I started with this....



(8 ounces of Romney top - it started as one long strip, and I halved it, and halved the halves, and halved the half-halves...)

Combining them with some off-brand egg dye kits, I ended up with...
( ooh, pretty colors... )



All kinds of pretty dyed fiber.

But wait, you might ask - doesn't the standard egg dye kit include a purple tablet? Yes, yes it does....and that was the one that failed spectacularly but not unexpectedly, because purple eggs tend to fail in the same way.

( The saga of Purple Fail )

Socks, done, and in progress:



( +2 )

I set up the remainder of the dye-"pots" last night (five baking dishes with fleece and off-brand egg dye, four of which worked nicely, one of which may have failed spectacularly but not unexpectedly and if you think about it you can guess which color it was from that...), and tried the same thing as the night before - in the oven at 200 for a couple hours, then shut it off and let it cool slowly overnight.

Something in the process seems to have said "umm, no". When I turned it off, I noticed that the liquid wasn't even at a simmer, so I stuck a thermometer in one of them - it was only up to 150, which struck me as a bad sign - but I didn't think the green had gotten much hotter than that, so I let it go. There was still free dye in all the dishes this morning, especially in the blue (which had twice as much fleece, and so two dye tablets) - so I've asked Hubby, unexpectedly home from work, to turn the oven back on for a couple more hours. Hopefully it'll take up...or if it doesn't, maybe it's done. If there's leftover dye, I've got more undyed wool around...

I brutally ripped my Romney top into eight pieces. On the down side, the pieces didn't fit well into the Mason jars (or maybe they will when wet? I'd really rather do them all at once...) so I did one test sample in a glass baking dish, with the following observations:

1) You're kind of guessing what color dye you're going to end up with. I thought I had blue for my test sample, but it turned out to be green.

2) The color of the dye liquor is not necessarily the color of the dyed goods. In the dish, it looked like a fairly dark slightly bluish-green, and I was a little worried, but it came out a pretty good spring green in the end.

3) An hour and a half in the oven at 200 degrees is not enough to exhaust the dye bath. On the other hand if you turn the oven off when you can't keep your eyes open any longer, by the time you wake up in the morning it will be ready to go (and cooled to room temperature for a bonus!)

4) If I make a habit of this I'm going to end up with a lot of egg dippers and white crayons.

5) The prospect of making self-striping yarn by starting with several individual pieces of top in different colors instead of managing to control the color placement from a handpainted top feels like cheating.

I did take pictures, but didn't have time to get them off the camera this morning. If I have a chance I'll post them later this week. I'm going to do the others tonight, hopefully, but I also have to go to my FIL's and pick cherries...

It occurred to me that it would be really, really easy to make something not-entirely-unlike Noro Kureyon; I've even got a skein of it in my stash that I could use as a reference. Thinking of dividing my fiber into eighths, dyeing seven random colors (which I think I could do in quart Mason jars in the oven? put them in at the lowest setting in a water bath?) (and yes, I think the random would work; as noted, one of the lovely things about PAAS dyes is that they all kind of coordinate) and leaving the eighth white. From there, figure out a color sequence, aiming for two repeats over the length of the yarn.

Goal Project: Mitered Squares Scarf. It calls for 300 yards of worsted weight yarn, and I think I can spin that from eight ounces of fiber...and a scarf will be forgiving of both gauge and yardage, yo.

I pulled the baggie of "good for beginners" wool out of my stash today - the first fiber I ever bought, even before I had my spindle - and I discovered that what I had was not six ounces of "domestic wool", but eight ounces of New Zealand Romney. 46s, which is even the fine end of Romney. Score! (I'm not sure that at the time I would have known what "Romney" meant...and the most prominent statement on the label is "46s wool", and I didn't know what that meant either. :) ) This might change my plans on what to do with it, though. Romney is not really crimpy, so it likes to be spun thick, which would rule sock yarn out - on the other hand that's enough for two pairs of socks. Teh Google is not telling me what Romney likes to be used for, so it's time to go seeking for advice.

