dunnit again.....

Well.. I've gone and found another hobby....

Hand painting yarn.....

This was a hell of a lot of fun... and not as messy as I thought... thought still messy enough to be fun!

I was trying to capture the colour of the sunrise, and it was a little tricky because it's hard to tell the shade of the dye in liquid form. However Ithink it turned out pretty good.

The hardest part was waiting for it to dry... I wanted to knit some up to see how the colours came out.

Pretty nifty.... I need more yarn....

Bad Bowree!

I said I wouldn't do it... and then I went and did it... I cast on another project

This is Dragon Scales

I thought it rather appropriate for my yarn.

It going pretty well though I've had to rip back a couple of times because I just wasn't paying attention. I can't wait until it's done and blocked.

We just had a wicked storm here (apparently it was worse in other parts of the province) and when it stopped I went in my kitchen and it was GLOWING.. I looked out the window and the sky was on fire!

It was much more magnificent in person, but this gives you an idea... no red, no yellow just pure ORANGE!

And before I leave... I'd like to pose a question... how lazy is your cat? I'm pretty sure I have the laziest cat going.

He doesn't even get up to eat!

Solace

After the very disheartening trip to the frog pond, I am taking solace in the recent presents the mailman brought me This is Lizzard Claw... some lovely handpainted yarn I got off E-Bay. I really wanted Dragon Scales - it was all greens and purples, but there was only one skein and it went for much more than I wanted to pay. However this one is just as nice and I have the perfect pattern for it.

I also picked this up on ebay (Rocky insisted on posing with it... he really likes it and has already ran off with it five times)

There is only one ball - and as mom informed me after I bought it, that's not enough to make 2 socks. Of course, I only paid $1.25, so I'm not too upset.

However, if we mix it with a solid, I should be able to get a pair of ankle socks out of it. So, time to go raid mom's stash for a matching yarn.

I haven't decided if I'm going to attempt them or let mom do it. It will probably end up on mom's list, as I'm not fond of the whole multiple needle thing

I did however enjoy knitting the swatch... (which I just had to do immediately to see all the colours.. of course my swatch is only 20 stitches, so the socks will look totally different, but I wanted to see what's in there.) It was really nice to knit with.

Here's a close up.

And something else that's neat about this yarn... apparently it comes with a free monster...

I've yet to see him though... maybe it's an invisible monster.... I hope he likes cats.

I also go this

Thrilling I know....

I really want to try my hand at dyeing (as if I didn't have enough projects on the go) I found a great tutorial for dyeing with Easter Egg dyes, but if anyone knows of any others, please let me know. I think want to do this in sunset colours.

So after all these great presents, I'm left sitting here going "I will not cast on a new project until others are finished - I will not!"

Darn it all to heck

After spending all last evening knitting the entire feather and fan portion of second half of the shrug - I realized I cast on 18 stitches too many!... to the frog pond!
CRAP!

Whew

Well the last couple of weeks have been pretty busy, plenty of progress and today was especially productive.

First... I completed the back of Dad's Christmas sweater. I was a little worried I didn't buy enough yarn - it calls for 8 balls, I bought 11 - but they have less metreage than the yarn used in the pattern. However, I only used 2 and 1/2 balls for the back so I should be okay.

I'm resisting the almost overpowering urge to cast on the front because I should be working on stuff for Vineyard Alpacas... and I have been... yesterday while watching the Golden Compass, I finished up the first half of the shrug I'm designing.

You'll probably remember this from a recent post. It was going to be a wrap.. but I got bored with the feather and fan and decided to design a shrug instead.

I also cast on a shawl, which I think will knit up fairly quick, though I'll have to get a 4.5 mm round needle soon. I'll post pics as soon as it's big enough for the round needle.

Today the History Channel so obligingly ran a whole day of shows about battleships... that meant Dave spent the entire day (11 am - 9 pm) on the couch and wanting absolutely nothing to do with me. While I should probably be insulted, it was kind of nice... the weekends are the only time we have together, so I never get much done around the house.

Today however, I got the basement cleaned (kitty litter was tracked ALL over the place) as well as my studio.

The studio was a nightmare. For the last few weeks, I've just sorta shoved stuffed in and shut the door. It's once again tidy, and I even got a few projects I've been wanting to finish done....

I got some great new charms for bookmarks. They'll be up on Etsy later this week, but if you see one you like let me know (they are $10 each). Here are some close ups...

This last little dragon is the only one I didn't get finished. I haven't decided what beads I want ot use with him.

And as much work as I did get done.. I still have more to do... Rocky... the "helpful" little scamp....

decided his contribution would be to knock some of my beads all over the floor... after all the cleaning I did (in between cooking lunch and dinner and doing laundry) I didn't have the heart to sort them out.... they just got thrown willy-nilly into the boxa task for another day.... *sigh*