To the Lys, Finally

Thursday I visited my LYS. I love buying yarn locally, but unfortunately I do not visit nearly as often as I should. I did, however stock up whilst I was there.

The blue Berroco Vintage Chunky is destined to become an infinity scarf for my friend Mia. The panda Superwash is being divided up into mini skeins for the Blanket. For the Sausalito I have no plans. I just absolutely love it.

Last week I started dyeing mini-skeins from the Panda Superwash.

That’s a blueberry dyebath one the left and a day lily dyebath on the right. I had let the day lilies soak for a few days before starting them. The pot in the back is just the yarn for the blueberries pre-soaking in a salt water bath.

Then I tried out some sourgrass that had cropped up in the blackberry patch of the garden. I let it grow for a while and then, when I had more than enough, I harvested some.

I let it soak in a spaghetti sauce jar overnight. (I did the same with the blueberry. Then, to set it, I washed it in an ice water bath.)

They all came out like this:

The one all the way to the left is the day lily, them the sourgrass (It turned a light yellow; I swear it did!) and finally, the blueberry. Today I decided to try out some red cabbage dye. I chopped up a few leaves. Way more than I needed.

Behold; Mount Cabbage!

Then; while I was trying to get the water to simmer I puttered around, working on a few other things.

I wound some yarn.

I cleaned my new jars.

And, of course, I knitted.

Confession

I have a confession to make. I finished Podster 2.0 last Friday. So sorry for holding out on you all. Here’s the official FO photos.

Open

Closed

I was kind of waiting for the chance to ask someone to photograph my hands but I got impatient. We’ve all been super busy.

I did, however manage to start another square on the Blanket.

It’s the yarn I dyed with the mint. I love the way it looks between the blue and the purple.

 

Mabel

Last night I took advantage of my one night of this week and went to Jo-Ann Fabrics. I receive the circular of coupons and I had something in mind to use the 50%-off-on-one-item one. An electric ball winder. I was lucky and the ball winder was included in the sale.

I took her home, set her up, and christened her Mabel. That was when the fun began.

I set up Mabel and the swift on the floor of my knitting alcove; my perpetual disorganization keeps me from having much desk space. The first thing I decided to wind up was my mint yarn. I plan to use it for my next square on the Blanket. As Mabel did her thing a fair amount of difficulties arose. First, my skein was somewhat reluctant to unwind. Second the swift didn’t want to cooperate, it kept sliding around and not spinning. I might have to buy one rather than use the tinker toy one I built.

After a fair amount of cursing and mumbling under my breath Mabel produced a cake of yarn.

Glorious, is it not?

This morning I decided to try again. This time with a ball of yarn I had previously wound. Also for the Blanket.

This time it went much smoother. Must have been the swift.

Before I picked up Mabel I stepped into T.J. Maxx. There I found a wonderful box.

It’s made of rolled up magazine pages. It was so quirky felt that I should buy it. I don’t usually impulse buy, but if something is out there enough I do. Occasionally. Yarn doesn’t count. I decided it would be a better home for the Blanket yarn than my basket by my comfy chair. A box with a lid Persephone cannot get into.

I’m off to  a good start aren’t I?

And, just because I haven’t done this in a while:

Persephone Spam!

Bleacher knitting

I’ve been trying like mad to finish the Podster gloves. I would really like to get back to the Blanket. It’s calling my name… To expedite the progress I’ve been kiping nearly every day.

On Saturday I went to a local Fireworks show.

I knitted until the first strains of Angry American by Toby Keith came from the Pa system.

The right mitten at the end of the thumb gusset increases.

Teusday I KIPed at the library. I was trying to finish the right glove.

Once I finished the fingers and the thumb on the right hand I started to fix the left thumb.

I have this habit. Of not reading the entire pattern before I cast on. I had, the fist time, knit the basic thumb right in the pattern. This time I decided “I’m going to design a thumb hood.” Problem solved. When I was working on the right glove I noticed instructions for a thumb that can be opened.

Now I was unraveling to start that part over.

As I was re-knitting the thumb I realized that I was going to be short on yarn. I didn’t want to have a knot in my thumb so I tried out a trick I learned from Glenna C. the knitter who published Podster gloves. It only works if you have wool yarn. I thought mine was around 70% but I wasn’t sure.

Basically you felt your yarn ends together with your um… saliva.

The first try I accidentally tried to felt together my working yarn with the end of yarn on the cuff of the left glove I had out as a visual reference. Oops

The second time it worked perfectly.

That night some friends and I went to a local baseball game.

I was happily doing some more bleacher knitting. We were winning. I even joked I’d have the right mitten top done that night with only finishing to do after that. I was about to start the decreases. the downhill slide. Of course all that good Karma couldn’t last. Because then, I realized

I had two left gloves.

That’s right I had picked up stitches on the wrong side of the glove.

I frogged back to the beginning and started over. Here’s where I am now.

You may have noticed that I’m back at the library. I forgot to get another bleacher picture last night. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish them tonight or tomorrow.

Strawberry Mittens

I am pleased to introduce you to my newest design!

Strawberry Mittens

Click here to view the pattern.

It’s also searchable on Ravelry.

Let me know what you think! I’ll have more knitty news next time.