On the right is "Earth" (as in earth, air, fire, and water) and that seems to work for me, but the left is supposed to be "Winter" (greys and muted blues and beige, with a few bright speckles of aqua). I kind of like it, but it sure ain't winter. The black dye (with which I was trying to make gray) broke and turned purple. The good news is, with this last mistake, I've identified exactly which chemical it is causing the problems, and how: it's a pink that sticks faster and harder to the wool than any of the other dyes.
So now I just have to find someone who sells food dyes individually and unmixed (blue 3, yellow 5, etc), mix my own colors, and avoid that one dye. Yeah. That should be easy.
It also occured to me that I should have some sample knits to show on my site, so I've dyed a couple mini-skeins to make myself some sport socks. Yes, I'm winding up knitting socks because of this little venture. I guess it was inevitable.
In the 'elemental' range of dye schemes, I'm also working on 'fire'.
As always, the camera doesn't catch the subtleties. And it's really hard to do dark colors when using this dye method; I'm on round three of adding red dye to the same spot, hoping it will stick.
After this, I put the baby down for a nap and write some articles. I'm not sure I'm thrilled to be busy, or not. In a way it's a pain in the ass, but it makes me feel useful, gives me specific tasks I can FINISH (as opposed to child-rearing, which is NEVER DONE) and brings in a pay check (which I can then spend on knitting books and fiber related stuff). Anyway, it works for now.
While I was doing nothing else this weekend, I got a lot of sleeve knitting done, and I hope to have it all joined up to the body tonight. Then it's on to the second sleeve.
I just looooove second sleeves.
9 comments:
Loving the elements concept. It's a work in progress, right, so keep plugging away. Can't wait to buy one or two from you and see what they're like up close.
A further thought: ever tried knitting sleeves at the same time? Would that work with the jacket? I'm keen to try it some time, to save second sleeve syndrome.
Actually since I usually go back/front/sleeve/sleeve, the 2nd sleeve is sort of a relief...it's the "I'm al-most do-one" stage...
I'm dying to hear a rant (from you or from Rae) about Knitty Gritty--my daughter bought one of the books (the teen knit book) and that whole "knitting as hipster" thing made my teeth grind. Maybe because I've been doing it since before it was hip, or maybe because I watch hs students pick out big ass yarn and get all excited and hope they get beyond that stage and mature as knitters as they keep trying to mature as writers but either way...teeth, grinding, swearing...it's all there.
Hey--where are you selling your yarn again (or have you not posted it?) because that Field of Lupins color is just sort of playing around in my head...add some yellow flecks and it would look like the foothills in spring.
I'm posting it all to my Esty shop (that I'm still building) in one great blast, toward the end of February. If there's a color that gets sold before you want it, let me know and I'll make you another.
Do you write for anything besides knitty?
I write a whole lot of unattributed stuff for people. I'm deep in a pile of internet-dating blurbs at the moment ('first date ideas', 'dating safety tips', etc).
Trust me, you don't want to read them. Haha.
"Winter" looks a lot like a Grateful Dead tie dye to me. I should post my "tie dye baby" photo.
If you want a couple of views of winter, complete with actual snow, I just posted 'em on my blog.
LOL. You'll Lllloooovvvveeee 2nd socks, too, I'm sure.
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