Booties

I'm hoping to finish this pair of baby booties today.

The combination of 8-ply yarn, 4 mm dpns and a small item is feeling rather clumsy in my hands, so I've been procrastinating, but now they're just about done. The pattern is from Yarn Thrower. The yarn is leftover from my new bright blue baggy beret. There's also a bottom-up version of this pattern. I may try that next. Or I might cast on another pair of socks for me. I turned the heater on for the first time yesterday--winter weather is coming on.

Now, back to the knitting and I should have these done very soon.

Around the House

It's a strange thing packing up and unpacking a houseful of stuff. Things that I've had for years are somehow becoming more visible as I try to settle on where they should go. This hood for example:It's made from felted, hand-dyed wool and lined with velvet. The story goes like this:

I knitted myself a hooded jacket--in my early knitting days. When it was ready, I found it was too itchy to wear--OK, I've learned a bit about wool since then. In my frustration I decided to turn it into felt, since I loved the colour and didn't want it to be entirely wasted. I used some of the felt for a teddy bear and there's some left in my collection. I've thought of making a bag out of it, but it hasn't happened yet. The hood was irresistable, though. Lining it with velvet solved the itchiness problem, but what to do with a thick felt velvet-lined hood in a smaller than average size? It would be perfect as a party hat for an eskimo girl! So there it is. It sits well on my paper-mache manequin head.

This morning I rescued it from the spot on the floor in the hallway where it ended up a week or three ago. I guess I just need to find a shelf to display it on, but really it's one of many things that might call for a shelf of their own, and there are only so many shelves in the house. It's made its way onto the table now, so I could photograph it, so I'll see where it goes from here.

Green, Green, Green

I turned the page on my calendar after posting yesterday and found . . . more green!

I had some white wool spun up all ready for the dye pot, so I decided on an immediate response. After lunch I blended up some colours while I got on with some spinning. This morning I have this to show:I spent the morning working on the damask pick up design--I'm just past half way now--so it was great to have some spontaneity to cheer up my afternoon.

Waiting for Colour

I've plied up the merino that I spun on the weekend. I often choose white tops to work on when I have company or a pleasant distraction. Otherwise it can get a bit boring. So here I have a couple of skeins of lovely white:

Of course it's not going to stay white! It's destined for the dye pot. Dyeing after the yarn is spun and plied gives a different pattern of colour variations than dyeing the tops and then spinning them. And I don't have any particular plans for this yarn. So I can choose just about any colour. Wow!

Harmony Sequence

Here's my sequence of Harmony hand-dyed and blended skeins: This is the first time I've combined dyeing my own tops with my marle blending technique. It's given me a lovely gradation of colour that reminds me of the way the roses' colours develop with time.

Harmony Wool Tops

Here are the wool tops I dyed in response to the Harmony Day roses:I've done 1oo g of each. It's a while since I did any spinning straight from my hand-dyed tops, so I think I'll do 50 g of each just as they are. That will leave me 50 g of each to play with. I can mix them in different proportions. Then I'll have four different, but closely related skeins of wool. Sounds like a plan.

One Skein Wonders

I'm just home after a few days interstate, and happily re-united with my textile to do list. High on the list is planning my "One Skein Wonders" workshop, which is scheduled at CCCK later this month. To get my planning juices bubbling I've pulled this little neck warmer out of the box: It's made from just 50 grams of hand-dyed wool. That certainly qualifies it for the "one skein" category. It's small, vibrant and surprisingly warm to wear. And it's a hot favourite as far as colour impact goes.