The Yarnarian Knits and Dyes.

I've been having a productive few days. I did a lot of knitting and today I dyed up some pretty new yarns.

Knitting News:

Take a look at this new sock I'm working on. I charted out a nice cable, and when I finished the first repeat, I decided to keep playing around with it and produced something else entirely than that first repeat. I'm knitting it in a skein of Penny that nobody wanted. I liked it, so I gave to me as a present.



I'm calling this one "Judy Socks" after my dearest buddy, best friend forever, and also another crazed knitter!

I took the pic on my sock form so that's why it looks sort of weird at the bottom. I'm working on 64 sts, which is a lot for me, but cables draw in the fabric, and it fits like a dream.

Here's the other sock I'm doing. I sent it as the pattern for the January shipment of the sock club, and will post it for sale at some point. It's easy, interesting enough so that you don't fall asleep, and it works very well for variegated yarns. This one was done with my new Shelley yarn and I got 8 sts/inch with size 0 needles. Next one will be done on my usual 3 ones. Zero makes my hands ache. It fits very well though.



I'm still working on modular scarves. I'm busy knitting, taking pics, knitting some more, taking more pics, etc. It's amazing how labor intensive this is. I have a written pattern in progress, hence all those pics. What I love about this scarf is that it works up beautifully in variegated yarns! That's always tough to do, but these babies are perfect for yarns like this. Here's the last one I finished and the one in progress (with those never-ending pictures).







I'm still working on the gansey. I separated the garment at the armholes and now am working back and forth, which I don't like to do. But, I put in some new patterns, and it's looking good, so I shall persevere. I would love to wear it sometime this month.

Dyeing news:

I'm happily back dyeing lace yarn. Today I did 4 really icy colors. Just enough color to catch the eye, but so pale that any pattern will show up magnificently. No pics because they're steaming at the moment.

And while I'm on the topic of stuff to sell, here are the latest sock patterns available on Ravelry. I put them up on Etsy occasionally too. If you want but you don't belong to Ravelry, let me know and I'll post them on Etsy.

Tulip Socks and Rapunzel's Braid.




seejenknit - I don't see why not, the cable is pretty simple and so is the lace in the middle of the front. It should look just fine.

Ria - That "double twisty thing" is so easy to do. that's the thing about cables: they look hard but they're actually quite easy.

Carolyn - Thank you! You give my ego a major boost!

Georgia - Thanks. They really are addictive.

The Yarnarian Has an Idea.

As you know, I'm been noodling around with the modular scarf pattern, and some adventurous folks on the PennyRoses Forum on Ravelry want to do a KAL on Ravelry when I write up the pattern. (And they know who they are!)

So one of these days, when I get through knitting and photographing each step of the process, I'm going to post these steps, perhaps one at a time for your enjoyment. I'm not sure when I'll begin. You all can be my test group with my very informal pattern.

Interested? Stay tuned.

Are you all sick of winter? It's cold here in NJ, not bone-chilling cold as in the frozen northland, but cold enough for here. We had some snow last night and this morning, and then it turned to rain, and now it's busy freezing into black ice. I'm going to try to get to the gym tomorrow provided the roads are ok. By the time I get out, they should be fine.

And then I think I ought to bake something, maybe bread, just because I need a cozy break from this weather.

Knitting News: All of a sudden I want to put cables on socks. So today, I poured over all my Japanese books to fine something to play with. I found a lovely cable and proceeded to design up a sock using that cable and other patterns. Knitted about 2 inches of it when I decided that I didn't like it. Frogged, recharted, frogged, recharted, etc. etc. And each time the stitch count changed so that I had to start from scratch again. Finally I found the perfect form of this cable, knitted yet again, and now I think I can connect the cables together. So tomorrow I rechart it again. I'll post pics if and when I'm happy with it.

CathyR - I spent about an hour redoing the chart, and then tonight while I was working on the sock, found a bunch of mistakes. so guess what I'm doing tomorrow?
It's really turning out nice. This one is a winner. I would like to do a sweater with this cable.

The Yarnian Is In Love!

