Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Guild and Knitting

I think I mentioned way back in January that our guild's Feb and March program was going to be a self striping sock yarn dyeing lesson. To participate we paid a very low fee in exchange for a skein of yarn, a dyeing board and the use of dyes. Not to mention handouts and hands on help from the more knowledgeable members. I spent the hour of Feb's lesson winding the yarn onto the board. I know, I sound stupid. Most of the participants around me are also weavers and were whipping through this process like mad women! Evidently you use a similar set up to wrap warps for a loom. (I have no idea what I just said so please don't ask me for clarification. If you'll recall, weaving was THE craft that I'm forcing myself not to get into yet!) Anyhoo...I ended up having to take mine home to complete the wrapping process and the tieing off. Now, being a go getter, I tied it off and took it off the board. It never occurred to me that someone might want to check my work and make sure I didn't goof in a sever way! oops!



When we arrived for our March meeting, our yarn was taken and placed in a bucket of water to soak and we were given a bucket number to remember. Then the business part of the meeting started. They called us over to the dyeing area one bucket at a time to wring out our yarn and lay it out for the dyeing. As there were SOOO many of us participating, I didn't take a whole lot of time picking out my colors. That's probably a good thing as I would never have put these colors together for myself and I actually like how it came out. lol After putting the dyes on the different sections, we wrapped them in plastic wrap and placed them in baggies to go home. (I tell you I couldn't WAIT to get out of there and get to the microwave!) Then it was just follow the rest of the directions. Nuke for 2 minutes, rest for 2 minutes, Nuke for 2 minutes, rest for 2 minutes, Nuke for 2 minutes, rest for 2 minutes. Burn fingers on plastic wrap because you can't wait to see what the colors look like! Duh, I know...this is why I don't teach remember? hehe There was no leaching out of color in the rinse out and I only had to fight it a bit to get it back on the board. Then it was just waiting for it to dry. Afterwards I skeined it and rewashed it and voila! self striping sock yarn ready to ball up and knit. I'm pretty pleased with this process and can't wait to do it again.....although the thought of spinning up all that white makes my skin crawl. Oh well. I do think I'll try the microwave dyeing again in the future as that was so slick and easy! I don't think it would be practical for large batches, but wow that was quick!
Now for an update on The Sweater. I do believe I may actually get to wear this sucker soon! I've been plugging away at it little bits here and there and Sunday was able to finish up the right front side. (Bells clang, ticker tape in the air, lights strobe, ect.) After completing it I realized the left front side looked a bit goofy. This is where I confess that I knew it was goofy, but thought I could fudge my way through in the seaming. Um, No. I understood the pattern better after the right side, so I frogged back the left side to the point of the collar shaping and redid that up to the shoulder. Lesson learned, problem fixed and probably future problems avoided. I'm now working on the first sleeve and moving right along on that one. So hopefully soon I can show a finished sweater. If it's done in less than a year it will be a complete record for me. I'm not holding my breath though. On the other end of the scale, Don's sock is languishing in neglected sock hell right now, and Melissa's slippers are waiting for the dyeing planets to align correctly for a successful dyeing day. ;) Yep...I think I have been off the planet for a bit. heheh.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, pretty yarn! I probably wouldn't have picked out those colors either but the yarn looks great!