From Failure to Awesome in 0.2 seconds

One of the members of our team, BreiKonijn, knit a totally awesome medal for the Ravellenics.  We of course took great pride in having someone so creative on our team.
From the very start NAP TIME! was called with great regularity and one of only 4 things we were not apathetic about.  Nap Time was training.   Please note the Zzz on the medal.  Awesomeness...

BreiKonijn's Apathy Badge Project Page

But our team didn't stop there.   Oneheidihere took that image in combined it with far more skill than I possess and created a badge for all those projects that were planned for the Ravellenics, but didn't finish.

I love that it's called a "Meh-dal"  and we're "Apathletes"     

I never once thought I'd have so much fun failing.  

Thank you to all my team mates who made my first Ravellenics so much fun.

Ravellenics Failure

So they're over.  Time to admit my defeat.     I don't think I did too badly.  The socks are mostly done and honestly if I hadn't lost 4 days knitting to migraines and 1 day to a swollen hand I probably could have finished them.  

I did consider pulling the Pulsations Socks off the needles and finishing them, but then decided it was never about the Ravellenics or the badges.  It was about doing it because I could (despite what the naysayers say), and because it was a challenge.   

So here's the last picture I took of the socks.  They're actually further along, I stopped working on them at the end of the Ravellenics, but I haven't taken an "End of Ravellenics" pic yet.  I will,  some day.

Ravellenics Day 11 Progress

So more migraines are slowing me down,  but I'm determined to get these done.   This picture was taken this morning and I have gotten much done since then.  Hopefully there will be REAL progress to report tomorrow.

I also go my badge for the Hand-dyed High Dive.  Yay me!

Ravellenics One Event Finished

Besides the socks I also had a shawl I wanted to rip out so since it's too hot to knit at the moment I decided to rip it out.   I will restart the Girasole and hopefully not screw it up again.   But I got my badge!  Go me!

Ravellenics Day 8 Progress

Kind of slowed down because one of the patterns is in a Mystery form and the key to the charts is not on the same page as the charts so I have to keep shuffling back and forth.   Probably going to cut the key off the page it's one and glue it to another so I can see both pages.   Other than that things seem to be moving right along for now.

Ravellenics Day 7 Progress

I've fallen behind on my knitting due to a couple of days of migraines,  I'm hoping to be able to catch up so I'm knitting like a fiend.   My set up is working out well for me,  no major knots.    My next hurtle is going to be the turning of the heels and the gussets.  I'll burn that bridge when I come to it, but I have a couple of ideas in my head how to deal with it and plenty of extra  needles laying around.

Ravellenics Day 2 Progress

I'm finally past the awkward twisty stage of working on 2 circulars and should be able to start making real progress.   Each round was taking me nearly an hour to finish, but now with the weight of the cuffs holding the needles straight I should be able to cut that time considerably.   Cuffs are finished on 2 of the socks.

Let The Games Begin!

So the Ravellenics have started.  I started my 12 socks at a time and after one mishap,  I stared at the wall for awhile and dropped my needles resulting in a big tangled mess,  I got some decent progress. 

Photo evidence:

Ravellenic Games Here I Come

So with all the hoopla over the name Ravelympics,  the RC and Powers that Be on Ravelry had to change the name to Ravellenic Games.    A lot of people don't like it.   They wanted something more ummm,  don't know how to say it without it sounding insulting.   Ravathon was really popular,  personally it made first think of Jerry's kids.  Which of course the USOC seems to think we all are.  Then it made me think of Marathon,  which it isn't.   The other that was really popular was Ravelrumpus.   I stopped reading Where the Wild Things Are in High School.   Still one of my favorite books,  but I decided it was time to move on to more mature things,  like Pippi Longstockings.

I personally like the new name.   The Panhellenic Games in ancient Greece encompassed 3 major Games, one of which was the Olympic Games.  The irony just makes me smile.

OK enough of that talk.  Name is changed, we're moving forward.   As of this posting I'm entering 7 things.  6 pairs of socks,  and 1 partially finished shawl that has just been sitting there because it needs to be ripped out.

First off,  the one thing I'll probably finish.   My Feldmäuschen Girasole by Jared Flood using Wollmeise Lace in Feldmäuschen.  It's going into the Frogging event.   It will be restarted with the same yarn and hopefully a better idea of what the hell I'm doing.

