Dye-bacle

I did some more wool dyeing this weekend.  A while back I lost all my dyes in a move and while at a fiber fair I found a sample kit of Greener Dyes so I bought it. I didn't use the dyes then.  Dharma had a sale and I bought some of their dyes which I know I like.

Long way to saying, I finally tried the Greener dyes.  I'm sorry to say this was not a pleasant experience.  I dyed a pot full of locks peacock blue/turquoise.  The color in the pot was lovely.  Then I started rinsing, and rinsing and rinsing and rinsing.  Today is the third day I spent soaking and rinsing and the dye is still pouring out of the fleece.  It has gone from deep turquoise to robins egg and still the dye is pouring out of the fleece.

At this point I'm just disgusted. I really see no choice but to keep rinsing the dye out, as I'm unwilling to use it or sell it this way.  But I'm sick of standing over the basin running water over the fleece and I hope to heck it isn't going to end up felted in places and unusable. What a waste of my time.

Guy who?

Just a short rambling post.

I've taken out and knitted the same two rows on my 'Square necked Cardigan' all day.

I decided to give myself a break, dyed a pot full of wool - which doesn't seem to have come out as I'd planned.  It will be going up, as intended, on Etsy either tomorrow or this weekend. I like dyeing, but I couldn't ever do a real shop.  I'm not disciplined enough and I'd never get the same thing twice.  

Then I decided to make the rice pudding I've been promising myself for months.  I went looking for a recipe I could throw in the slow cooker and after I got everything started I decided to read the reviews.  I never read them first, I alway trust my own instincts on the recipe being something I'll like. However, sometimes I read them for the amusement.  

I have to admit that my personal favorite are the negative reviews where they changed everything (or several things) about the recipe and it didn't come out well.  Once you have made more than two substantial changes to the recipe it's not the recipe's fault if its bad.  

Come to think of it, I've seen it on knitting pattern reviews as well.  I've been known to make changes to patterns to suit my personal style but I'd never blame the designer or the pattern writing when the funny fit is because I removed all the shaping and used fingering weight yarn instead of worsted weight.  But that isn't true of everyone. 

Back - Again

There has been knitting.  I've finished several pairs of socks and even a sweater. Except I'm still looking for buttons for the sweater. 

I've also made progress on several afghans.  This one is my current favorite.  There are several patterns using this stitch on Ravelry but I started with the pattern I found at Lion Brand's website. 

I'm using the large amounts of yarn my father got for me.  This will be nice Large afghan for the couch or a bed.

I've also started putting together the top with these blocks.  It took a long time and several failed starts on a nice assembly method.  This is a simple slipstitch join that 'zips' the blocks together.  Because the backgrounds are not all the same it give a nice edge to the blocks. 

And since there is still MORE acrylic yarn to be used up I'm designing (and I use the term loosely) this afghan to use up all the remaining bits that aren't big enough for the other projects or have already been used more than a fair share.  It's a simple SC row increased on both ends so that the stripes will grow from the corner.  When it's as wide as I want it I'll change to increasing on one and and decreasing on the other until it's as long as I want and then decrease on both ends until there are no stitches left. 

The other item I've finished this past week is some card weaving.  This is just over 2.5 yards about 1/2 wide.  It's quite pretty I think and I'm going to use it and another wider pattern to trim a dress that I will wear for my historical recreation group. 

In addition finishing up a few WIPs I'm thinking that I should put together a set of projects to start and finish this next year.  I want to finish the purple and blue Philosopher's Wool sweater and many pairs of socks and a couple of Starmore sweaters that are sitting in my stash.  I plan to put together a list and a timeline and see if I can stick to it for 6 months. It will be good to find the patterns and yarn and get them in a place I can find them.  Too often I can't find either the pattern or the yarn and I waste scads of time and motivation looking instead of doing.