Lovelies of the day

Here it is! The top one in the sun and the bottom one in the shade. The yarn on the left is 100% Merino from Knit Picks. I took these two pictures to give you a better idea of color. The one on the right is 100% worsted, extra fine merino from Wool 2 Dye 4. It's the one I wasn't totally happy with, but in the morning light, it's not as bad. And Sugar Bear thinks it's really beautiful.

And I completely forgot, I have undyed Trekking that I ordered from Astrid that I haven't dyed yet. Woo-hoo!



I did finally pick up some needles last night. I swatched for the socks that Cookie A. did on DIY though I kept screwing up the figure eight cast-on for the dumbest reason. I don't ever use a slip knot when I cast on. And I had to use one last night and it took me a couple of times to realize that I had the knot on the wrong needle . . . should have been on the bottom and I had it on the top. Anyway, this is why I am in love with the DVR. The pattern was originally the Baudelaire sock pattern from Knitty.

They dumbed it down a bit for the show, and the pattern can be found here. I'm probably doing the dumbed-down version just because I want to go fast. I'll hopefully have some progress to show over the next few days.

Fickle dyeing goddess

It's Spring (well, the calendar says it's Spring, the snow on it's way to my house begs to differ) which means that it's time to start dyeing yarn. I think I didn't have any inspiration over the winter to get into it. I showed you the yarn that Sugar Bear dyed with me last week. And then, I watched Knitty Gritty again yesterday and they had Scout on and she did this whole dyeing tutorial and I got jazzed again about dyeing. She did an excellent job, and it was nice to see her "in person."

I didn't really want to get into acid dyes today. I was feeling a bit lazy, so I got out lazy woman Kool-Aid. And I used too damn much liquid. Well, I didn't screw up the color entirely, but let's just say, there are some strange colors in what I thought would be a Sunset colorway. It's not quite muddy brown in places, but there are colors I am not loving. I'll post pics tomorrow. I need better light, natural light and well, it's dark right now on the East Coast. That and I want to show you pictures of it in a hank and in a cake. Anything to make it look a little better. I think over-dyeing it may be its ultimate fate. It's funny because I have had great luck in all my previous dyeing, but this one, not so much.

But, I am excited because I had to redeem myself and still being lazy I got out the Paas Egg Dye tonight. And I think I did a much better job than I had this morning. Ultimately, I need to get the acid dye out and get over my laziness. I ordered more undyed yarn because Linda and I are supposed to dye next week and I want to be prepared. I've got 4 oz. left of pure merino sock yarn. Hopefully, what I ordered will get here in time for our dyeing festival.

If you are interested in dyeing your own, definitely check out the Knitty Gritty link above. Valuable info for the beginner! Off to watch the show I DVRed today!