The next is 6 pairs of sock knit at once.  Each pair will be entered separately even though they will be knit at the same time.   They are as follows:


Pulsations Socks by Amy King - Dizzy up the Girl Classic Rock Sock in Gotta Be
Candlepower Socks by Emma Antunes - Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Port
Owlie Socks by Julie Elswick Suchomel - Wollmeise Twin in Spice Market
Toasty Twist Socks by Teresa Fox - Colorbug Yarns Stella Sock in A Beautiful Butterfly
Watercolor Paintbox Socks by Laura Cummings - Great Adirondack Silky Sock in Parakeet
Twisted Mockery Socks by Lisa Stichweh - The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in Sharpshooter Leafhopper

So there you have it.  I have 17 days to complete 6 pairs of socks and rip one shawl.   If I have enough time I have a WIP I would like to finish,  but I doubt that's going to happen.   If I set my mind to it I can finish a pair of socks in 3 days.   It's Ramen noodles and sandwiches for dinner for 17 days.  I hope the roomie is prepared.

Go Team Apathy! or not, whatever.

Talk started all over Ravelry about the Ravelympics.   I got excited.  I thought it might be fun to participate, I never had before.  The 12 at a time socks are laying there,   ripped twice and contemplating their fate.  I figured I could do them for the Ravelympics and knit my way to glory.  
So I started watching my groups.   Since I'm all about the image I was going to join groups teams with cool names.   Imagine my disappointment when the names chosen were either cutesy or just meh.   It took a total of a week for me to get completely apathetic about it.   Where were all the awesome names?  Even the name Team Motherfucking Pterodactyl was shot down.  
So I messaged someone and told them I give up,  I'm holding out for Team Apathy.  She messaged me back asking if there was a Team Apathy and I told her no.   She said if I started one she'd join.  So for kicks and giggles I created Team Apathy.   We even have a motto.

We Don't Care if We Finish or Not.

One other person joined us and we figured it would be the three of us.   To our surprise people started joining.  I don't know how many team members we have.   But they're a fun bunch. 

I think my first Ravelympics is going to be fun.  Even if I don't finish anything.   

Houston, we have a problem...

So in working, albeit slowly on my 6 pairs at once project I ran into a problem.   Although my gauge matched what the patterns called for some of the socks, 4 pairs to be exact, were coming out too big.  I wasn't far enough into them that it cause too much discomfort to rip them out and start again.  I'll be using the same yarns, but different patterns.   I have the patterns chosen and I'm casting them on again.  I will update once I have finished casting on and gotten a few rows worked.   

I'm also behind on my knitting for other people so once these are cast on they'll lay aside until July when the Ravelympics starts. 

I should really try to not be so lazy about my posting and do updates on other stuff I knit.   Really,  I knit all the time.   I just never post about it.  I should do that. 

Post edited.   I won't be doing the Ravelympics.

Further Proof of Insanity

For those of you playing at home, one more thing to prove that I'm a little left of center.   

I decided some time ago that if I could knit 2 socks at a time on 2 circulars, then I could knit more.  4, 6, 20, hell I could knit 500 if I could find a needle long enough.   OK, 500 might be a bit ambitious.  Let's keep it fairly simple and not have to find a 500" needle in size 2.  I decided on 6 pairs, 12 socks at one time.

I'm by no means a pioneer,  Meet Brian.  14 socks on one 120" circular needle.   I read the blog,  looked at his set up and tried to figure out what I could do to make it work for me. For about a year I have thought about it on and off.  Six months ago I had accumulated enough pattern ideas and sock yarn to seriously contemplate the idea.   So I started researching. 

2 major issues arose:
1. Keeping the yarn from tangling.
2. The weight of all these socks on my wrists.

The weight I realized would pretty much solve itself.  Because of the length of needle I would have to use most of the weight would be resting in my lap. (this certainly isn't something I can walk around and knit)  But the tangling issue needed further thought.   Even knitting 2 at a time you can have a bunch of pain in the ass twists. Brian's set up was nice,  but I wanted something that was a bit more portable and since jobless bum is jobless, something cheap.  I had been talking to the roomie about this idea and he surprised me one day by bringing home a small wine box from work.   A cardboard box with an insert dividing it into 12 small compartments.   BOOYAH!     I set to work. 

