Choices

There is something extremely liberating about waking up early and then finding out I don't have to work until this afternoon. All those hours that were previously scheduled and spoken for now open up ahead of me with possibilities.



I could clean the house, or go running, or start writing a novel, or something. But I think I'll just sit with a larger-than-usual cup of tea and plow through the rest of this gusset.

(I don't think there is a flattering way of showing a sock at this level of completion - is there?)

Golden scales

Oh hello WIP Wednesday. Been a while! I've finally got something new on the needles.

My sunny pomatomus socks have been a welcome contrast to the gloom and rain over the last few days.



After spending many months on my wedding shawl with its long rows and very long repeats, this sock feels speedy in comparison. Had I started these socks after a relatively simple project, I'm sure they would seem much more difficult. Funny that. I haven't finished one pattern repeat yet, but it still feels like I am making progress.



Go see some more WIPs at Tami's blog!

Got stripes

It's wet and gray out: a good day for staying in with some super bright sock knitting. The good news is, the construction next door has been less noisy of late. Ah, peace.

Check it out - my self-striping yarn actually stripes! Success!



(Colours are wrong - it's not quite this orange in real life, and the blue is darker)

I originally intended the blue and yellow stripes to be equal width, but I didn't have two jars that were the same size. When I dyed it, I put blue dye in the smaller jar and yellow in the larger jar - as it turned out, I couldn't fit enough yarn into the blue jar. So the yellow stripes are wider. I'm okay with it.

I haven't followed a pattern so far - just CO 24 with Judy's Magic Cast-on, and increased every other row for a 60-stitch sock.

When I get to the heel, I'm going to try something different. There are a variety of heel options for toe-up other than the standard wrap&turn short-row heel, and I haven't decided which one to try. I'm considering the Fleegle heel and Priscilla Wild's No Wrap short-row heel, but will look at other options, too. Any suggestions? What's your go-to heel for toe-up socks?

(edited to add: this is the self-striping tutorial I used)

Today's Mystery

Here's my Team Sweden yarn pre-winding.



Here's the yarn wound into two balls of equal size.



Where did the extra 1 g get to?
(note: the pre-wound skein does not have any extra string tying it up)

In reality, it's probably just my argos value scale fighting with its own imprecision - while I was taking the second photo, it couldn't decide between 99 g and 100 g. Quite possibly, the same thing happened during the first photo, but I wasn't paying attention. Still, funny mysteries of the universe!

Yarn: Team Sweden?

Armed with a supply of citric acid crystals that may last me for years (provided I don't take up canning or something), I dyed some more yarn the other day! The citric acid was brilliant - no horrible vinegar fumes.



The base is 75% wool, 25% nylon, and it's not super duper soft, but did soften up after dyeing. It feels hard-wearing, so let's hope it is.



I used Wiltons golden yellow and royal blue, and Eunny Jang's tutorial for creating self-striping yarns, so I'm excited to see how it knits up. I plan to do a "vanilla" sock for the first time in my life...



Blue is darker than it appears in this picture, but the yellow is about right.

In my head I've been calling this Team Sweden, because the colours remind me of their national hockey team colours.

A Master at last

Bad blogger. Bad! In my defence, I've been busy. There are a few things I need to photograph before they can feature in posts of their own. But first:

I'm back from Quebec. I'm also back from London, ON - I finally graduated with my MLIS. I'm so glad to be finished this degree. It was really stressful, but hopefully worth it. Convocation was long and boring, as convocations tend to be, but it was also worth it. I had lots of fun catching up with my former classmates - officially qualified librarians, all!

Got hooded in a screechingly bright yellow colour, described in the programme as "lemon." Purple and yellow are fun, though.

(Hey, at least I didn't do an MBA. Their colour has the inspirational name of "drab.")

The procession at the end of the ceremony was totally the best bit, and I have some video to prove it. The university seems rather attached to traditional trappings - we even sang God Save the Queen in addition to O Canada - so I never expected this untraditional musical choice for the procession out.



Brilliant. Made my day.

Back soon with yarny goodness!

Hazards of kitchen dyeing, or: bundles of sunshine

If you dye yarn in your kitchen and you have housemates, chances are un-crafty housemates will think you are crazy. They might be right.

While I was soaking some white sock yarn in a big pot on the stove, this conversation transpired:

Housemate: I'm going to get some dinner.
Me: Okay, enjoy.
Housemate: Good luck with...er *eyes pot suspiciously* whatever it is you're... uh.. making.

I later found out she thought I was making an obscene amount of noodles. Indeed, white sock yarn in a pot might look a little like a crapload of vermicelli. Then she returned to find the big pot still full of "noodles," only now they were a vibrant shade of yellow... Good times.


Now I have bundles of sunshine and they make me super happy.

The yarn is Elann Sock It To Me 4 ply - a yarn so incredibly cheap, yet fairly highly rated, that I wondered how I'd never come across it before. This was my first Elann ordering experience, and it will not be the last. In a fit of madness I ordered 6 balls, which is enough for 3 pairs of socks. Plus shipping, it came out to just under $20 - the average cost for a hank of reputable sock yarn. At this rate, handknit socks are practically affordable. ;)



Now, I don't know how it will wear, although ravelry users suggest it's pretty good for the price. It's not the softest 4-ply ever - I won't be making any scarves out of it. But it dyed up pretty well, and I'm totally excited about dyeing more. (In truth, I dyed more today: pics forthcoming).



I used Wiltons icing dye in Golden Yellow. I didn't keep track of how much, to be honest. I kept adding until I felt like it was enough. This was also an experiment in using lemon juice as the acid. I've used vinegar before to set food colouring dye, and it has worked okay, but my current house has terrible ventilation, and my bedroom is right off the kitchen, and I hate hate hate the smell of vinegar... so I wasn't willing to try that in this house. I started out with the juice of half a lemon, and by the end I'd added the other half as well, so I hope that was enough. Apparently lemon juice is slightly more acidic than vinegar anyway, which suggests that I wouldn't need as much; I never measured the vinegar I used to use, so this comparison is meaningless to me.

Anyway. Fun experiment. Next time: green that may be slightly more neon than I intended...