Yarnsyarnsyarns!

So here is the stuff I dyed the other day, with brief notes mostly for my own use (though if they come in handy for anyone else's dyeing, that's great too.)
Brace yourself, this one's going to be picture heavy.


"Some Kind of Purple Flower"
128yd, 106g, Wiltons, Recycled light pink wool


"Trendy Teenage Vampire Drama"
58yd, 53g, Wiltons, Lamb's Pride Bulky in Victorian something


"Tequila Sunrise"
164yd, 136g, Wiltons, Recycled light pink wool


"Aquarius"
162yd, 140g, Wiltons + McCormick, Recycled light pink wool



"Clementine"
60yd, 51g, Easter egg dye + Wiltons, Lamb's Pride Bulky


"Sugar Coma"
124yd, 47g, Easter egg dye, Lion Fisherman's Wool


"Schminty"
130yds, 52g, Wiltons, Lion Fisherman's Wool


"Quite Red"
56yds, 52g, Wiltons, Lamb's Pride


"Peritwinkle"
58yds, 52g, Wiltons, Lamb's Pride


"Inchworm"
102yds, 39g, Wiltons, Lion Fisherman's Wool


"Peritwinkle 2: Electric Boogaloo"
121yds, 48g, Wiltons and poss. McCormicks, Lion Fisherman's Wool


"Narcissus"
58yds, 23g, Easter egg dye + Wiltons, Lion Fisherman's Wool


Notes for future reference: You need more than one tablet of the easter egg dye to dye even a small skein fully. Probably not worth it.

I also overdyed the ugly skein from last time, but I still think it's ugly, so I'm just going to keep throwing black at it until something I like comes out. Or it turns black. Which is fine. I ordered some tags from Moo so that I can start selling yarn eventually, though I might just play around with these for a while and see how the color holds up. I wish I had an extra kitchen for acid dyes. Shucks.

My apartment smells like pickled sheep

Hmm, I wonder why.

I'll go over these in more detail once they're dried and reskeined. There is a healthy blend of Wilton's, McCormicks, and easter egg pellets in there.

In other news, I finished my Mahayana Flying Gloves, made out of this Twistini. I did them at a different gauge (on size 3's) so the numbers are all changed, but otherwise I didn't really make many modifications, besides an extra repeat on the fingers and one less on the wrist (it's rare that I use someone else's pattern without butchering it.) Love the pattern, really love the stitch pattern. Keep an eye out, it'll be on some hats any day now. Quite pleased with the gloves, even though they're a little long for typing and currently tripping me up a bit. I have over half the skein of the yarn left too, and no idea what to do with it (it is so great to have a scale to tell me that. Woohoo!)

Awww

This is the least newsworthy thing ever, but the picture is just so darn cute.

Get me away from here, I'm dyeing

(All those rejected yarn names will be fine blog post titles.)

So, I dyed a little today. And not in the overdramatic way.



This one, which I call "Wormapple", because naming things is fun, is 300 yards of recycled cashmere:



It didn't come out the color I was going for at all, but I quite like the result anyway.

There was another skein of the cashmere but it turned out rather hideous (I went for neon, but it's too washed out, so it just looks like crap) and will live to (be) dye(d) another day.

The other three in that first picture are overdyed skeins of commercial yarns, the first being some Malabrigo Silky Merino in Bosques, a black and white-ish colorway



I tossed it in to use up some blue-green dyewater, but it actually managed to make it DARKER (to be fair I did add a few more droplets, but I think the black leaked off too)


(mmm yarn stew.)

So I tossed in two skeins of Lorna's Laces in Watercolor (a weird muted rainbow- the last two skeins in the picture). They barely changed at all...they're just slightly bluer now. They may also be dyed again, I don't know. The rainbow just seemed to busy for socks, and if I could darken/mute it some more, I might deem it usable.

But this one, I quite like:





The same wool as the first batch... the first picture is more accurate. I call it Shiny Happy Merpeople. This one might actually get sold, we'll see. I'm looking into buying some tags. Wormapple would be sold too if I hadn't already bonded with it. This is going to be like that idea I had about selling handspun. You know, the one where I knit it all instead.

Teeny Tiny Tangeriney

For some reason I am very much in love with super tiny oranges. Tangerines. Whatever.



It is hard to capture their tininess, even when you put something down for reference. I don't know why. But it was small, I assure you. And delicious.





In other fun news, weighing things is awesome!



I've got some various dyeing/knitting pictures to put up soon, so stay tuned. And if you're lucky, more amazingly exciting pictures of fruit and scales, BUT I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'RE THAT LUCKY.

Nomnomnom

So I managed to work at a yarn store for about a week without buying anything, but the seal's been broken now.




It's Yarntini Merino Sport in a colorway called "Twistini", which, I figured out AFTER I bought it, is a color dyed specifically for our store. You can't get it anywhere else, and we can't do mail orders of Yarntini, so you actually have to COME TO THE STORE to get it.

Also this was the last one in stock.

