Knitting Musings

Whew!

Finals are over - they went. Probably well - but really, who knows? The important thing is that they are OVER, and that there is essentially no way I didn't at least pass. And for the next 24 hours, I'm only day-sitting Abby... until tomorrow, when S heads home to Minnesota for Christmas, and I'm once again on full-time doggy-duty. Good thing she's so cute, because the 2-3 hours of doggy walks she wants every day can really start cutting into a girl's knitting time!

Speaking of knitting (what, with this being obstensively a "knitting blog" and all) - Kati and I dyed some yarn yesterday - 4 colors of sock yarn, and what will hopefully become the Print of O' The Wave Stole in yummy silk/cashmere. I was actually hoping for more of a green, but the turquoise is beautiful, so I can't complain! I'll do a better review of our dyeing efforts once the skeins dry and I can really see what the colors look like.

And in other knitting news - some finished projects!!

Hand-Dyed Socks

Pattern: my own

Yarn: my own hand-dyed merino sock yarn, 1 skein (other colors for sale here)

Notes: Basic plain vanilla socks with a picot cuff. I really REALLY love the dye-job I did on these, and want to try to replicate the technique. I've been doing a lot of really dark colors lately, and I like that this yarn is so lightly dyed - but not pastel.

S' Ireland Scarf

Pattern: my own

Yarn: souvenir yarn from Ireland

Notes: S wanted a scarf that used all 3 colors, but didn't have stripes. So I did 3 colors per row fair isle. I almost lost my mind, but S loves it, and that's what's important, right? The yarn was a loosly spun single that I held doubled on huge needles (11's? 13's? 15's?). I think it is so scratchy as to qualify as a torture device, but S seems to disagree. I still have tons of the yarn leftover, but I don't believe I'll be using it anytime soon - when I dunked the finished scarf in some eucalan for a post-knitting wash, the water looked like cold coffee. After 9 more rinses, the water looked like iced tea. I kept rinsing until it just looked a LITTLE bit brown and gross. I'm thinking that they didn't bother keeping little coats on these particular sheepies...

Speaking of S, he made it back from Azerbaijan, and he brought back some neat stuff - first, this amazingly beautiful little rug. Sure, it's completely impractical, but if fit in the suitcase home, and it has little yarn skeins attached! ;)

And he also bought several nesting dolls from various street vendors - the back three lovely ladies are destined for various recipients as gifts, but the front gal is all mine.

The amazing thing? My doll has 10 (count them 10!!) layers. Check out the smallest doll in the front - paper clip included for scale. It's unbelievable.