Tag: Yarn over

Karen Scarf & Dyeing Yarn

Dyeing some yarn and knitting a zebra scarf

A while ago, I’d invited my former colleague Karen out to do some yarn dyeing. We picked out some yarn (a DK zebra yarn and two merino sock weight yarns) and set those soaking. Then we needed to decide on some colours. We’d early on decided that it was mostly about playing, we wouldn’t be able to fully predict the outcome so it was mostly about seeing what would happen. The plan for Karen’s sock yarn was to make it half blue and half terracotta coloured, possibly with some speckles over the top. The terracotta was made by combining orange and brown dye and letting about half the yarn sit in that while the other half was coiled on some metal objects in the pan. It worked remarkably well and I was in love with the colour. We then put blue dye in the pot and put the other half in the dye. I look forward to seeing what it will end up being!

For the zebra, we used some blue dye stock and then added magenta and violet speckles over the top. The yarn already has partial strands of black in it, hence the name ‘zebra yarn’. We weren’t sure at all how this would turn out, but it was really quite nice. I decided to ball it up and start knitting a thin scarf. I first tried December is for Stephanie by Lorena Haldeman, but then switched to a modified January is for Karen by Lorena Haldeman. The name was pure coincidence but I did appreciate it a lot. In contrast to the original pattern, I only did one repeat of the center pattern and tried to make it more symmetrical. This meant I had a total of 23 stitches, including 2×3 edge stitches. My modifications are available here.

The last sock weight yarn ended up a mid muddy. I used a roasting bag and just added colours in. I think it included yellow, red, orange, but also some grey. The plan at the moment is to try and knit some up to see if it looks nice. If it doesn’t, I’ll overdye it with something else. No use in having yarn that won’t be used.

The day itself was lovely and I really enjoyed just trying some things to see what would turn out. It’s great to be able to play with some colours and having lovely chats with a friend.

Stormy Sky Shawl

A collection of wearable holes.

A while ago, I was going to be in the train for a few hours and needed a project to take along. I decided to use one of the new-years dying skeins of sock weight wool for a scarf. After searching through Ravelry, a few good options were identified and I settled on the Stormy Sky Shawl by Ksenia Naidyon. It’s a shawl made with four different stripes with an increase in every right side row. With stripes a maximum of 8 rows it makes it quite easy to keep track off and with sock weight yarn, it stays portable.

Counting is still difficult though, so I resorted to putting in lifelines after every stripe, so that I could easily rip back when I made a mistake or forgot to do the right increase etc. This easy solution prevented a lot of irritation, so that was a win. I think my dropped stitch stripe is different from what they show in the pattern, but it still looks good to me, so there’s that.

This was the first time that I’ve ever blocked a knit. I was first intending to actually buy proper things for it, but then the scrooge in me decided to take some shortcuts. The dollar store nearby was selling ‘pool floor mats’ for about 8 euro for 9 mats, and they look very close to lace blocking mats. Then I started nosing around my stash of supplies and found some stiff floral wire. That seemed to be fairly similar to blocking wires from the few videos I watched on the process. So I chucked the shawl in the washing machine, then threaded the wire through the edges and pinned it down on the mats. It started being much longer than wide, but the blocking made it actually turn into a neat triangle. Such a nice transformation!

I’ve yet to wear it out, but aim to do that fairly soon. I really do hope that the shape holds up, it would be a little bit sad if it started to droop. Knitting a project with the one skein like this is really quite enjoyable and because of the lace design, you can actually get a full project from that one skein. I might now make a scarf from the second skein too…

Holes

Happy new January etc.

As you may or may not know, people in the Netherlands are allowed to ignite fireworks in their own backyard and/or street from 18:00 on the 31st of December until 2:00 on the 1st of January. Being somewhat easily scared and with a severe dislike of loud bangs, you can understand my dislike of the party. However, apparently, most other people do like it. Anyways.

Way back in 2014, I finished a new sweater. The pattern, or as they call it recipe was called the eyelet yoke sweater and can be found here. I had actually completely finished the body and part of a sleeve when I decided that it really was much too big and baggy and not what I wanted. So I frogged and started again, using the very unscientific method of not knitting 1 every 8 stitches. And some calculations to get the yoke to work out.

Left the frogged version, right the current one. See the difference?

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Now, the eyelet yoke sweater sort of has its description in the name. There are eyelets in the yoke, aka holes. Once I’d finished the thing it was difficult to think of something to wear underneath, because there were holes that would show whatever was underneath. Eventually I had the brilliant idea to just wear a blouse. I own two and even though they are blue and white, I don’t think they clash with the red in the sweater. I’ve now worn it out and about, and forgot to take pictures every time, so that’s why it’s ‘late’.

Here is was after a wash, you can see on the left that the bottom is not the same length all the way round, sort of. And on the right the built-in shaping which I may have overdone a little.

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The left is the finished version of the bit with the holes, and right the frogged version. There is a little difference but not much.

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Below you can see the thing on me. Excuse the horrid lighting, it’s winter, I feel like I’m in perpetual darkness with all the storms, rain and other light-blocking weather features.

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And this is my ravelry project.