So I think I chose well :-P

Also, Sox Stix! The vintage metal dpns I've been using just aren't as nice as rosewood.



Now if only my yarn winding muscles weren't all twitchy... (I am going to have a big Popeye right arm eventually, I think. Heh.)

Bodyless Sweater! Aka: Now I can wear t-shirts!

Sorry for the not so good nighttime pictures... the color is pretty accurate though... maybe a little dark/saturated.






These are great. I think everyone should have a pair. But I can't really tell you how to make them, because my way (CO 30 stitches on 9's, knit around for a long time) doesn't really work if you have anything resembling biceps. Or even a shapely forearm. But if you work out the shaping...they are totally worth it.

(The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, in Manzanita. I know superwash is bad for the environment but dammit, this stuff is so soft.)

Oh My

So I sort of stupidly ordered this pile of Malabrigo about a week before I got the job at Twisted (where they, you know, SELL Malabrigo) so I feel a little silly...but I don't think we have these exact colors in these types just right now, so I'll try to feel less silly.

'Cause they're pretty lovely.


Mariposa (in the worsted)


Turner, in their new sock yarn, which I haven't tried yet.

And check this out:


See that "test product only" stamp? You know what that means? It means I'm SPECIAL. (Or at least that I ordered from a special supplier.) This is their new "Dos" in Terracotta, and I'm loving it already. All the softness, double the ply, about half the weight. And interestingly, labeled in grams instead of ounces like the others. Sometimes this company seems a little bit all over the place, but I like 'em anyway :-)

I take that back. It might actually be SOFTER than the merino worsted. It is labeled "baby merino," so take that as you will.

Also, meet my new best friend:



YES IT'S A CHEESY VALENTINE'S HOT WATER BOTTLE. They didn't have normal ones but who cares. This might be a very old ladyish purchase, but these things are awesome. They warm up your toes!! Very important!!

Whew

It's been an exciting few days.

I saw Jared Flood talk at the Ace Hotel the other night, which was pretty cool. He's pretty adorable, and he gave me an idea or two regarding my photography (though the real moral is still "Live in a place with natural light,") and showed us a few upcoming designs which are OMGBEAUTIFUL (be excited.)

(I smell coffee. Weird.)

Also got to see Leethal's new super-neat scarf in person, since she was there as well. It's always a little weird running into people you know of from the internet - I'm a big blog reader, and I read a lot of the local ones, so this happens to me from time to time. Obviously you like their work and probably think they're kinda cool, or you wouldn't be reading their blogs, but there is really no un-creepy way to say "Oh hi, Name. How's the recentproject/pet/husband/newapartment?" to somebody who has no idea who you are. Even though I know I'd just be excited that somebody reads my blog, I generally stay quiet and awkward.

At least in the case of BrooklynTweed, everyone there was a creepy blogostalker.

I've also started my training at Twisted, which so far is pretty delightful. It's a very cozy, happy, yarny place to work. (And while we're talking about famous-on-the-internet, I work with Star Athena, of Quant fame.)

I will also be helping teach a bunch of classes with another designer/alum-of-my-school (hi Amanda!) for my school's special week of random workshops (ie, Paideia.) So that's exciting too. They've been in the works for a while but they were finally confirmed and scheduled.

It's like the internet is coming to life! WHOOAAA.

Hooray!

I got the job :-) Y'all come down to Twisted and buy yarn from me, y'hear?

Or just give me a high five and have some tea (Tea AND yarn! All my favorite things under one roof... now if only they sold shoes, and the whole store was full of puppies...)

On Pretty Colors and Poorly Advised Puns

Hooray! I should have taken a before picture, but this stuff used to be a hideous pink sweater. I've got lots more to go, too, though I'll probably wait til this weekend.
I am seriously considering adding recycled, hand-dyed yarns to my etsy repetoire...unfortunately right now I'm not really equipped to safely use acid dyes which are perhaps more sell-able. We'll see how this stuff holds up though. So far, so good. In any case I've spent a lot of time running through horrible, punny names for a line of recycled yarn ("Dye, Dye, Dye!", "Just About Dyed", "I Could Just Dye", "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dyeing," "Dye, Mother******!", "Dyed For Your Sins", "That'll Be the Day That I Dye", "I Would Dye For You", "Dyeing Day"... you get the idea) but I think I've settled on "Reinyarnation". Get it? Cause the sweaters have (been) dyed and come back as something different in order to live another life. God, I am witty.

I am a little bit in love with the greenish one. I thought it'd come out kind of brown, since I started with pink, but it looks more like the Malabrigo "Indiecita" colorway, only... paler. It will probably end up being a hat for a swap, if there's enough (94 yards? I think I can do it...) I was going for red with the orange one, and it came out the color of a neon red post-it. That one'll probably go to Travis, since I promised him one and he's probably had his fill of knitting with purpley blues. Plus he might be hip enough to pull of wearing neons. I certainly am not.

Oh poo

In a series of events that shocks no one, Alex dyes her fingers pink and blue the day before a job interview.


