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.