A Little Knitting, a Little Dyeing

This past weekend has been very enjoyable. It's always nice to have a 3 day weekend. Anyway, here is what I have been doing lately.





This is the second skein of 50/50 wool/silk blend from Carolina Homespun. At first I dyed it a bright green that I did not really like. I then overdyed with Black Cherry Kool-Aid and it still didn't come out the blood red I was hoping for. But I figured that overdying it a third time was too much. The yarn is still 50/50 wool/silk so I'm not giving this away. I think I'll warm up to it eventually but for now in the stash it will go.



I also finished my Lorna's Laces socks. The pattern is from the Harmony Guide: Cables & Arans. I usually like trying new stitches on socks because I could never get bored of socks and plus they are so quick.

I also got a package from a yarn swap over at Ravelry. A lovely woman named Kathy from the east coast sent me many patterns and stitch markers but this was my favorite thing:



Good plain ol' sock yarn from Regia. I think these will be for me (because I'm selfish and the colors are so nice). Maybe I'll make it into a baby hat for my friend. Who knows!

Lastly, I have finally started the Clapotis.





Just to let you guys know, this is my first time EVER making this pattern. I only have two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport and decided that a scarf would be best for now. I like the pattern. It's not as boring as other people have said (maybe it's because I'm doing a scarf and not a full wrap). Either way, I'm thinking about doing the full wrap version later on this year. I have some yellow mohair that I scored while traveling in Argentina a couple years back. I know mohair will be a bitch in terms of ease in dropping stitches but I can't see myself making a vest or sweater out of mohair and I can't give this yarn away. We'll see.

That's all for now. I'm working on some extra curricular activities right now that have nothing to do with knitting and more to do with my life. Details later. Have a good week everyone!

Knitting and the Election Year

This year is a presidential election year in the United States of America. No I'm not going to go on a tirade about who you should or should not vote for because I don't want to alienate any of you guys. Besides, this blog is about knitting and you already get enough political news from the bias American media everyday anyway.

Some time ago I was imagining what would happen if the future First Lady (I only say this because it doesn't look like Hillary Clinton is going to win the Democratic nomination, also I do not think that her husband Bill actually knits) loved to knit. Would there be some type of legislation past catering to the yarn industry? Would there be national knit alongs or weekly Stitch 'n Bitches at the White House with all of her political friends sipping tea and munching on expensive cookies and biscuits? At state dinners, would you see her knitting under the table as her husband addresses the crowd with an eloquent speech? Will she demand that the National Census include the question "Are you a knitter?" and then use that information to make sure that every knitter in America has a yarn store no farther than 50 miles away from their domicile? These are things I wonder about.

Do you think it would be a bad thing if the First Lady enjoyed knitting as much as we did? Just a thought.

Some Updates

Hey guys! Hola! Como estan? Anyway, I've been doing a lot lately. To make this easier on all of us, I'll let the pictures do the talking.



A co-worker and I this past weekend went to a alpaca shearing at a local farm. She, her two children, and I had a delightful time there, learning about the animals, petting them, and oogling at the great yarns and fibers they had. Unfortunately, I didn't buy anything there, but I'm glad I know about this place because I could always go back in the future to purchase something.

After the alpaca farm, my friend took me to an undiscovered yarn shop further up the road. I'm not sure they have a website but I know I would not have recognized this place if she had not taken me there. The selection was impressive. Lots of hand dyed yarns like Noro and Green Mountain Spinnery. Their sock yarn, unfortunately, was not the prettiest stuff. Still it's great to know that I have a yarn store this close to my house (like 20 minutes close to my house). This is what I got:



Some Fortissima sock yarn.



And some roving. In which my friend later taught me to spin into yarn.




I also bought some orange roving which I spun first. I figure if I buy two colors that contrast well, I could ply the two singles and make a barber pole effect. I've been interested in spinning for a while now and one of my New Year's resolutions was to learn how to spin. As you can tell the yarn is terrible, but I really enjoy this new avenue I'm going on right now.

Oh yeah, I also did some Kool-Aid dyeing.



Being this was my first time dyeing yarn, I must say that this Kool-Aid thing can become addicting. IT'S SO EASY!!! I say if you're interested in dyeing yarn, Kool-Aid is a great starter. Plus if you have kids, you don't have to worry about harmful chemicals (but I think Kool-Aid is unhealthy to drink so that last statement may be disputable). Anyway, so the yarn used is something new, sold only at Carolina Homespun called Nature's Palette Silk and Wool Lace-Weight by Hand Jive Knits. I wasn't able to get it in the color I wanted but they did have the cream so I bought two skeins and dyed up one of them. What do you think?

Let me know what you guys are doing. Adios tejedores! Bye knitters!