Pictures forthcoming (of the yarn being dyed, not my fingers.)

Ahhh, Organization

Cheap bookshelves are my heroes.



(I took this this morning, it's much fuller now. And my desk area much, much emptier. Check out the thrift store "painting".)

It is worth mentioning that right now, this is my ENTIRE STASH*, minus some stuff I just unraveled from old sweaters for dyeing, a bag full of other stuff to be overdyed, and some cashmere and Handmaiden Camelspin I have in jars on the mantel to keep them extra safe (plus they're pretty.) Not so bad, I think. Definitely tackle-able. I am quite pleased to have achieved my dream of putting everything on display, so I can tell what I have at a glance and stop rummaging around in grubby bins, tangling everything up. Plus it's nice to look at, and relatively safe from moths since it's out in open air.



* Entire Portland stash. Now, if we want to talk about the bins of yarn at my parent's place in Michigan....but we don't. We don't want to talk about those bins. Hush.

Snowdrift Hat Pattern

This was my Christmas present to my other sister, and I liked the way it turned out so I thought I'd write up the pattern :-) Mirasol Sulka is like some sort of delicious silky cloud and the hat works up nice and thick and cozy. If you don't like the slouchy look, you can skip the part where you block out the cables and leave it more narrow and boing-y.



(strange how I am completely underexposed but the hat looks good. Silly white.)





The large gauge means you can knit this up an evening, no problem. Err...sorry I didn't bring it out before the holidays, heh.

As always, available both in the etsy shop and on Ravelry
On Etsy
Ravelry Pattern Page
Buy Now on Ravelry

(the fine print: Your purchase of this pattern constitutes your agreement to use this pattern only for personal, non-profit use without specific written permission from the designer (just email me!) Items made from this pattern may not be sold without permission, nor may the pattern itself be copied, sold, or distributed in any way. You may print one copy for personal use but may not print multiples to distribute, nor may you share the digital file with others. Thanks guys!)

If you need to contact me with questions, my email address is presentsknits@gmail.com - please email instead of commenting since it's much easier for me to reply that way! Thanks!

WTF Traffic!?!?!

So I got an email from my "counter" service telling me I had to buy a subscription (as opposed to using their free service) because I got over 5000 pageviews yesterday...but since it's kind of a useless counting service, I can't figure out where on earth they came from :-P I usually get close to 2,000 and it shot up to almost 7,000 in one day. My curiosity is killing me.

So tell me...how did you get here? (Is that your beautiful house? Is that your beautiful wife?!?)

Christmas, Etc.

So I am back in Portland, and Portland is back to normal... no more snowy hell, for the moment anyway.

My trip home was quite lovely. Here are a bunch of pictures, quite a few of which are shamefully bad quality... ugh. Sorry.


This came right before I left. Recycled, hand-dyed yarn from Leethal, part of a fingerless glove kit. I made it into another Maner, but the change in gauge threw me a bit and it's a smidgen too small. No word as to whether I'll frog it or just put on a button loop.


I had a layover in Salt Lake City, and this is from the descent. What a pretty state...shame that it seems to be full of warehouses and Cracker Barrels (at least from my drives through it.)


If you've ever been so "lucky" as to fly into Detroit, and into the correct terminal, you may recognize this as the color-changey, new-agey-music, hall of rainbow dreams. It leads you under the tarmac and distracts you from the long wait on the moving sidewalk by essentially placing you inside one of those "Light Show" air fresheners and soothing your furious flying nerves with some Enya-ish, trancey music. I kinda like it.



Christmas Presents!


Hat for youngest sister (the hat for my other sister will also be sold in pattern form, so it'll get it's own post.) It's Madelinetosh Sock Yarn, in "Oxblood", held doubled. What a friggin gorgeous line of yarn, I tell you what. And you get quite a bit in the $30 skein, almost 400 yards.


Last minute Noro socks for the boyfriend. He picked out the yarn. They're funny. This picture is terrible, and he's been wearing them around so they're all mussed up...but oh well. You get the idea.


Cowl for a friend...some sort of red Malabrigo in "spider stitch".




Hats for my boyfriend's parents- the photos are so bad I'm just going to link them.
His Dad's
His Mom's (Based on the Matilda Cloche)

Both from Sarah's Yarns Mongolian Cashmere...a super great deal, though I've heard communication has broken down since I ordered this. I hope not.


Cowl for me mum.
I made a black alpaca neck tube for my dad, but it's nothing worth posting really.



And just for the hell of it, here's a bonus shot of ole Topographie in action, me making a horrible face, and some of my friend type people:



And since I don't have to hide the fact that Travis can knit any longer (he was making his mom a top secret scarf,) here is my favorite picture ever:




And that is all the blurry, craptastic photographs I have for you today. Let's hope Portland gets some damn sun so I won't have an excuse anymore.

As it turns out, the knitting Paideia classes ARE going to happen, and I got an interview at that LYS so...hooray. Don't uncross those fingers yet though :-)