Playing with blog pages

Pages! Yay!!

I've been playing about with the new pages feature on blogger and have added two new tabs under the header. Just playing for the moment but do tell me what you think. The layout format is still limited and I had to give up trying to get lots of little pictures into a grid and go for a mosaic instead, but for now, it's just nice to have separate pages and clear up the sidebar a bit. I also ditched having three columns so we are back to everything being on the right again. Force of habit maybe but it feels more comfortable and less crowded now.

Is there anything you would like to see on a separate page to make it easier to find? I haven't done any tutorials per sae but there are some posts that have more of a how-to feel to them. Hmm, maybe I can see if there are enough for a page of their own. I've also been thinking about putting my new dyed yarns on a shop page here instead of Etsy - once I get back into my stride again, that is:-) The idea would be to have a shop update on a regular basis, say the 1st of every month if there is enough interest. What do you think?

Since I've spent most of my time playing online today, not much knitting has been going on but my new cheap and cheerful aranweight magenta yarn has arrived - Yay! The photo above is from the shop site and is a little pinker than the real thing but you get the jist - deep, rich, intense colour!! I got 2x400gm balls of this wool/acrylic mix with each 100gms= 200metres so I can choose a jacket or a long cardi with this amount. It's such a lovely deep, purple magenta too so it's going to be very scrummy - yes, I'm itching to cast on despite my resolution to finish all my outstanding projects but it's a bit cold out there so it's just the right weather to cast on a warm, chunky knit, don't you think?

I'll take some better photos of the yarn tomorrow and show you some pics of what I'm thinking of knitting. Maybe I'll have enough left over to knit a pair of magenta mittens like these ones!!

Am I very sad for being so excited over scrummy, deliciously coloured magenta yarn? Nah:-) You all understand! Back tomorrow with some magenta madness! toodlepip:-)

Yarns for sale!!

Well, I didn't mean to be away so long! Between dyeing and knitting my cowl I've been a busy bee:-) But I've got some new yarns finished, lots more bright semi-solids planned, some designing going on and a finished knitted cowl to show you this week, so its all been happening lately!

But I've also got to the point where I'm running out of blank yarn stock so I'm going to have to use what I have left to sell so I can afford to buy more - and keep dyeing! So, from now on - including today - all yarns I post will be for sale. Each skein will be $28 and I will try and work out a paypal button to make life easier. ETA: yarns now available in my new Etsy shop - Ultraviolet Yarns

Please note there is only one skein of each colourway of today's yarns so it will be on a first come first served basis. 
ETA: All sold now-sorry!

But I'm happy to dye anything in the yarn gallery in as many skeins as you need - just contact me to let me know what you fancy.

'Sweetgrass'

First up, a lovely subtly variegated grassy green I've called 'sweetgrass'. This is a bit yellower than the emerald I knitted my Veyla mitts with but I really like it. I'm thinking nice subtle tonal stripes for socks or autumn mitts would work well.

'Rich Plums'

And my favourite of this bunch, the rich plums mix - definitely my kind of colour palette this one.  It's a more subtle blend of harmonious plummy tones giving quite a soft feel overall. This would go with most of my autumn/winter wardrobe!

'Cranberry and Plums'

And then, using the same colours as the plums, I painted this skein with definite bands of colour rather than blending the tones. Quite a contrast - much clearer and more definite colour sections. It will be interesting to see how this knits up in contrast to the other one.

I've also added a yarn gallery on Flickr which has all the colour schemes I've dyed so far to the sidebar on the right - near the top - due to a request to see them all together. I'll keep adding all my new yarns here so you can find them easier than trailing through blog posts:-)

Oh, its all exciting! I've actually taken that first step!! Wish me luck!

Test knitting

Today I received a very lovely parcel in the post - the yarn for my test knitting project, some gorgeous soft Rowan baby alpaca. I can't describe how lovely this is, just heavenly:-) Its so soft to the touch it makes you realise just how brash and hard all those other yarns have been:-))) And I thought cashmerino was nice. This is on another level entirely and after I stopped fondling it :-), I got around to knitting with it - sigh, perfection! Yum, yum, yum!

