Dye Pot [Attempt Three]

I'm updating from my iPad today, as my computer Is in the shop due to a stupid move on my part.  I just couldn't miss a week blogging when I've been so good this year. So please ignore any typos and the non-formatted images. 

I've been dying again. This time the focus is on "Fallen Moon Drops", a painting from 2014. I love the violets and knew this would be a good seller when the time came.  

I've tested it before and had very little luck with the violets and blues. As this painting was sold I haven't actually seen in person for awhile and for some crazy reason thought there was more teal in it, even tho the above photo is very accurate. Luckily I borrowed the painting back and finally figured out the colors. 

Using a beautiful violet watercolor paired with a fuscia watercolor and a sky blue food coloring (NOT TEAL!)  I did a couple of practice mini skeins yesterday. To my delight both turns out nice. 

The one on the left is a closer match, as the one on the right still has too much yellow. I'm thinking g the the yellow will really just have to be small drops of I don't want it taking over. But I love my blues and purples. And is r it crazy how the way you twist a skein can really affect the impact? I love how the skei stripes on the right just because of how I twisted it. 

I Am also working on a shawl design for the color way I have figured out. "Morning garden stream". It's asymmetrical and has some fun stitch variation. I can't wait to ha e it done and ready to send to testers. 

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Summer is here so Im hoping to get lots of progress I. On this dye endeavor, plus lots of knitting and painting. Anyone have any fun plans? 

~Lisa

Scrap Happy

Well I have a week of school left.  Not even that actually, one full day and three half days.  How crazy is that? It seems like I just started and now it's the end of May.  Should I be ashamed to say that I spent a good portion of my last period today looking up the patterns below? 

It being the end of May, I wanted to talk about this month's socks, which have been oh so much fun to work on this month.  So much that they are influencing the entire topic of this post and possibly a summer project for me. 

For May I decided to make a pair of "Spring Cleaning" socks, utilizing small bits of sock yarn from previous socks and shawls.  I'm using the Vanilla Latte Pattern to add a small amount of interest and it's been so much fun reaching in my bag and randomly picking a color.

Sadly, I have barely scratched the surface on my sock scrap collection, if you want to even call them scraps.  Look below and see for yourself.  Practically every color I have has slightly under half a skein left.  I must have small feet, because I usually make pretty tall cuffs.  How is this possible? Will this yarn EVER disappear?

While the scrap socks have been fun playing with complete randomness, as I look at this photo I am noticing a lot of colors that are very similar.  So much in fact that I could very easily make something that transitions between them all.  And as such, the pattern hunting has begun for a summer project using scraps!

Photo (c) Jenn Wolfe Kaiser

My first choice is, oddly enough, a crochet pattern.  I don't know, but lately I've been on a crochet kick.  And what better way to use my scraps and feed my kick (is that a thing) then the Spill Shawl by Jenn Wolfe Kaiser.  It's meant for gradiated yarns, but I could pull off the transitions pretty easily.

Photo (c) Alex Tinsley

The Bad Oyster Shawl has been on my mind again also - I made three of them already a while back - and it would be so fun to use random stripes and create a fringe, right?

Photo (c) Outland (on Ravlery)

\Dreambird is on my mind also, as I have a good amount of black sock yarn I could use and do each wing with a different sock yarn.  Again, how fun would that be?!

Photo (c) Mysistersknitter

And then there's always the influence of the knitting community that pulls me in too.  For example, the Patchwork Blanket by my blogging friend Andi has me drooling every time she shares photos.  Who wouldn't want one of these?  But I have a feeling that if I started one it would NEVER get finished!

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What do you think? I am very heavily leaning towards the Spill Shawl right now, because I really want to test my crochet skills.  Plus I like the shape a lot.  

My next post will be on the first official day of summer vacation.  Crazy right?

~Lisa

Time Flies...

... when you're having fun.  And fun we have had! Eighteen years of it.  What am I talking about? Well this past weekend I made a quickie trip home to Kansas for a very momentous event - my baby sister's high school graduation.

