Candy floss

I dyed this.
My Method Pre-soaked the roving in a large container with lots of water with vinegar and a drop of washing up liquid added. Then after several hours removed the wool, add a very weak solution of magenta acid discharge dye, swish it around and replace the wool. Leave to settle. Then with a 5ml syringe squirt a few mls of stronger pink and even smaller amounts of turquoise deep into the wool under water, be sparing and random. The dye pools, and doesn't bleed far from where you put it. Start to heat very very slowly over about 45 minutes up to the temperature you normally dye at. Continue as normal. I didn't stir the roving at all. I like the effect a lot. I'm into subtle now.

Then spun and plied it...



and swatched..

I really love this stitch pattern, start with an even number of stitches, K1 *yo, k2tog* k1. Every row - yes, even the wrong side row, that's how it works. It's not as fast as I thought it would be to knit up as the needles need a bit of manipulating to do the K2tog, you are knitting into the YO k2tog of the row below, and not purling as you often do. And just don't drop a stitch, they just disappear and are almost impossible to pick up.
It's going to be a shrug for Molly, I've 340 yards so I think it should do. I started to do a cuff to cuff version but I just don't like vertical stripes, and there are subtle ones in this, so I've ripped it and I'm now doing a front to back. I wondered if it's possible to do short rows to get a narrower sleeve sections, but as the fabric is very stretchy and should conform around Mol's little bod I don't think I will this time, not wanting to give myself the stress of ripping again if it doesn't work. I'm intrigued with the the idea though, so I might just try it on a doll sized garment to see how it goes.

Happy Easter!

It's set to be a glorious weekend here, the freezing cold wind has dropped and we are blessed with clear blue skies and temperatures around 16C which is very warm for us this time of the year.

The comment link disappeared on the last post, thanks to Little Critter Keeper for flagging it up. I was investigating then posted this and I see they are back! Just the one post it seems was affected. Poor old Blogger.

Okay, I'll spin then

I took some superwash wool which I picked up some years ago from Wingham WoolWork, then dyed it. The sliver striped into 5 separate strands very easily which helped to achieve the random, blobby effect, which of course was entirely intentional.

Then spun it up with quite a lot of twist as I wanted to Navajo ply it and still have a 'fingering' type yarn.



This is the swatch I did. There are approx 18 wpi and this is on 2.5mm needles.



I found it quite tricky to handle the fine single while plying. I don't have a tensioned lazy kate but adapted the Majacraft's bobbin box by tying cord around it and in the bobbin's grove which did put enough tension on it. I found it tricky to adjust the take up and one minute was feeding in to quickly, then slowed to a stop. So the number of plying twists aren't consistent and I noticed afterwards that the lower number of twists, the more it allows the plys to spring out and increase the diameter of the yarn. So, more twists gave me a snug, fine, cabled looking yarn, less twist, a fluffier yarn. There wasn't a problem with the yarn twisting Z or S either in the different sections so it seems I was probably at either end of the limits of the number of plying twists the single needed. An interesting light-bulb moment and one to put in my spinning records.

Now, I've 80grms, just enough for those small foot coverings..

Pride comes before...

See this sock?



Cute isn't it, it's for my 3 year old granddaughter, Emma.

Second sock is coming along nicely. I was especially impressed with the way I had the gusset decreases flow from the pattern, I wondered why I didn't think of that with the first sock (it's my own pattern). I didn't make notes because I always think I will remember and anyway, you can always squint at the first sock to work out what you did..



After a few rounds I counted stitches, umm, still a few rounds to go, usually there by now.

I haven't worked it out yet have I.

The sodding decreases work so well with the pattern because they are still part of the pattern, paired with a Yarn Over.

On the first sock I must have decreased for the gusset after the decrease for the YOs.

Rippit Rippit.

May as well rip the whole sock as this one is coming out larger as I've loosened up over the pattern. But, I suppose I should rip this one back to the heel and rip out the first one, as it's very unlikely I can make the second sock tighter.

Bum

Oh, and the bread is there because I was having a bad morning and I had to eat something.