I cut the box down to 4" and the inserts to 3.5".   I covered the rough top edges with duct tape.   I collect interestingly shaped paper clips and have a bunch of spiral shaped ones that I clipped on to the side of the box to use as guides for the yarn.  I also couldn't just work from both ends of the yarn like I normally do, so I had to divide the skeins into 2 balls.  With a little help from a scale this was a fairly easy task. 

Divider with yarn and 47" addi turbo needles:

Next was finding patterns that would work.  I wanted all cuff down patterns because this is just what I prefer.  The patterns must all have a gauge of 8-9 sts per inch and most importantly, no shifting of stitches.   I'm not one to knit a pattern more than once so each sock was going to have to be different.  I searched the Ravelry database for hours on end and finally found the 6 patterns that I would knit.  

So here we have it.


Top Left:  Dizzy Up The Girl in Gotta Be  -  Pattern: Summer Lovin' Socks by Dawn Matkovic
Top Right: Madelintosh Sock in Port  -  Pattern: Gentian by Lisa Stichweh
Middle Left: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 80/20 in Spice Market  -  Pattern: Unraveling Rib Socks by Amy Tyszkiewicz
 Middle Right: Colorbug Yarns Stella Sock in Beautiful Butterfly  -  Pattern: Jekyll & Hyde by Sarah Wilson
Lower Left:  Great Adirondack Yarn Co. Silky Sock in Peacock  -  Pattern: Harvest Dew by Rose Hiver
Lower Right: The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in Sharpshooter Leafhopper  -  Pattern: Twisted Mockery by Lisa Stichweh

My goal is to cast on before Black Friday.  Wish me luck!

The Evil Cycle

So I have found that I really enjoy dyeing.   The problem is I will never use all the yarn I dye,  and I want to dye more.  So I am hoping to set up a shop on Artfire and sell the yarn I dyed, so I can buy more yarn to dye.    It's insane how addictive it is just playing around with string and color.   I'm never going to be a big time dyer.  I enjoy the process too much and I like to take my time.  But being able to support my dyeing habits would be totally awesome.  I haven't taken pictures yet of the yarn I'm listing but will in the next few days.

Not Yarn Related

This is now my new favorite word
 Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

I'm A Slacker

So I really was going to dye up some mohair,  but can't seem to find it anywhere :/   So I waited until I had everything I needed to dye with the acid dyes that I received.  Because I'm a big scaredy cat I first decided to dye some yarn I received as a gift with direct orders to throw it in the dyepot.  It's a nice blue, but much to bright for my taste.

I put one skein in the pot and added some purple and black.   I like it better now and plan to knit me a hat with it.

I put the second skein in the dyepot and used only black.  I plan to knit a hat for Ruben with it.

After these two skeins I got feeling ambitious, with some help from liquid courage.  I decided it was time to dye the sock yarn.  First I wrote LOVE using black dye on it....

Then I smooshed it all down using my GLOVED fingers, only to find out that my left glove had holes in two of the fingers...

I then filled in with the purple dye, which in my either excitement or buzzed stupor, promptly forgot to take a picture of.   Oh well time to steam!  Steamed it for 30 minutes and let it cool.  It took forever to cool down.  I then opened it up and promptly forgot to take a picture again before I ran off to rinse it.   I let it dry and FINALLY remembered to take a picture of it....

I really like the way all of them came out.  I'm now hoping to get a few more colors to mess around with.   Now to just figure out what socks I will be knitting with it.  It will of course be a pattern out of the book I received in the gift.

NEW STUFFS!!!! aka Squeeeeeeeeeeee

So today a package from someone wonderful arrived in the mail today.  It contained Sock Innovation by Cookie A, a skein of KP Gloss in Bare,  and 2 bottles of Jacquard dye in Purple and Jet Black. 

squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I have been wanting to play with acid dyes but haven't been able to so far.  Now my big chance has arrived!

Knitter's/Dyer's Porn:

 

When I opened the box my first thought was LOVE!  So my idea is to dye the yarn purple,  and write LOVE on the skein in black.  I have no idea how this should be done so that the black doesn't just blend in with the purple,  so my day will be spent doing research on this.    I can't wait!!   Also,  today was planned to dye some mohair with wilton's black.  Hopefully I'll get some nice breaking.

