I Want to Dye!

I went to the market last weekend and was saddened to see no independent dyers of wool, fibre or yarn. There was a little old lady stall full off acrylics and offering to finish your knitting for you, but that wasn't what I was looking for.

I know have this overwhelming desire to start dyeing and become an indie dyer myself. I have already found places go buy bulk and I have so many ideas, I just need to save the start up money. I find myself thinking about it all day long! Planning colorways and different products to use, but it's only early days!

Another Repeat?

The Holden Shawlette has been flying off the needles, and I'm loving every minute of it. The only problem is, I have finished the last repeat and have a significant amount of wool left......what to do? The sensible part of me says "finish up before I get into trouble", the risktaking part of me says "go for it! one more repeat, no worries!" So what to do?

My gut instinct is telling me to go for one more repeat and I think I'll listen to her, she is almost never wrong. For example when knitting Nathan's Skye Tweed sweater, the whole time I thought it was going to be too small, but kept convincing myself it would block out. And it kinda did, but not enough. Instinct 1 Me 0. The sweater is too small.

Or my Smoky Raven sweater for myself, I thought the stripes were too narrow, did I listen? No. Am I loving it? No. There are more examples, but suffice it to say, Instinct is usually dead on, and I think I trust her. So what will I do? One more repeat of course and pray that I won't run out of wool!

Monkey Socks!!

I have finally cast on for the famous "Monkey Socks" by Cookie A, and so far I love them! I will admit I have only done a couple of repeats down one leg, but so far I really enjoy the pattern and have almost memorised the repeat. I can tell these will be gorgeous socks, and in the hot pink Cleckheaton Merino I'm using, I am hoping they will be nice to wear and not itchy or scratchy at all. I love the warmth and the extra cushioning knit socks provide, and knitting them is a lot of fun too. But they lose their appeal when they are too itchy to wear.

I have not seen a pair of Monkey socks in person before, so seeing the pattern developing is very addictive. I would love nothing more than to work on these exclusively, but I really need to work on my cardigan for work. The weather is getting cooler and I don't like being cold, especially when it is preventable.....with a nice hand knit cardigan.

I have looked at other sock patterns by Cookie A, and I can tell many more of them will be making their way onto my needles. I will just need to buy more sock yarn!

My Holden Shawlette

Searching for a shawl pattern that included a lace pattern that was a bit of challenge, but not so that I would get flustered, I chose the Holden Shawlette by Mindy Wilkes. I really like this pattern. It has enough of the stockinette portion to really show off the varigated yarn I'm using, but I am also really looking forward to getting to the lace. It looks like so much fun!

The two photos don't really show off the yarn as well as I'd hoped, but it is truly gorgeous. The main base color is blue, with porions of indigo, purple and a bit of bright jade green just to give it that little flash. The color is definately me andI cannot wait to see it finished, although a part of me doesn't want it to end! I mostly knit with solid colors, so I didn't realise how truly pleasurable varigated yarns can be.

I'm using Zig Zag by King Cole and it's a 75% wool, 25% nylon blend. Very nice to work with, soft and oh so pretty. I purchased it at a local yarn store in Dandenong called Knit'nPurl. They don't have a website but they have a nice range of yarns and the owner is lovely.