So what am I test knitting? It's a lovely cowl pattern by designer Karen Scott called Cornflower Cowl full of lovely cables and twisted stitches and I'm enjoying every minute of it. I think this alpaca is spoiling me!! How will I go back to my acrylic stash now!!! But not just providing me with this yummy yarn to test knit with, Karen also included some of her lovely stitch markers for me as a gift - aren't they lovely? Especially for socks which is perfect as the normal ones are a major pain being far too big and getting in the way all the time.

A close-up for you. I love the little heart on the left:-) Do you think Karen knows about my love of pink? It came in a bright pink mail bag, wrapped in bright pink tissue paper and the stitch markers were in this pink organza bag with a pink ribbon!! A lovely way to start the day. Thank you so much Karen!! There was another small gift too......

.....but it didn't last long enough for the photo shoot:-))

A river runs through it - and a little bit of knitting:-)

Woke up this morning to the words 'the shed is flooded......' Whaaa....whaaaat?!' I dozily replied. How, what, why? Well, that certainly woke me up this morning I'll tell you! Grabbed some messy working clothes, donned my welly boots and slogged up to the shed, through boggy puddles which, it transpired, were caused by the river running out of the shed door. 'Oh...... (substitute a big sweary word -or two -here).

I wish I had been more with it to take some pics - or a video, but that may have had to be edited:-) - to show you just how awful it was. Over two inches of water deep with water running out of the back wall along the full length of the shed about a foot up from the floor. Running out? More like pouring literally through the blocks. On further investigation, it seems there is a new drainage ditch running along the back of our sheds in the field behind, which isn't abviously draining. Well, yes, it's draining, but following the path of least resistance, which seems to be through our shed and down the slope of our garden towards the house. And still the rain keeps on filling the drainage ditch up........

Poor shed, it was so nearly dry inside and ready for the electrics. Sigh! Maybe its just as well I hadn't got them done yet with that amount of water pouring in. And at least I had tidyed it so not much was actually on the floor to be damaged. I'm looking really hard for a silver lining .....

Anyway, back to knitting. That has been slow going as I've been tidying like mad for my parents visit this week. They are staying for three days and I had to make a space in my spare room/workshop - major job with a lot of shifting of my 'stuff':-) - for them to sleep in. But it all looks lovely and tidy now.

But on to the knitting. My first christmas project is Durrow designed by Jodi Green. This is for John - but its okay, he knows about it so I can blog about it safely:-) It is mostly a 4x2 rib for the body with an intricate cable on the sleeves - lovely. So perfect tv knitting. I've knitted about 14" of the back so far and I will start shaping - small size - at 17". Not bored so far with the rib pattern as it's not quite as monotonous as stocking st:-) but enough that I sometimes switch off and then find I've made a mistake inches down. I'm hoping after laddering to pick up all these stitches, blocking will be very forgiving!

The yarn is an wool/acrylic mix by Robin -75% acrylic and 25% wool  - and comes in big 400gm balls. It feels nice to work with and has a tweedy look to it which is making the larger areas of knitting more interesting and breaking up the solid colour nicely. Each 400gm ball has 800 metres of yarn so I think two balls should be enough to cover it!

But can't wait to get to the cables as it seems a very interesting pattern - more celtic swirls that regular cable structures. Well, I'll have to wait and see - if I can manage to be patient till then! I may not have a lot of blogging time over the next few days as my computer is in the 'guest bedroom aka workshop' but maybe I will have made more knitting progress by then:-) It's easy to knit and talk at the same time, don't you think?!

Noro kureyon sock yarn

Today my lovely yarn arrived in the post - not the Adriafil baba for my Urchin however. That is still somewhere on its way. But this lovely sock yarn for some stripey socks. I was smitten by some mad greeny/blue stripey socks I saw knitted up and although I tried to get the same colourway, it was all sold out. But to be honest, all Noro is lovely! I don't normally treat myself to the very expensive yarns but I really wanted to try this sock yarn out.

From the front, these yarns look muted, as if they are all subtle colours and tones but look inside the end and it holds a full spectrum of yummy colours. Much more rainbow like. I bought these two colourways seeing a knitted swatch at Pavi yarns but I also saw some knitted socks in these colourways too so it gave me a good idea of how these are going to turn out. The top one is colourway 92 and the second, colourway 95.

