of with reasonable faith that it will be in stock.

Yesterday I did just that. And picked up 4 packets of Kool Aid on the way home...2 blue packets, and 2 green. Imagine my surprise to open up the blue packets and have the colouring be red! Not just any red, but a really amplified, play-dough-on-steroids kind of red! Not what I was expecting (a-hem, I was expecting BLUE?), but this is all about experimentation, right? The green packets revealed - green. Whew.
I used both packets of each colour in each of the dye baths. Before I started opening packets I had prewashed and soaked my wool so I squeezed it out, put it in the dye baths ( I think there's a little more in the red than in the green), popped the whole works in the microwave, and zapped it on High for 3 minutes. I let it rest for a while, did it for 2 minutes more, rest, (during one of these rest times I moved the hot yarn more into the green, then into the red to minimize the white in the final colouration).

Things continued in this way for quite a while longer. I think I cooked everything for a total of 11 minutes (while cooking dinner on the stove) in 2 minute increments (after the first 3 minutes) until the dye bath was completely clear for the green and about as clear as it was ever going to be for the red.

After things cooled down somewhat I rinsed the hank out carefully in the sink (using similar temperature water to the temperature of the wool to avoid felting), hand washed with mild soap and rinsed again carefully.

Now I have demonstrated many times that I am not always a patient person. This may not work for all wools, but I used this drying method for mine... in front of the heater. I hung the hank on a hanger, displaced the plants from the plant stand and put the whole works in front of the heat. I rotated the hank every 1/2 hour or so, and it dryed in about 2, maybe 3 hours.

Once it was completely dry, I wound it into a rather homely centre pull skein, and cast on. This is the fastest sock pattern I know that is made using 3mm needles...I think it's called 56 stitch 56 row sock pattern, or some such. The dyed Kroy is the perfect weight for it, too.

Yes, it does smell a tiny bit like candy.

No, I did not intend to knit a pair of lime green and cherry red Christmas socks.

What I've learned?

Packaging is deceiving. Especially for powdered beverages. Blue can be Red.

Immersion dying is really, really fun.

I might have to try this with some silk...then use the Shiva paintsticks on it....

Oldest Son said,"whoa, that's cool...but I'll never drink Kool Aid!"
and "will your feet smell like fruit?"

:)

Happy stitching,

Lisa