Monday Morning Mirth
I recently received my new phone book – and imagine my surprise to find out that indeed
Knitting is NOT the New Yoga…
Friday, January 20, 2006
New Threads FRIDAY!
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c’est bonne
ChicKami
Pattern: ChicKnits
Designer: Bonne Marie Burns
Yarn: Rowan *Kidsilk Spray*
Color: #572 Pebbles
Gauge: 20sts/28rows over 4″
Needles: #5 & #7
Type: Fusion
WOOT! The first Finished Sweater of 2006! Just in time for a weekend romp – the Kidsilk Haze ChicKami…
I have to nod ye olde noggin’ towards Spencer at Letizia’s for providing a Finishing Vibe last night @KIP. He is their barista and also a wonderful musician and previewed his new CD for us while we stitched. Very NICE! Many thanks…
I have to admit, I was a little scared to mattress stitch this – don’t know why. But of course, here’s where I venture a guess: the Kidsilk is so skinny and slippery that I thought there would be Control Issues. Well, I don’t need $$$$$’s dollars of PsychoThr to understand that I have enough Control Issues already and surely don’t need a tank top to be pushing me around.
A mere Cupcake, juice and CD later, and we had Lift-Off! WHEW!
And there was joint rejoicing in KIPville last night as well- D wore her new Lara cardi and it is DIVINE! It has inspired all of us – Corinne is already well on her way into a luscious blue one made from wool/hemp. I am so tempted – we all decided All Women Look Wonderful in BLUE! Especially the subtle handpaints these sweaters were made from.
…Speaking of Variegated Yarn – I was pretty satisfied with the color striations in the Kidsilk Spray. There was *splotching* in a couple of places – but it added, IMHO, an interesting design element overall. My favorite place was on the skinny straps where it checkerboarded neatly, on both sides. (As always, if pooling pushes your buttons, you can use two balls of yarn and knit alternate rows. I’m doing that right now on a Manos cardigan that’s in the sample stage…)
How much do I like this? SO much that I am going to make one out of #597 Jelly (GREEN!) and one from #576 Vino [Spray] and, hmm, one out of #584 Villian… The ChicKami took less than two balls. I knit it flat, instead of in the round (take stitch count -divide in two – add 2 sts to each piece for seams – VOILA! – you are in the Flat…)
[miniHAHA: bet you might know some famous SPINNERS – yo, T. Cruz!!!]
Thursday, January 19, 2006 KIPKIPKIP Letizia’s 2144 W Division 7-9p
Now that my color train is of the one track kind,
not even my Stash is safe.
Lurking in the mulitude of skeins and balls is POTENTIAL. Potentially Green. Potentially fine…
This yarn was a little something Santa left for moi last year.
This is wet Plymouth Baby Grande Alpaca, color #1830.
I used a little of it to make a cowl – then lost interest in it. QUE? The Color was fabulous but just not too flattering on me. It was a Fuschia that was too blue.
It needed to go green…
What could possibly make that brilliant pink a subtle green? Well, I needed to subract some of that blue out of it – (I tried this successfully before using Procion dyes on a cotton/acrylic blend. That result was a little more subdued because of the fiber content. Alpaca saturates strongly.) So when I mixed up the Sabraset Dyes, I used 20% less of the blue that would be required for the color I was lusting after. The end mixture was 20% Royal Blue & 80% Yellow Gold. The gold color toned down the pink as well, making it behave towards a more calm color space – a color space where it’s easy being GREEN…
…I washed and soaked the skeins thoroughly before dyeing – most important, I believe, for good dye penetration when you are *overdying* yarn or a garment that is already another color and not virgin fiber. Then, I used my big pot to dye the skeins in so there was plenty swimming room…
[miniHAHA: Too tired to knit or even WASH YOUR SOCKS? As seen in the London Edition of DAILY CANDY: sock subscription service…]