Reborn

In mid-July, the Bucks County Guild of Knitters and Crocheters (BCGKC) got together at Tamanend Park in Southampton to experiment with koolaid dyeing using the new Knit Picks sock blanks. We had a terrific time and some really interesting sock blanks were drying in the sun at the end of the afternoon. My friend and fellow BCGKC'er, Sunset Knitter has some great shots of the action on her blog so go take a quick look.

I was intending to go for a little more of a controlled pattern and color palette but I think the koolaid fumes took over. The results .... a bit colorful.


You never know how the blank will knit up (I kept thinking "clown barf") so I decided I'd get them cast on and see. I've not yet expanded my knitting horizons to include the two at a time toe-up method, so instead of being able to knit right from the blank, I had to wind my blank into two separate balls by hand.


I started the Lacy Mock Cable socks by Scarlettknits
I love the pattern!! It's a very simple repeat to memorize and the resulting mock cable is very pretty, but in this yarn ..... yuck!!!


I tried to like them, I really did. But I finally gave up and frogged them when I realized I was embarrassed every time I pulled them out to knit on the train. So last weekend in a fit of impulsiveness I threw both skeins in a solution of koolaid dye left over from my last dyeing adventure.


The resulting color is much prettier than they appear in these pictures. I really love it, much more me. I'm not a rainbow kind of girl. But.... there's always a but if I'm involved.... long story short, the dye didn't take up evenly in both skeins so I had to redunk one of the skeins and now they are ever so slightly different colors. So instead of knitting a pair of socks, I decided to look around for another project using fingering weight yarn. I was thinking maybe a neckwarmer and it just so happens the Fashionably Late KAL group I belong to has finished their clapotis and are moving on to smoke rings so I started knitting the Wavy Feathers Wimple by Caryll McConnell this weekend.




It's a fun pattern, very pretty and enjoyable to work on. I'm not sure how wearable it'll be when it's done, but then you know, I have no hesitation when it comes to frogging. Just ask Jenny Girl. In fact, there are a couple of other projects that are on my hit list.

Meet Winston!!

It's been a very busy and eventful summer here... both at work and on the home front. I'll get to the knitting later, but first, the most exciting news I have to share is to introduce you to the newest member of the family... Winston cat.

We adopted him from a local cat rescue group. We brought him home last Saturday and he's settling into the household routine rather well.
Sharing the sofa with DD#2 when she was home for a visit.


Bonding with DS. They have become best buddies... the two boys in the house.




And scoping out his favorite spots for relaxing, like the cool hard wood floor under the coffee table.

He's a delightful cat... very sweet and affectionate. Exactly my kind of cat. He's a Maine Coon mix (not purebred) but he has all the wonderful characteristics the breed is known for. A real big furball of love!

And just so you don't think I didn't do any knitting at all this summer....
next time I'll share the story of a good sock blank gone BAD!!!

Happy knitting!!