I also discovered to get the lovely stripes I want I will have to knit one stripey band using the outside end of yarn and the other from the inside end. That way the stripes will always contrast. How I will then match the socks to each other will remain to be seen. I imagine I won't have enough yarn to be totally accurate so maybe I should just go for deliberate inaccuracy! Or use the yarn for a shawl - there are some lovely stripey kureyon sock yarn shawls. Too many choices! You'll have to wait and see what I decide.

Now one of these balls is for a present and one is for me. Can you guess which one? To be honest, knowing that I love all colour and especially all bright and contrasty together, you may be tempted to go for the first one - but no! I am actually preferring this more subtle limey green with hints of fuchia. I do appreciate tonals and complementaries too. In fact I just love colour.

When it first arrived though, I thought I'd made a bad choice for my first noro purchase. It looked so bland and I had to check that yes, these were the colour numbers I ordered. No pink anywhere and today being a dull day here, not much oomph in the colour department either. Until I looked inside. Aaah. Now that can keep a girl happy:-)

Oh happy day! Tomorrow I can be knitting some stripey socks:-) I might even have to put a hold on Urchin and I was loving knitting that. Watch this space...... If I don't return in the next few days, I've been sucked into noro sock world. Will I ever escape?! Do I want to? :-)

Urchin

Some knitting has been going on this last weekend. In fact I'm in the middle of two new projects, Urchin and the Wicked fushia vest:-) Today, I thought I'd bring you up to date with Urchin, a lovely super chunky knitted hat designed by Ysolda. It's designed sideways so you are knitting the wedges of a pie with short row Wrap & Turns (W&T) - which are more commonly found in short row heels for socks.

Have a closer look:-) the first time I saw this I thought, that yarn looks familiar, I'm sure I have something similar in my stash that would be perfect, but couldn't find it at the time so put the pattern into my file and forgot about it for a while. Recently though, I saw some lovely finished examples on Ravelry and thought hmm, yes, I never did start that, I'll see if I have any yarn that would work. And this time I did!

My first choice was Paton's blue super chunky Symphony. I used this a lot for some crocheted cloche hats and slippers a few christmases ago and I was experimenting with the chocolate colourway for my chunky glove pattern last christmas. I knitted a swatch to get gauge and it just would not work. When I reached gauge, the knitting was so loose that it was virtually lace! So back to the stash I went. Rummage, rummage. I pulled out a range of all thicknesses for this and eventually I got gauge with this super lovely Baba yarn from Adriafil - very yummy!

Yarn found, I plunged right into knitting the pattern. As usual, a lovely pattern that is very enjoyable to knit. I was steaming away with this and then realised that one ball was not going to be enough. Nope, not even with a very close margin! 5 wedges out of 8 knitted and the inevitable happened - yarn gone.

The problem with a stash is sometimes balls lose their labels and this one was label-less and bought 'somewhere' online. I thought it was a hopeless case and it was time to rip it all back and start again with another new yarn but the next day, I woke up and suddenly remembered what shop I bought it from. I had no idea the brand or how long ago I bought this, although I was estimating about three years ago? The way fashions and colours change, I wasn't expecting to be lucky but what do you know! There it was, Adriafil baba in multicoloured reds. Whew!!

So one multi-coloured red urchin can soon be finished when the postman decides to deliver my yarn..... Come on, come on! I didn't want to stop knitting this and I can't wait to start it again!

Needlefood!!

I'm so excited! My new yarn has arrived from Needlefood and it is GORGEOUS! I always look forward to actually holding the yarns and seeing all the subtleties in the colour for myself. And these are stunning. I bought Scotty's sunflower (the ochers and umbers) and Kitchen's on fire (the reds and fushias - of course:-).

They arrived beautifully wrapped with little stitch markers on a ribbon binding the top - what a beautiful idea! My own stitch markers:-)

Here's a close-up of the top of the bag and the stitch markers. The whole package is so well presented down to the last detail, it really makes you feel special and valued to get such a super pressie through the post!

Out of the wrapping, the yarn feels so soft to the touch - 80% merino, 20% Nylon. Both these skeins are 4ply/fingering weight and have approx. 352 metres per 100gms. So that should be enough for a lovely pair of socks or a small shawl. I'm beginning to see how lovely sock yarn can be in wraps and lace shawls and I think I will be torn whether to knit the fushia skein into socks, which I would love, or a wrap, which I would also love. Sigh! Choices, choices!