I haven't opened the baggie yet, but it looks like a fairly nice top with minimal VM in it. I'm still planning to dye it with PAAS dyes; I guess I'd better figure out what I want to make out of it before I dye it, though, because that'll make the difference between "pick the blue tablet out of every box I've got" and "pick six at random, they all go together (which is one of the awesome things about egg dye kits), and go wild".

I just signed up for the one started by Star Athena (apparently there are two Tours de Fleece) - after seeing Yarn Harlot's posts last year, it sounds like a good challenge for myself, especially in light of my goal of Conquering Spin Fear. Only problem is, it runs July 4-July 26, thus overlapping substantially with my Deadline Socks. (On the bright side, the person the Deadline Socks are for likes short socks; getting them done early is not out of the question.)

The guidelines suggest spinning every day from July 4 through July 26, with rest days on July 13 and July 20, with a special challenge on July 22. Since I don't necessarily have gobs of time (and I'll be off to a slow start, what with the Deadline Socks), I'm going to stick with the project I'd already "assigned" myself: turn the bag of "generic wool" into sock yarn and dye it. For the challenge, I've got about an ounce of silk hankies...

Hrm. Dye, then spin, or spin, then dye? I was planning to use Easter egg dyes...I've seen a method for doing this in a glass baking dish. Might depend on what kind of shape the wool is in.

Last time I went to Knit Night I decided to stop knitting with the frustrating needle out of my interchangeable set - the transition from the cable to the needle is very abrupt, so you had to wiggle the stitches over a lump. Knit A Round sold me a Hiya Hiya needle, which is working out nicely - it's not as flexible as the Susan Bates cable, but it doesn't need to be. On the other hand I got a 20" and probably should have gone with 24"... I looked at some other Boye circs over the weekend, and even their fixed circular needles have the lump at the transition point - it's not a big deal on a larger needle, but I don't know if I'd buy one smaller than about size 5.

I've got both socks on the two needles right now. First time I've done two socks on two circs, and I've found myself wondering whether any advantage in doing them both at the same time is outweighed by yarn management problems; I lose a little time in untangling the yarn on every round. They're still basically twins, but I wonder if I made them too loose; when I tried one on the other night the heel felt a little baggy. Guess we'll see when they're done.

Recently, the library let me borrow...
Mason Dixon Knitting Outside The Lines, by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne - I liked it even better than the first one. There were things in it that were not rectangles...which I think was the point. :) And the textual bits had me gasping for breath at some points (e.g. the page of advice for Knitting for Children Who Have Attained The Age Of Reason - which led into the awesomest sweater anyone has ever thought to put on a tween boy). Most of the adult garments were stronger fashion statements than I prefer to make, alas. (I think my boobs would not benefit from having knitted text on them.) If I had infinite shelf space, I would probably own both this book and its predecessor because Kay and Ann just crack me up so much...as it is, it might be checked out of the library repeatedly.

Mother-Daughter Knits, by Sally Melville and Caddy Melville Ledbetter - this was one of those books that really frustrated me, because the technical information (on fitting sweaters for length) was amazingly good but the patterns were so Not Me it wasn't even funny. I wish I could go to Sally's class on this to get the technical stuff as a handout; it would be worth the potential humiliation of making a life-sized paper doll of myself. (And the funny thing is, the more I look at the patterns, the more I think "Well maybe..." about some of them.) Again, probably not going to buy it - but I will check it out again when I get to the point of actually attempting to make a sweater for myself.

I worked the first sock to the end of the third full row after rejoining the instep. (Cat has given us a weird heel to go with a weird foot. Cat, you're weird, but you're a genius.) It looks too big, but it fits comfortably. On the other hand I think I made the wrong size. Grr.

I set the first sock aside at that point, and started the second one. I did indeed manage to set myself up to make close-enough-to-identical-to-count socks! And that took some doing, let me tell you - it's not like the Austermann Step yarn with clear divisions between grey-teal-blue-black. My plan is to work this one also to the end of the third full row after rejoining the instep, and then work both socks together to the end, so that they both end up the same height. Goal is still June 17, and I don't think that's as crazy as it sounds.

