Monday, February 15, 2010

Energized!

What do you do with boring black, grey and white yarn that has no life and no hope of ever being knitted?
I could give it away or trade it or ignore it for a while longer. But the most fun solution is to overdye it.
This yarn is a wool and angora blend. I have almost 5 ounces of it.



I had several leftover KoolAid colours and Easter dye colours in jars from my last dye job. I figured I might as well put those to good use.

So I handpainted it and microwaved the yarn to set the colours. And VOILĂ€!

Lots of life and energy. Now it looks like a lot more fun to knit up.
I might use this energized yarn to knit up a pair of mittens. It would be nice to match it up with a solid black.

What would you knit with it?

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Apple greens

Allready mid-february! How time flies.

I love this time of the year. You can feel that the sun is getting warmer and the days are a little longer. Don't get me wrong, I do not wish for winter to be over with as it's my favorite time of the year. I just love to see the sun shinning on that white snow!

I have been meaning to knit a cowl or scarf to go with my green coat for some time now. I bought a 100% baby alpaca hand dyed yarn by Misty Alpaca just after Christmas in shades of greens and blues specifically for that.

It's a simple cowl, alternating rows of knits and purls. A quick knit actually. I made the cowl wider on the last three inches so that it would fit lower on the shoulders and not just cover the neck area. I really love it.

Pattern: Simple yet effective by Alexa Ludeman. You can find it here on Ravelry.

I have enough yarn left over to make a matching pair of mitts.

So I casted on last night. The first mitt is moving along quite well even though I had to rip back a few rows on three occasions. The pattern leaves a lot for the knitter to figure out. The second mitt, will move along much faster.Pattern: Cruiser by Cailyn Meyer (available here on Ravelry). I plan on doing some major knitting today so I might have a picture of a completed pair by tomorrow!

Enjoy your day!