Reclaimed Yarn

Reclaimed Yarn
Originally uploaded by wendymc.

Reclaiming this yarn was a lot easier with the winder! This yarn used to be a failed attempt at Knitty.com's Bob sweater, and I may try this time to turn it into the Tivoli Tee. That's definitely the next pattern I want to make, I just haven't decided if I should make it with this yarn, or some other cotton yarn I have.

Baby Hats

krishats
Originally uploaded by wendymc.

I finished up a couple baby hats for my friend. She had twins a couple weeks ago, so they had to be smallish, I hope these do the trick. I used the same yarn for both, the blue/green is the stuff I dyed before, the reddish hat I dyed after knitting. It took two attempts but the dye soaked into the cables ok, there aren't many spots where the old colour shows through, and they're really subtle, so I'm leaving it.

I love the swift and winder. The swift made setting up for koolaid dying, and winding after, so nice. And the wound skeins are great to knit from. The yarn doesn't get stretched, they don't roll around on the floor or table, and they remain tangle free RIGHT TO THE END!

I bought a bunch of wool for koolaid dying before we moved into our house. Some Lana from Walmart on clearance, and 5 or 6 smaller skeins of wool from a thrift shop. I don't have a clue where they are! I would love to do some more dying, but I don't know where these yarns went. Maybe I'll work on organizing my stash this weekend. I need to sort out all the yarn I don't want, maybe try to find some local knitters to swap with or something. It's hard to find the yarn you want when it's burried under lots you don't want.

I got a couple of neat knitting gifts for my birthday on Saturday: a ball winder and swift from my husband! The swift is so pretty, soft light coloured wood, so smooth. The winder is industrial looking but works great. I've been resisting the urge to wind up everything in site! (I did do a few balls right away)

I got a chance to do some koolaid dying yesterday so I put the swift to use making hanks. Let me tell you it is SO much easier using the swift than winding around chair legs, which is what I used to do. Way less tangles, too. And once everything dried in the morning, winding the hank into a ball using both pieces was so fast and easy!

Here is the yarn I dyed, using ice blue lemonade and changing cherry koolaid. You can see the blue in pretty hank form, and then in skein form, with a tiny ball of scrap I dyed using spiderman koolaid (thought it would be green but it was red so I dyed the scrap rather than waste it)

Blue Pinwheel Blanket

Blue Pinwheel Blanket
Originally uploaded by wendymc.

I started another Pinwheel Baby Blanket and have abotu 9inches done so far. I REALLY like his pattern for mindless knitting, and it grows quite quickly. This colourway looks really nice to me, but I'm dissapointed to notice that it's not as soft as others in this yarn. The solid white and solid pink I've used before were much softer than this one. It's still okay, just not as nice. I've heard of this happeneing, different dye colours affecting the yarn differently, maybe the veregated yarns have to go through different processes as well. (It's Bernat Satin, incidentally)

I think I want to make the Mu Shu throw from Berroco's latest newsletter. It was the "no finishing" note that grabbed me, but I think it could make a really nice baby blanket. I'm not sold on their yarn, I'll have to think of what I'd like to make it in. The Vibe yarn they use looks interesting, but nothing amazing, and I suspect it would be expensive as most Berroco yarns are. Surely Bernat or Patons have something I could use. It might look good only in two colours, just a checkerboard pattern as well.

I knit a little more on the baby hat in "be mine" but I'm not loving how it's turning out. I like the yarn, it's a lot like snowflake but stronger so it's not as delicate to knit with. I was aiming for a roll-brim hat, but my cast on was a bit tight so I'm not sure how that will work out.

I've been working a bit on my soleil top again. I haven't got much done but I'd like a chance to wear this during the summer, so I'd better get knitting! The cotton blend yarn is knitting up nice and light, so it's easy to cart around, not too bulky.