I have the measurements for sexyscholar's feet, so I can start on her socks on time. Her son also wants a pair of socks, so I measured his feet too. So does Eldest Niece, who might be getting yarn and a lesson instead of socks. She wants my Hedwig yarn, and she will have to make that worth my while...

I find myself wondering about the Harry Potter yarn - why no Hermione? Why no Bellatrix? And, because this one seems just absolutely obvious - why no Dobby?

I did some shopping during Dizzy Sheep's Memorial Day Spin-Off...and the yarn came yesterday.

( Cut for yarn pr0n )

Still waiting on my autographed photo of Dizzy with the mountain of packages. :) And I'm curious about a cultural thing, maybe? Hubby informs me that if you happen to catch Bags O' Crap on woot.com, you buy the maximum of five. You just do. But even though the limit on Bags O' Spin was five (I suspect they licensed some software from woot...), people seemed to be buying three. A geek thing vs. a knitter thing? A girl thing vs. a boy thing? Who knows.

Queen of Cups, by Nathania Apple
Yarn: Steinbach Wolle Strappaz
Needles: #2 DPN
Learned: The layperson can't tell the difference between a stockinette heel and a "heel stitch" heel at first glance.
Also learned: I need to make my heel flaps a little taller than I think I do.

( See the Dumbledore socks inside. )

I went to take a look at the Victoria Sampler freebie page to see if their biscornu patterns were suitable for a beginner. Which I guess they are, as long as the beginner either has Substitution Fu or a willingness to spend money on silk threads. But. Dammit. There was a link in the sidebar to this - the Heirloom Stitching Sampler.

It is gorgeous. It would be meaningful to me. I was overcome with longing and joy for merely having laid eyes on it. It would be hours of stitching with soft, soft silks, doing nifty specialty stitches...

...and the cost of the leaflet and thread pack is in the neighborhood of $100. Holy buzzkill, Batman. Crashing back to earth come I...alas. Once again, I discover that Victoria Sampler designs are not mine to stitch, but only to admire from afar.

- The stripes don't look like the swatch in the slideshow. Either that, or I'm not as far through a repeat as I thought I was.

- I think the toe I'm using - the "Moccasin Toe" as described in New Pathways for Sock Knitters - will be my new favorite toe-up toe. Or maybe the "Pontoon" version. I get to knit about another inch before I need to decide which way I'm going to do it, and that should be enough to try it on and see which way I like better.

- Knitting on two circs is nifty, and I seem to get a lot less laddering at the intersections - the flexibility of the cables, especially the Susan Bates cable, I think makes it a lot easier to just jimmy the stitches into place to keep the tension right. Only complaint: the place on the Boye kit cable where it expands right before the tip attachment point is sudden enough that I need to manually jimmy a lot of the stitches over it in every round, and the Susan Bates may be developing a snag.

- I need to knit a lot faster if I'm going to get two pairs of socks done by the Harry Potter movie premiere.

Queen of Cups: Done. On my feet. Made one big booboo. Hubby didn't spot it when I asked him to examine the socks, so I think it'll be okay.

Dumbledore sock yarn: Wound; if I draw from the outside I may get identical twins. Swatched. On #2's I got 34 stitches/4". I'm using #3's, which was closer to 30/4".

Numbers for Cat Bordhi's "Riverbed" pathway master pattern: calculated. Of note: I officially do not have fat ankles, although it may be close.

Judi's Magic Cast On: Easier to do with needles in the hand than it looks on paper. Kind of nifty.

I've decided to give socks on two circs a try - I had a #3 circ, and can construct a completely different-colored one from my Boye kit. I'm not sure I'm ready to try two socks at once, though.