Eighteen years ago my little sister, Miranda, came into the world, and it has been a journey ever since.  Some days we'd do nothing but fight, other days we'd love each other to no end.  But regardless, we have always had each other's back.  Watching her walk the stage on Sunday as she enters a new phase of her life was definitely a bit surreal. 

She has accomplished so much in the last four years of High School, including major roles in several plays, school honor rolls, being a part of the top choir group and being the leader for her school's marching band. 

This fall she will be attending my alma mater, Kansas State University, to major in Music Education, with hopes to go on and get a higher degree and work at a university level someday.  I have no doubts that she can pull that off - she is a PHENOMENAL french horn player. 

Between me, my brother and her, we've sure made our parents proud.  It's hard to believe that life is going by so fast. 

I mean, it's going REALLY fast!

~Lisa 

Dye Pot [Attempt Two]

I told myself when I started this blog back up again in January that I would post every week on Monday or Tuesday without fail.  I almost forgot this week, which is sad because the post is so exciting! Luckily I decided to sit down and whip it out really quick for everyone to read.

I'm back in the dye studio (AKA My kitchen) this week with some really exciting news!

Remember these? My idea to dye yarn based on my paintings? Well I am not giving up! I was able to get a cone of my yarn - light fingering, sw merino - and got five 450 yard skeins (with 330 yards left for a smaller skein).  I dyed up three a few weeks ago in the first two and the last one above.  The first colorway - Morning Garden Stream - turned out perfect, the other two were close but not quite there.

The pink/green has too much color variation and the teal has a purple that is too neon to match that painting.  Regardless, my LYS Ladies loved them all.

So I took the last two and half skeins this past week and focused mainly on the colorway I knew I could replicate.  Attempting to do two full skeins of the same colorway was a bit scary at first, but I knew it needed to be done if I ever want to scale.

With the other "half" skein I decided to play with the teal color.  I've decided that those two are going to be my main focus going forward.  Let me just say, getting the perfect purple with food dyes and watercolor is becoming difficult.  I think I finally got it with a mixture of grape koolaid and violet watercolor.  

The results are above, taken badly on my phone camera.  The two gold skeins turned out perfect! I am so excited that this colorway is working.  The teal one is getting closer, but I put too much gold in this skein to truly match the painting.  Next time. 

I went ahead and printed some bands and skeined it up, just to show how it will look all ready to sell.  I plan to get the ball bands printed better than the ones above - my printer was low on ink - but you get the idea. 

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I am so excited! I need another cone, or two, or five, to really get going on this, but I honestly think I have a thing going for the summer :)

~Lisa

April FO's

I feel like April sped by, like a derailed train.  So many things happened this month that I've discussed here on this blog, I didn't even know what to talk about this week!

And then last weekend a small miracle happened: I finished THREE WIPs in THREE DAYS. It's like there was a knitting fairy looking over me, telling me to Just. Keep. Knitting.

"April Flowers" - my April socks, came off the needles on Friday and onto my feet on Monday :) They fit really well, despite being cuff down with a gusset. And the color is so much fun too! Perfect springy flowery happiness!  The pattern itself is Mercury Socks, which I had memorizes by the end of cuff one. 

I finished my Sev(en) Circle on Saturday, when I had dinner and coffee with a fellow knitting friend. This "necklace" has been on the needles for about two months now, on and off again. The bamboo yarn is pretty splitty and honestly didn't work out the way I wanted.  The strands are really curly, even after a block, and blocking kind of took the natural curl away and makes the "ropes" lay flat.  

However, I plan to make another one soon, with tighter yarn and gauge.

My first full-sized crochet garment came off the hook Sunday night during a binge-marathon of Arrow, Season 4.  After finishing the back side, I realized that my gauge had changed from the first side and as such the front was larger.  Upon sewing it up it ended up working out and I would definitely knit another one.  The Drops Design however, was a bit of a pain.  Luckily it's a pretty basic design.

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I feel so accomplished, having all these finished projects for a single month.  I'm hoping that May can be the same, but there's no guarantee.  Between finishing up my first year of teaching, Relay for Life on Friday, a quick flight home next week for my sister's graduation and trying to breath who knows what will happen!

~Lisa 

Sorry Guys, I just needed to ;)