Over Dyeing Bacon Yarn

So I broke out the Wilton's, divided up the yarn I had left from the Bacon Shawl (see previous post) and over dyed it using Violet, Black and Delphinium Blue.  After consulting the brutally honest hoars it was decided that the shawl should be over dyed in Black.   It's soaking now so press your thumbs for me.   I'll post when it's finished.  Until then, a picture of the samples....

Unscientific Science of Dyeing

So I have gotten a few comments (not here, but in emails and pm's) about how I'm not very scientific about the dyeing I have been doing.  I'm not stressing it.  I only do it for fun, not profit and a little chaos never killed anyone.  For those wanting a step by step guide with precise amounts of yarn, coloring, vinegar and specific times, this is probably not the blog to be reading.  This is for fun only.  I'm not mass marketing or selling anything I dye, and have no plans to.   This could change of course but let's be realistic, IF I did find a way to get consistent results every time it would probably be in my best interest if I were going to sell it to not share all my secrets.  So that being said.....

I did another round of breaking Wilton's using using Delphinium Blue on KP Bare Merino.   I didn't measure anything.  Just a glub of vinegar in the soaking water with some yarn, some Wilton's, crockpot for an hour added about a teaspoon of vinegar another hour, added a teaspoon more vinegar,  set over night to cool, hung to dry. 

Results:  A bit too pastel colored for me, but Wilton's broke nicely.

Remember the kool-aid dyeing I did?  It got knitted up into the Annis Shawl by Susanna IC.   I hate it.  Not the design, but the colors.  I think it looks like bacon and I'm not a big fan.   Since I don't know anyone I dislike enough to give them a bacon colored shawl I decided to take the yarn I had left over and attempt to over dye it with Wilton's.  I have 3 colors that I will try out on it and see what happens.  Black, Delphinium Blue and Violet.  I'll post when they're finished.   But for a now, a picture of the Bacon Annis.

Breaking Wilton's

So I've been wanting to break Wilton's for awhile now after seeing all the beautiful yarn everyone has been getting in the What A Kool Way to Dye group.   An amazingly awesome person hunted down Wilton's for me since I couldn't find it in my area and sent me Black, Delphinium Blue and Violet.  (Thanks Jenarita!)  I've looked around and there's really no step by step directions on how to do this so I threw caution to the wind and grabbed up some KP Bare Merino I had left over from Ruben's Sweater. 

I was not at all scientific about it,  I didn't measure much of anything, but I was having fun!   I soaked the yarn (approx. 30 yards) in some room temp. water with a glub of vinegar for about an hour.

Then I mixed up a bit of Wilton's black in hot water,  I'm guessing 1/16 of a teaspoon, then added room temp water to the mix,  about 5 cups water total and about a 1/2 tsp of vinegar.  I squeezed out the water from the yarn, placed it in the crockpot,  poured the dye mix over it, turned the crockpot to low and let it cook for about an hour.   I then placed about a tablespoon of vinegar into the water and let it cook another hour.  Shut off the crockpot and went to bed.   In the morning I rinsed the yarn out in room temp. water and hung it to dry.  
I think I used too much dye for the amount of yarn because it came out REALLY dark.   But it did break and you can see the different colors.  Can't wait to do it again!    And here's the result.

A Nice Surprise

I had some old Paton's Classic Wool laying around, it was an abomination.  Bright teal colored and I couldn't think of anything to use it for.  I had been using it to practice lace patterns that I thought looked a bit complicated,  but that was all.   After my semi success with the KP I decided to over dye it using just Black Cherry to see how that came out.  Nothing thrilling,   I didn't take before picture and I didn't take after pictures of the skein since it was just and experiment. 
I ended up knitting the yarn into a Deep Sea Flower Dice Bag for Ruben.

As I said, nothing spectacular.  But.... I had tied the skein with some yarn from a sweater I'm making for Bryan.  It's KP's Wool of the Andes in the Mist color.  There I got a pleasant surprise. 

The gray went a lovely reddish brown color.   I wondered what I would do with the leftovers, and now I know!