Galina Khmeleva's article on Orenburg lace in this month's Piecework led me to wonder: what is the difference between a "gossamer" and a "warm shawl"? Teh Intarwebz had surprisingly little useful information on that topic - but there were references all over the place to her book: Gossamer webs : the history and techniques of Orenburg lace shawls, and my library actually had a copy. The book was informative (although it never did directly answer my question, except to mention that the warm shawls were knit with heavier yarn), covering the traditions involved in making and selling the shawls, the women who make them, and the work that goes into it. (Once again I'm flabbergasted by the amount of work put out by genuine "production knitters". I feel slow and inadequate, but that's pretty normal.) A big chunk of the book is taken up with the charts for a single, fairly large, shawl.

While I was at it, I also checked out A Gathering Of Lace, maybe the classic book of modern lace knitting - I'd seen a reference to it for a technique for starting a circular shawl without leaving a hole. Looking through the book did nothing to tone down my urge to knit a lace shawl - and now I have so many more to pick from! It's mostly a collection of patterns, but, with the exception of some of the sweaters, they're absolutely timeless. I might have to get my own copy; I had to get it through inter-library loan, so it's not even like I can go back and check the book out again whenever I want. And then I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with a half-dozen lace shawls...

I'm willing to at least give the ol' college try to pretty much any technique, but I usually draw the line at scissors. Which is why I'm nervous about the thought that keeps flickering through my brain...

"You know, Cathy, that extra stripe you wanted to put in the fish hat? Instead of frogging that far, you could put lifelines in two rows, cut the yarn between them, and ravel that bit out, then just graft the whole thing back together..."

Am I on drugs? Or could that actually work?

I've kind of got a deadline project now: can I finish five socks between now and July 15? I think I need to finish Queen of Cups, and then get cracking on the Harry Potter sock yarn so it can be done by the movie premiere. I wonder if this would be a good opportunity to learn a couple of the architectures from New Pathways for Sock Knitters - they'd still kind of count as "plain", but at least I'd get to learn something new from the experience. I just haven't seen that many patterns that aren't Jaywalkers that look good in the wacky wacky sock yarn.

I also think it's time to take out Tradewinds again. I don't have a deadline for that, but it'll be a nice break from manic sock knitting.

And I need to get the edging done for my pants - ideally I'd like to crochet it, but I haven't found a lace trim that grabs me. Maybe one of the edgings from the Irish crochet book on antiquepatternlibrary.com? Maybe.

If I have time...conquer Fear Of Spinning. Use the baggie of "Beginner Wool" to try to make sock yarn; I know I've got plenty of extra of that. Dye it with Easter Egg dyes. Voila.

I'm putting the fish hat (needs some frogging to work another color in) and Hubby's scarf (I'll pick it up again in August so it'll be done by scarf season) on the back burner.

I placed an order with Dizzy Sheep on May 7. It was in my mailbox on May 9. Their envelope-stuffer has it together.

Now I'm off to find something that is a) not a plain sock, and b) not Jaywalkers, to make out of a kind of busy self-striping yarn...

I have a lovely fiber stash. Some silk, some painted braids from Yarn Hollow, a big ol' mess of Romney, some llama-wool mix, a couple other bags and balls of wool. I go through and pet it sometimes.

I'm afraid to spin any of it.

With some of it, it's because I'm not sure what to do with it; buying the fiber in 4-ounce braids is kind of limiting, and I think I've failed in stash management if all I do is turn a braid of fiber into a skein of yarn I have no use for. (Note to self: next time buy two or three in the same colorway? :) ) The immediate thing coming to mind is socks...but that leads into the next problem:

What if I screw it up? What makes a good sock yarn? What if I fail to achieve that goal? If I try to spin the llama-wool into a two-ply lace yarn and instead end up with cat barf, will I cry and pronounce myself a failure? Or if my handspun socks get holes in them and felt down to nothing the first time I wear them? The more I learn about spinning, and especially the more I learn about yarn construction, the more hesitant I become. For every "right" outcome, there's an infinite number of wrong ones...

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained" is a good maxim to live by - but it's rough if you're inherently a coward.