With a scarf/shawl pattern. Yeah, I know that I wrote about this before, but I cannot tell you how delightful it is to knit this pattern!

This one:





The middle one is true to the real color.

This is like eating peanuts. I can't stop doing this. Talk about mindless, yet interesting. I used my Alexa yarn here and a size 6 needle, and it came out so soft, and drapey and silky and warm. I want to make a gazillion of these.

So the instant I finished this, I wound up a ball of my new Shelley yarn that I dyed just for me, and started another one. I have to either dye up some almost solids, or buy a couple at Judy's, to play around with solids and variegateds.



Let me tell you about Shelley yarn. It's amazingly lofty and looks more like a sport wt yarn until you start knitting with it. And then you realize that it has wonderful stretch and makes cushy socks. It looks and knits like K...u, but the base is not the same. However it has that nice twist and is sproingy. and works up so nicely.

So the new shawl is also on size 6 needles and has a different feel than the one out of Alexa.

The Alexa one took a little less than a skein of yarn. It's about 5.5 inches wide and about 45 inches long and is enough to wrap around my neck and fling over my shoulders. Indeed, if I fling carefully, I can drap the flung part over my shoulders and it helps keep me warm. I love it to pieces. I might just have to actually write up a pattern here.

I think I have post Inaugural blues. All that excitement and now we're back to the humdrum of daily live. On the other hand, we could have excitement that we don't want, so I'll happily take humdrum.

The Yarnarian and Vacations.

I'm been quite remiss in my blog posting. I've been so busy what with dyeing and shipping for the sock club, and dyeing for the Etsy shop, etc, that I don't know which end is up. It's time for a vacation, that's for sure.

So here's the deal with vacation time. When you have a "regular" job, you get vacation time and if you have any brains at all, you take it. Yeah, there are those fools out there who think they're going to heaven if they don't take vacation; we're not talking about them.

I'm a great believer in time off. It clears your head, gives you a well-needed break, relaxes you, and is just plain healthy.

OK, but now I'm self-employed at in in-house career. Sure I go on vacation to visit Miss P and family, and to venture forth with the Hubbo. No, I'm talking about taking time just for me. How do I do it? I have this little voice at the back of my head that says: thou shalt dye and thou shalt advertise and thou shalt ship, yada, yada, yada. But I'm tired and really need a break. So, I have to figure out how to do this.

Here's my solution: Sometime in the next 4-5 weeks, I'm going to take a week off. No dyeing, unless it's for me (and that's another topic), yup, I'll check on Etsy, of course, but I need to play. I need to wander through the Short Hills Mall all by myself and look at all the stuff I don't need and won't buy. Maybe I'll treat myself to some makeup. I need to sit down and read in the afternoon and not fall asleep over my book at bedtime. I need to knit for fun.

What do you think? Can I really pull this off?

Knitting News: I have a new obsession: modular knitting, or domino knitting or whatever you want to call it. Here's my silly scarf that I've been working on every second of free time I have (which is not much).




This is a case where the whole is so much better than the parts. I'm using Alexa yarn with a size 6 needle, and the scarf is so cuddly and has so much drape. I'm busy thinking of all the possibilities that I can do just using this simple module. How about mostly solid, with the point in a variegated yarn, or the opposite? How about doing it in solid yarns in different colors? Or doing it with some stockinette rows? Or in stripes? And easy knitting doesn't get any better than this. Talk about autopilot. I just love doing it. Hey, when I take my vacation (yes!), I could start another scarf.

We finally saw Sweeney Todd last night. I saw it on Broadway with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou and it was one of the best shows I've seen. He was so malevolent, and she played Mrs. Lovett as a really crazy, dotty character. The movie seems a pale imitation of the play. For one thing, where was the song "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"; they left it out. I liked the movie well enough, but the play was 100 times better.

I've also been watching reruns of Boston Legal. Somehow we missed the entire series. So now it's in reruns, and I'm just loving it. I walk around saying "Denny Crane".

