First dyeing attempts and man socks!

I have a few things to share today, as I've been keeping myself fairly busy with all things related to fiber. I've picked up a bit of crud (a cold, flu? who knows) and have been feeling out of it, but trying to keep my mind focused so I don't let it creep in. It's been sunny here and we're getting those lovely February previews of spring before it goes grey and rainy for another four months.

Last week I tried my first attempts at dyeing yarn and so far, so good! These are what I've been doing this past week...

440yds of sock yard, specially requested by Julie..

this one feels very springy to me!

this is 220 yards of sock yarn that I had originally just wanted to dye a dark blue.. but the color failed the first time around, so I overdyed half with bright red and got a red ranging from a deep merlot to normal bright red.

In addition to that, I've also been knitting quite a bit. I finished my socks (previous entry), then started on a pair for Scott. I finished those last night and he has been wearing them almost constantly since (I guess I did okay!). He has GIANT feet, so they look a little longer then I was expecting, but oh well.



He has size 12.5 feet, so I made these to fit size 13.5, they're supposed to be "house socks", so big and comfy and squishy. They're made out of Woolease (from stash) in an olive green and black. They took up 260 yds of yarn, bringing my monthly total to 770 yards (boo!), and 2009 total to 2000 yards (yay!). If I can get Julie's socks done by next weekend, that will get me another 300 yards or so, which I would like. We'll see. :)

Goals

After previously committing to certain knitting goals both on this journal, and to myself, I have thus far failed them miserably. I was attempting to go "cold sheep", and not buy any new yarn from Jan 1 to April when I visit our local alpaca farm. That was before I knit socks. I broke down last week and bought 30+ skeins of sock yarn, which threw my goal in the garbage. However, today I'm recommitting to my goals and actually setting them, instead of just throwing the idea about. I'm going to try really hard to follow these.

February goals:
- Dye worsted weight yarn (220 yds), in green/blue/purple -- should be doing this tonight
- Finish Scott's socks, 1 down and 1 to go
- Start (and finish) Julie's socks

2009 goals:
- Knit myself a scarf, hat and gloves before winter
- Knit 10000 yds of yarn
- Do not buy any new yarn except under certain conditions (running out of yarn during a project, having an emergency of sorts where I NEED a certain kind of yarn), going forward, except in April at the alpaca farm and once this summer/fall.

I should have my February goals done by early next week (hopefully). I'm interested to knit with my hand dyed yarn and see how it comes out. If my math is correct, it SHOULD be self striping every two rounds or so. I did a test swatch and it came out like that, but we'll see, I guess. I will attempt to update this goal list every month and keep it current. So that's it for now :)

MY FIRST SOCKS!

I'm in the middle of dyeing sock yarn for Julie's soon-to-be-socks, so I don't have a lot of time, but wanted to share my first socks!

They were done in KP Simple Stripes, and only took about 300 yards (which brings my February totals up to 510 yards and my yearly total to 1740, woot!). I followed an online tutorial to help me get through the pattern. I also started some house socks for my husband last night, but they aren't in sock yarn, they're made with Wool-Ease (in dk green and black) and will run about 260 yards for a pair. He has large feet. ANYWAY! Yay, socks! :) I'm hooked.

Dishcloths

I completed my second dishcloth last night. I had some kitchen cotton laying around so I decided to whip a set up.. I've never knit dishcloths before, but I used the "Grandmother's Favorite" pattern, which was insanely easy, and each one took about 2-3 hours from cast on to bind off.

Two clothes took up almost an entire skein of yarn, I have about 10 yards left over.. so not a whole lot. Scott was actually kind of excited to have home made dishcloths around, so I'm sure I'll make more in the future. This project brought my February total of yarn used up to 210 yards (in five days!) and my year to date total to 1440 yards. Woohoo!

Puppy Day Cowl

Wait no longer, for it is the Puppy Day Cowl! It is from the pattern named "Cherry Garcia", and I love.love.love it. It's made from Manos del Uruguay 100% wool, and is absolutely the loveliest yarn I've ever knit with. I have about 50 yards left over and have no idea what to do with it that would be good enough to honor this gorgeous yarn. Sigh.



That's all I have for now. I'm casting on some cute dishcloths tonight, just going to make a few to get rid of some of the kitchen cotton I have laying around. So far in February I've used 110 yards of yarn!

January

I need to write a detailed post with photos of my beautiful Puppy Day Cowl, but that will have to wait because bed time is fast approaching. In the month of January I did the following:

- 1 pair of mittens
- 3 hats (for charity)
- 7 toe covers

Which totaled about 1230 yards. I only actually used up one skein of yarn, but the yardage itself I was quite proud of! I'm interested to see how much I actually knit in a year, and am aiming for 10 miles.. which if I continue at this pace, is definitely achievable! To knit 10 miles, I have to knit about 1500 yards a month on average. Hmm. For February, I already have 80 yards done, and am hoping to finish a few more things for myself (namely a hat and some fingerless mitts) and make a scarf for my mom out of some gorgeous Ella Rae Shibu that I got in a trade recently. I also want to make a few more charity hats and use up some of the really soft Bernat Satin hanging out in my stash.