I Dyed & Went to Tennessee

Well, it's been a loooong time since I posted. And I have no excuses that sound good, so I'm not even going to bother. All I can say is that it's been an eventful six weeks since I last posted.

I learned how to dye yarn in my crock pot!

Here is a batch of lovely stuff I call "Summertime Citrus" along with a pair of finished socks. (Pattern is "Breeze" from the Summer '07 knitty.com. I HIGHLY recommend the pattern. I highly discourage you from trying it with vary-colored yarn!!)



And some close-up's of the sock details:




It has lovely lace-work and cables. All kinds of fun, but easy to knit--even in the car. (Which is where I knit this pair! Driving from Iowa to Tennessee for our family vacation a couple weeks ago!)

The next thing I dyed last month was this beautiful hank of Icelandic wool from Tongue River Farms:




I was going for more purple than blue, but misjudged the amount of dye needed for this amount of yarn. That's why they call it "learning." I'm still very happy with the color results and can't wait to see how it knits up!

As you might imagine, these two experiments have got my creative brain ticking away on overtime! If only I had unlimited resources for yarn expenditures, I'd get all sorts of undyed yarns and have a go at all sorts of gorgeous color schemes! This really was a blast and I can't wait to give it another try.

In the meantime (besides finally actually taking over as managing editor of a monthly magazine while continuing to write and photograph for them...) I also managed to accomplish these projects over the last 6 weeks:

Knee-hi socks in school colors for my DD who plans to wear them for marching band:



Another entrelac bag which will NOT be felted (but that yet needs a handle and lining):


and another sweater for the new nephew (who is three months old on the 4th and rolling over already!):

I think he's going to look a little like Pooh in a bee costume, what do you think?
Still debating on buttons.

And just in case you're the sort of person who likes visual proof of the world's realities, here are a couple photos from our trip to Tennessee.




Phew! That ought to about catch me up! I have a feeling I've neglected a couple other knitting projects, but ah well, such is life. I hope to be a bit more regular in my posts once more!

Happy Knitting & Shooting!