Dipping into the dye-pot: Not every one is a winner

Another blogger made a lovely compliment about our dyeing skills the other day - and as nice at that is - I wanted to share with you a little secret... not everything that comes out of the dye-pot is quite what we expect.

Occasionally, inspiration for colours comes through photos. I found this one while goofing around on the internet one day...... and I knew I wanted to capture those colours in yarn. So I set to it. It didn't seem so bad at first - but on reflection......I hated it. The purples aren't so purple... they are much more orangey/burgundy - and they just don't jive with the eye-bleeding yellow and green. This one was temporarily called "Frog in a flower" - but after reskeining - Mom called it "Frog in a blender".

Now... one thing I've also learned... just because I don't like something, doesn't mean someone else will feel the same way. So we put it to our faithful Ravelry group members... and they are just about tied when it comes to love/hate.

So.. we've put it in the shop (and renamed it Carnival)

If it doesn't sell, we'll subject it to the magic of over-dyeing!

Wild winter weekend

The cold I was fighting came on with a fury and knocked me out, so Friday I worked from home and kept my germs to myself.

Tux was my coworker for the day, as I settled on the couch with my laptop to finish my writing and editing.Apparently he finds customs brokerage to be a boring topic to write about, but it keeps him in cat kibbles so he really shouldn't complain.

And, after mentioning how much of a non-winter we've had this year - Saturday we woke up to a winter wonderland.The snow started falling late Friday and right through Saturday morning. We even got a little more this morning.

It's hard to say how long this will stick around for - they are predicting mild temperatures for the rest of the week. So I spent Saturday enjoying the snow from inside with the cats - and set my fingers to finishing Dave's socks - and voila!I finished them up last night - with a few days to spare! These are now tucked away with a package of wine gums and some cinnamon hearts - all ready for Tuesday.

Now... I really should finish the band on the Lore Hoodie - but I think a new pair of socks is calling me......

February blues

You can probably tell from the lack of posting, that there is not a whole lot of knitting going on over here.

At least not as much as I'd like.

I did finish the first of Dave's Valentine's day socks - but I don't have a picture because I left it at Mom's last weekend. I've started the second one, but I've only been able to complete a few inches.

Tick, tick, tick... that's the time moving swiftly to Valentine's day. Unfortunately, there's not very much click, click, click.... the sound of my needles knitting a sock.

It's the usual culprit keeping me from knitting - work. And since it pays for the yarn, I can't really tell it to take a hike.

I'm also fighting a cold again (and losing). We may have had a mild winter this year with very little snow - but it's been a bad one for colds. This is my fourth - and they've all been doozies. And Dave's got this one too - which means I can't just sit around and mope - I've got to take care of him.

And yeah... he's your typical man with a cold - all whine, all the time.

But there has been an interesting development at Chez Wandering Cat
Sharing space! And no growling. Though they refused to make eye contact with each other!

Leaves of hope

While I was up at Mom's today dying more yarn - I took advantage of the opportunity to get some shots of my latest frozen leaves shawlAs mentioned - this was knit for a colleague who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for bone cancer. I knit it in Dale of Noway Svale - a dk weight cotton/viscose/silk blend. The dk made it knit up very fast and I like the nice large leaves.
It was a true stash-buster, using all six skeins I had. I'm glad to have it gone - while the drape and weight is ideal for a shawl, it's terribly splitty. I still have 9 balls of red still in the stash - and it's hard to say what I'm going to do with them.
This is the fourth frozen leaves I've done - and each one has been a little different. This is probably the closest to the original pattern, though I added a centre stitch and modified the edging a bit. Finished size is about 68 inches wide and 34 inches long - a nice big shawl to wrap up in.

Ahh.. that's better

Look! Progress!!!I finished the final few rows on Frozen Leaves, and that baby is a-blockin'! I'll give more details in a proper FO post, but I knit this one in a DK, cotton/viscose/silk blend - perfect drape for a shawl.

And - today was an all-day meeting for my department at work. Fortunately, our department directors are just fine with me knitting through the meeting - one actually commented that having my hands busy probably helped me focus on the meeting - okay... we'll go with that.

So, I was able to whip along on the socks I started for Dave.I'd really like to have these done for Valentine's Day (this is just the first sock). It's really too bad, I don't have any more meetings scheduled before then!

Surmount the Stash - January Round-up

It's no surprise that I don't have much progress to show for my first check-in of the year.

The only project I completed was Dave's hat, so I've only depleted the stash by a measly 162 yards.

I fully expected to have a lot more to report this month - a shawl, a coat, maybe even a pair of socks.

However - this sets me up for a really good February - right?

I have started on two "goals".

1) Knit a lace weight shawl - Aeolian in the Prism Tencel yarn from Knit Camp. Though very little progress has been made, at least it's started.

2) Knit four sweaters - The Lore Hoodie is soooooooo close to being finished. Maybe this weekend.

And, since I don't have any beautiful FO pics to show you....
Look a shiny kitty!

Oh poor blog, how I have forsaken thou...

By this time last year - I had 16 blog posts for the month. Today is the 30th... and this month I've blogged 9 times... wtf?

I really can't explain it. Maybe it's a combination of not much to blog about (too much work - too little knitting), coupled with the fact that my camera batteries are dying. Dave keeps promising to bring me home new ones - but he keeps forgetting. If I want to use the camera, I have to swap out the batteries from the DVD remote - then remember to put them back in so I can watch a movie.

The good news is, I am almost done my colleagues shawl - just 10 (long) rows to go! But no pictures, because of the above mentioned camera issue.

So instead, I'll distract you with a new colourway I came up with on Saturday.
I've called it "Hedgerow"

I did it on Alley Cat and Slinky - but it's hard to say if this batch will make it into the shop - Mom's been flashing it around Ravelry - and it sounds like most of the skeins are spoken for. But rest assured - I'll do more soon!