Pages

Saturday 29 June 2013

WIP Update

I was planning to have this up earlier in the week but I was stalled by a dead battery in my camera.  Then I had the battery charged but there were severe thunderstorms in the area for days so my internet was sporadically shut down.  I have a line-of-sight tower which is like a lightening rod on my house.  Which has a steel roof.  It's just easier to shut it down than replace electronics.




So finally I have a charged battery and the storms are passed so without further ado, here is what is happening around here.

Socks.

Yeah, I know.  I'm always knitting socks.  But I like the instant gratification of socks - especially when they're for me.  These are knit in a lovely hand dyed fingering weight from Art-By-Ana of Smiths Falls, Ontario.  And like just about everything else I've ever made, the yarn colours pool into a spiral.  I don't dislike it, and I'm sure somebody will absolutely adore it, but sometimes I'd like to have it really be variegated.


So I gave this some thought. There are two basic ways to colour yarn.  You can dye it as above into the colours of your choice or you can select fibre of different colours and ply the different singles together to make a multi-coloured yarn like this:


The colours aren't good here, but there is a white/natural, a black and a tan.  Unfortunately, I can't tell you what kind of wool this is.  The fibre came out of a big bag from the wool coop simply labeled "wool".  But ya know, for $5.00/lb I'm not going to complain too loudly.  What I didn't expect was how soft the finished item would be.  Granted, the skein was roughed up somewhat in the tub between hot and cold water and beaten against the wall but still, it's much softer than I expected it to be.



The skein in this photo is 75g / 225yards so it's a little heavier than a sock weight (that's a dime in the first photo) and there is more on the bobbins to ply so I'll have lots.  But I bet the colours in this yarn won't pool!

4 comments:

  1. That's a lovely finished skein! And yes, there is absolutely no way the colors in it can pool! :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This yarn is starting to whisper to me that it would make a great hat. I'll have to start looking. But I think you're right - there won't be any colour pooling here :)

      Delete
  2. I have to agree, with the electronics. As much work as I may need to get done, it's not worth the risk to work through a thunderstorm. It is a good excuse to read a book chapter or something else that has been neglected. The skein colours look great and I'm eyeing your wheel. Someday, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like the pattern the pink socks make. I'm sure the spun yarn will look great when it's completed.

    ReplyDelete