African Bee Eater

 

There is a bird called the African Bee Eater. It has plumage ranging through the teals and oranges. This is my attempt to recreate those colors.

 

 

So my attempt was not entirely successful, but I do like the colors I ended up with. I had tried to allow the colors to wick up the yarn, but that didn't work out so well.

 I had tested the colors with a t-shirt using this method and got some great results, but the yarn just didn't take up the color the way I wanted it to. It was also dry; I'm sure that had a lot to do with it.

 

In the end I pulled the yarn out and used the regular syringe method of yarn painting, and I am quite pleased with the result.

 

It was only a mini skein, so I am using it to make some accessories for my daughter and maybe her toys. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Happy Pi Day!

Just had to show my nerd for a bit a promote Pi day, 3-14!

It's been many years in the making, and I still have a ways to go (though technically I could go on forever, I've decided to stop at 45 digits). Hopefully I will find more motivation to finish this double knitting project before next Pi day.

Ravenclaw

I finished it. Began February 21st and finished March 8th. Not the most difficult project, but I think it turned out well.

Hopefully my costumer will like it!

Uroboro

 

So this is what I did this weekend. I had ordered some white wool, dyed it, and then knit the Uroboro pattern from Malabrigo Book 4.

 

The colors didn't come out well in the photo. They're a nice mix of red violet, light teal, and light blue.

 

I used regular food coloring and Wilton's cake dye in Delphinium Blue and Christmas Red. Clearly I hand painted it, but I used mostly vertical sections of color. It made for very short random repeats, but I did like the overall effect.

 

The pattern was very easy. It only took about three hours or so. The trickiest part was doing the cabling. The cabling wasn't hard, but I did it without a needle.

 

Once I weave in ends, I'll try and get a better shot or two.

Catch-Up Shawl

 

At Christmas I knit a circular shawl for my, now, future Sister-In-Law. I didn't ever put any pictures up at the time, but there it is. It's Abalorio from Malabrigo Book 4.

 

Other than that, I've been busy working on my commissioned Ravenclaw scarf , my fair isle mittens, and some swatches and other prep for the WWII sweater for my Brother-In-Law and my Moscow Coat.

 

New Project- More Fair Isle

One of my goals for learning new knitting techniques is to work my way through the Malabrigo Book 4. I like the patterns and there are all sorts of little techniques that are new to me since I haven't done much pattern work, relatively speaking, in my knitting career so far.

I have completed the Abalorio shawl and the Taracea hat. Now it's time for the Tapia mittens. I like the color work pattern, and I thought it would be a nice small-ish project between bigger ones. Or at least, I could work each mitten between the bigger projects, hopefully that will help with the second sock syndrome, or in this case second mitten.

 

 

This is how far I got last night, well, I did most of the ribbing before that. I like the overall effect of the colors, but I'm not sure if I want to use the same colors on the second mitten. Of course that will be a while from now.

 

I am using Malabrigo Silky Merino in Redwood, Lettuce, Teal Feather, and Natural. The pattern calls for five colors, but I rearranged some things since I didn't like the red/yellow combo in the book.

 

On a different note, I found a "new" way to hold my yarn. I got these baskets to hold books when I was teaching elementary school, and now I have them laying around so I use them for holding yarn and homeschool books. My baskets have holes, and I figured I could string the yarn through them and keep them a bit more organized. It worked and it didn't.

 

You can see the yarn is nice and organized in the basket, but the tangle leading to mitten has proven quite difficult to untangle. I wasn't particularly careful about how I brought my yarn into the mitten, so maybe I could have prevented this issue.
So this is the current project until I get measurements from my brother-in-law to make his WWII vest. What are you working on? I'd love to hear your stories and see your pics! 

All Done!!!!!

 

 

After all the posts, the hours spinning, the nights knitting, the couple of days worrying about buttons, it's done! Kaleidoscope is done! I now have a lovely alpaca sweater that is so warm and so soft. It has been a fun experience, but right now all I can do it just be happy that it's done and I can wear it!