The colour blending close up has so many more colours to it - ochres, green/bluey/greys, red ochres, umbers, siennas - all rolled into one. I just can't wait to see this one knitted up. I will have to choose very carefully as I want all these colours to stand out in their full glory and some patterns can be too busy and kill a variegated yarn.

The Scotty's sunflower was a pleasure to photograph and I managed to get some lovely colour perfect close-ups but the fushia! I always have trouble photographing strong pinks and magentas and you would think with how often I use the colour I would have cracked photographing it! I used a polarizing filter which used to work well on my old non-digital camera but I think it was just a bad combination of poor light and - well, me! I'll have to crack this. Any suggestions welcome:-)

So this is as close to the true intensity of the colour as I could get even though the depth of colour and clarity isn't as good as I would like. But it is really bright:-) Well, it is called 'Kitchen's on fire'!! If you like to look closely at the colours before buying yarn, then it would be worth popping over to Needlefood's site to have a look at her excellent photos - and she has close-ups of all her semi solids and variegated yarns. Here's her better picture of this fushia yarn! (told you it was a lot better!)

What was also a lovely surprise was a free goodie bag with my order as it is their first month of trading. Look! Soak! I haven't tried that yet - another major excitement:-) I know, it doesn't take much, but Soak! Yay!

I also got a little lavendar bag as a moth repellant for my yarn:-) Nice touch and smells gorgeous too. I must also admit the sweeties in the background were pretty much gone by the first day - yum!

These lovely yarns came all the way from New Zealand and were only a few days in the post. And the postage was comparable to UK prices if not cheaper. The yarn prices themselves are very reasonable for a hand painted skein too. It's always easy to forget to look outside your own area for yarns as it's natural to presume it is too costly but international buying is now very competitive and very good value for money.

With all the care and attention to detail and, of course the quality of the lovely hand painted yarns themselves, I will definitely be returning when I need some more Needlefood!

Dyeing to knit

Have now finished winding all the dyed skeins into balls on the wool winder. Aren't they pretty all together? The trick has been trying to get photos that match the exact colouring of the yarn. You think it has taken perfectly, then download the pics to find a totally different shade and spend the rest of the day on photoshop trying to 'match' the colours in dismal light because it hasn't stopped raining in, oh, a month? Sorry about the moan, I'm just getting sun withdrawal symptoms (SAD). I heard a new one the other day - CRAP - consistant rain affected person! Don't know if it's real or not but it should be if it isn't!

Anyway, more close-ups of the yarn..... If you look closely to the bottom right of the picture above, you can see the purply one has lost its centre. That's because it is sneakily attached to some knitting at the time of photo. Now it is finished, blocking and drying - slowly. I wanted to try the variegated yarns to see how they looked knitted.

Ach, well, now there's a story....

Dyed the yarn - okay overdyed the purple one to death, I admit - and the water ran clear on finishing. Hooray I thought.

Dried skein.

Wound skein into ball.
Started knitting up yarn, la, la, la, la, la.

Began noticing a steadily more obvious purple stain spreading over my palms and fingers as I knitted away.

Washed hands, carried on knitting.

Washed hands, carried on knitting.

Finished knitting.

Heather verity - isn't she nice?

SUPER WASHED knitting to get rid of any excess dye. This is 100% merino wool so I tried hard not to felt the lovely knitting with too much agitation - marginally unsuccessful.

Tried vinegar, tried soap, dye decided to leave knitting rapidly and required 'gentle' rinsing, rinsing, rinsing.... hence a little felting.

As this has been knitted into a hat, it better not have any dye left in it! No-one wants a purple forehead or the colour to run in the rain!! Only joking - it won't run in the rain, can't promise no purple forehead!!

Anyways, lesson learned! It's fine to improvise and overdye for creative projects but not if you want to have prolonged contact with the skin! I'm not even thinking of this in a top!

I'll leave you with some close-ups of the dyed yarns where you can see the variegations in the ball. Tomorrow, hopefully the beret will be dry enough after it's vigorous washing to be modelled and photographed - if the light is okay and the rain stays away, just for a bit, please?