I spent most of the weekend on the couch in front of the fan, drinking lots of ice tea, reading and knitting my Tile Sock.
Yeah, you read that right, Sock, as in singular. Summer of Socks 2008 started and this is what I have to show for it. Not a pair of socks which is the intent of the group but I felt I should make an initial post to show I'm participating again this year. I have three other second socks in progress; if you knit one sock in Springtime and the second sock in the Summer do you qualify for a half entry in the cumulative count?
Socks are my traveling and meeting projects; when a pattern needs more attention than I can give in a meeting, I'll start another sock to become the traveling project. Right now I have four socks in progress, usually it's only two; one in a traveling bag and one in the car. I live in fear of getting stuck in traffic, finishing my socks and having to sit there with nothing to do. I don't wait well without knitting to keep me distracted.
My spinning wheel is downstairs in the coolest part of the house so I spent the warmest part of the afternoon down there finishing my Orangecicle batts. This yarn came out very nice
6 ounces/250 yards - enough for a scarf?
Last post I left out this yarn I finish last week.
The fiber, Super Wash Merino Roving, was dyed in a black bag in the sun. The heat build-up in the black plastic sets the dye; no further heat processing is needed. I soaked the fiber in clear water then drained it, layed it out in the bag, sprayed the top side with white vinegar and blobed (does the past tense of "blob" have one B or two?) on five different colors of red, pink and magenta. Tightly closed the bag, left it in the sun for five hours, then went out turned it all over, sprayed vinegar on top, closed up the bag and gave the fiber a very light downward press to help distribute the dye. Left the bag in the sun the rest of that day and three or four hours the next day. Then rinsed and rinsed and rinsed - red is a hard color to rinse clear. Good thing it was superwash or it would have felted with all that rinsing.
I just left the bag outside overnight; afraid it would cause too much mixing if I moved it. Have to say that I would only do this with Super Wash; I'd be afraid of felting with the heat changes during the day. Anyone tried this with plain wool? Did it felt?
My next experiment in sun dyeing will be with blues.
2 comments:
Wow, that orange yarn looks so squishy yummy! Good summer yarn colors for the heat, they remind me of sherbet.
Love the sock! It looks like fun to knit. I bet you could use that pattern as a way to use up bits and pieces of sock yarn.
The yarns are delicious! I love heathery yarns made from batts.
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