Yarns and Odds: This week I'm presenting Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and maybe also Little Red Riding Hood, if I have time to dye her up. And that will probably be it for The Fairy Tale Collection. You know what comes next! Romance and love, at least for the first couple of weeks of February (and maybe the last week of Jan also). What to dye for the last 2 weeks? Maybe a fairy tale or two that I didn't do in Jan, or maybe something else. See what I mean about taking vacation when you're self-employed and love dyeing? It ain't easy, boys and girls.

Skepweaver - I put the Cariou/Lansbury production in my queue. This is the one that I want the Hubbo to see! Denny Crane.

KV - You've figured it out! I'm impressed, but then you've been doing this for a long time and I'm a newbie. The trouble is that I have all these ideas in my head for dyeing and for projects. I can't keep up with it all. Tomorrow I'm taking off to go to the gym and watch the inaugural proceedings. But that doesn't count as a vacation day. The scarf looks so much better in real life.

Sonia - I thought I'd take today off to watch the inauguration festivities, but I have to prep yarn and list it, etc, etc. I figure that by the time I get this vacation thing, I'll be retired from retirement!

The Yarnarian Writes a Long Post!

Yeah, it is a very long post. So it goes. I have lots to catch up on.

We went into Brooklyn on Sunday for the Benster's 3rd birthday party. There were a ton of little kids, most 3 and under, all their parents, 4 grands, and Ralph the Dog. It was wild and crazy and such fun. You had to keep looking down to make sure you didn't run over a little munchkin. I noticed that the 3 year olds have grown a lot since last year. They still don't share. Much squabbling and shrieking of toys and we grands just giggled. We let the parents do their thing. Ah, the joys of being a grandma: you get to watch and not discipline.

Let me tell you about Ralph the Dog. Ralph is our canine grandchild. He's a large furry Portuguese water dog, and he is a lovable pain in the butt. A true doofus of a dog. So, I'm happily eating a couple of pieces of dried mango, and wham, the fool dog grabbed a piece and scarfed it down and got his doggy slobber on the second piece. So I just fed it to him. The hubbo got a leash on him to keep him from grabbing everyone's food, especially the little kids. At the end of the party, when no one was looking, he knocked over a plate with carrot cake on it, and managed to eat half of it before anyone noticed. Next year, he's going to be banished. Poor dog.

Yarn news: I have a brand new yarn that I'm calling Shelley. It's 100% superwash merino fingering weight with a wonderful twist in it. Very lush and delicious to work on. Soft, and makes wonderful socks and scarves and mitts and anything fingering weight. I'm currently making a pair of socks out of it. Since it has no nylon reinforcement, I probably won't wear them as often as my usual socks, or I may knit along a bit of reinforcing thread on the heels and toes. Nah, forget it. I can't be bothered with all that extra work. A pair of socks it will be and I'll enjoy wearing them.

It dyes like a dream and I like it very much. 3 of the yarns in the Rapunzel collection are done in Shelley. I'm charging a tiny bit more than my usual: $22/skein, but it's well worth it. Here's a picture of the sock in progress. It's the same colorway as Rapunzel's Tower.




And speaking of the Rapunzel Collection, here's what is arriving on Etsy tomorrow: 7 skeins (I stole the 8th one because it was Shelley yarn and I wanted to try it out), and a brand new pattern: Rapunzel's Braid!

So, to tantalize you, here are some pics. Rapunzel's Braid is on the previous post, so go look there.

Yarns: Rapunzel's Mother and Rapunzel herself.




The Tower and The Wicked Witch:




The Handsome Prince and the Rape Leaves that Rapunzel's mother craves.




And finally, Rapunzel's Palace (where she and the prince live after being reunited):



So why these particular colors? I based the colorways on a children's book called Rapunzel. The author/illustrator is Paul O. Zelinsky, and he sets his story during the Italian Renaissance.

And, because I have nothing else to knit, I was forced at needle point to start a new scarf. I swiped my Frog Pond yarn because I wanted a nice bright set of greens and such. The pattern is a simple modular pattern and because I'm just doing it in one yarn, very few threads to weave in.



And that's it. I'm done. I have nothing else to say. OK, that's not the truth but it will have to suffice. ;-)

Melissa - Thanks! I kinda like that Tower too. And I have a great fondness for the Wicked Witch.