Little summer top

Here's a progress shot of my summer top from craftster. I'm using araucania nature cotton in turquoise. I love using up stash yarn instead of buying more (who doesn't?), even though my stash is relatively small compared to others.


I did a mini swatch with the yarn my dye-o-rama pal dyed for me, unfortunately I'm not getting gauge for pomatomus. I'm getting about 7sts/in vs 8sts/in. Alas... I think the yarn would make a nice shawl for the fall though. I might dye up some yarn for pomatomus. Here's a yucky picture of the swatch (my camera died after taking this picture)

My dye-o-rama pal rocks!

The yarn(kona superwash) is so wonderfully soft and the colors!!! I love love love the colors. I've never tried this color combo before and I'm so very excited. Thank you so much. I know exactly what I'm going to knit with it. Knitty's pomatomus.
I'll try and do a swatch tonight (kids willing). Krista from http://nakedsheep.blogspot.com/ is my dye-o-rama pal. Wonderful job!! And the little sheep and maiden mirror is perfect for my purse (I'm keeping this away from my girls). Thank you again pal. (I have still to figure out how to post on the dye-o-rama site).

I'm back...

I actually got some dyeing done this weekend for my dye-o-rama pal.
She requested self-striping yarn and I'm of course here to oblige. Here's my setup:


I have to say self-striping yarn is a bit of a pain to do. Walking back and forth around the chairs and then to wind it back into a regular skein. I hope she likes the colors. I used this tutorial for the self-striping setup.
On to other knitting news, I started on a new top with some araucania cotton I had. The pattern is from craftster but somehow I cannot find the link anymore. I'll post some progress shots.

The garden is coming along. We have a little herb garden now, a bean pole tent for the kids, tomato, squash and a little strawberries patch. Everything is still little.


The fifth clover leaf is going to a little sunflower house (inspired Sharon Lovejoy's book). I tried one from seed a few years ago and the birds had a field trip. This year I'll just get some seedlings, its also a lot smaller scale. Then I'll get some morning glory to climb up the sunflowers, train them across to the other side to form the ceiling. Thats the plan anyways. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get some more work done.

Here's a picture of Nancy (red island red), Hillary (white leghorn), and Eleanor (araucana). Yes, and their eggs.


We also started work on the front yard (our 150 year old eucalyptus fell the end of last year and took 5 of our redwoods with it). So we're replanting that area.

Acid dye samples...

Spring/Summer is finally here... Perfect weather, highs in the mid-upper 70s. Ahh... But it makes indoor crafts a lot less appealing. I'm not a gardening type, but just cannot resist doing some planting. I spent some time preparing the beds this morning. The strawberry plants we planted last year are all over the place so I'm going to move them all to one bed. Then our play group is planting an herb garden for us. I have a tomato (sun gold) and a summer squash plant in already. Started some sunflower seeds in egg cartons (the hens will get them if I sow directly). We planted this little pot yesterday:

I got the Jacquard acid dye from dharmatrading last week and dyed up some samples this morning. Yellow Sun, Fushia, Turquoise as the primaries. Then I just squirted adjacent primaries together to get the secondary colors. I love the intensity and the brightness of the colors.

Here's another set: Golden Orche, Scarlet and Navy Blue. I'm not too sure about the navy, its really more like an ink blue. But I love the golden orche, the orange (golden orche and scarlet) and the scarlet.

Here's a picture of the brown and jet black. I added a little more scarlet and more fushia to parts of the brown to see how it would look.
l'm not sure I've found the brown I'm looking for yet.

So DH bought his little white prius last friday. I posted on craigslist to sell his car and it sold yesterday. Nice and sweet. I was just thinking the other day while dh was still deciding on colors that there is really a lack of real colored cars on the road. I also have a white car, but its due to the lack of nice color choices offered by the manufacturer. Why are there so few real (not the metallic dulled down versions) of yellows, red, blues, purples, greens? I mean you see a few of them here and there but definitely not a lot. Wouldn't it be something to have bright strong colors? Colors of the rainbow? I think it would be make winter time a lot less dreary and the springs and summers even brighter. Imagine going out to the parking lot and seeing colors. I was listening to NPR and heard a little segment discussing this very issue. Somehow the cars in NY are mostly black and the ones in Los Angeles (and greater CA) mostly whites, beiges, silver, (non colors that just blend into the environment). Anyhow, enough huffing and puffing.

dye-o-rama meme

Specific to this swap:

Your favorite colors? orangy red, burgundy, turquoise, amethyst. I also love yellow on walls but not on me.

Preferred yarn weight (Fingering, Sport, DK, maybe even Worsted)? Fingering or sport.

Do you prefer solid or multicolored yarn? multicolored.

If your buddy is able to do so, would you like a variegated, self-striping, or self-patterning yarn? I like variegated, but haven't tried self patterning. I'm not really into self-striping.

Would you be interested in a wool blend sock yarn (nylon, tencel, silk, acrylic, alpaca, etc.)? I'd prefer high percentage wool, so as long as its at least 60% wool and something else thats good.

Imagine the perfect colorway. What would you name it? I'm not that great with naming things. Hmm... something to do with nature?

What was the biggest appeal to you for joining this dye-along? The surprise element. Not knowing what I'll get and surprising someone else.

General yarn/fiber questions:

Have you dyed yarn/fiber before? Yes

If so, what’s your favorite dye and method? Dyeing in the crock pot, immersion dyeing. I'm going to try painting on roving today or tomorrow.

Do you spin? Yes

Have you knit socks before? Yes

Do you use sock yarn for just socks or in other patterns too? Shawls as well.

What are some of your favorite yarns? Koigu, lorna's laces, noro

What yarn do you totally covet? I go through stages... I don't have one right now

Favorite patterns? Something with cables, lace

Any pattern you would love to make if money and time were no object?

Favorite kind of needles (brand, materials, straights or circs, etc)? Addi turbos circs (only kind I use)

If you were a specific kind of yarn, which brand and kind of yarn would you be? Noro silk garden?

Nothing to do with knitting/yarn/fiber in any way but seemed kinda fun:

Do you have a favorite candy or mail-able snack? Hmm... I have food sensitivity issues so I don't really eat candies. I like nuts, and I'm really into tea (herbal) right now.

What’s your favorite animal? I don't have a favorite animal. I love animals

Do you have pets? What are their species/names/ages? I have 3 chickens (Nancy, Hillary, Eleanor -1 yr) , a cat (meow-tzi, 7-8 yrs), fishes(2-1/2yrs) and thinking about getting some french angora bunnies.

If you were a color what color would you be? I guess thats different from your favorite color. I'm thinking milk chocolate brown, bluish green.

Tell me the best quote you’ve ever heard or read. 'Demonstrate the power of love, not the love of power.'

I've been spending a lot of time cleaning up the backyard. I restained all the patio furniture. And thus not a lot of time left for spinning or knitting. Here's a picture of the green and pink singles. Too much twist in the yarn. But I set the twist to see if that might help. It helped a little, but just too much twist in the yarn. I wonder if I can still ply it now? I really need more practice spinning worsted weight singles without too much twist.


And here's more progress on must have. I screwed up the cabling on the right hand upper corner. I was about to say its not that obvious, but it is. To frog or not to frog...

My acid dye arrived. So hopefully I'll have time this weekend to try it out. Some color combos I'm thinking about: pink/white/brown; turquoise/white/brown.
On the spinning wheel right now are some fingering weight singles of the orange and turquoise BFL.


I also posted my tea stash here. And hi to my knitters tea swap pal :) and my dye-o-rama pal!