Olympic Knitting?

I have been working on a simple but fun decorative scarf.... It is a silk chain link pattern, and I have finished one row of chains, and have started the next row. The third step will be knitting links to join the rows together - photos will follow. Meanwhile, I am watching the Gold Medal round of Ladies Curling (go Canada!) and I realized I had made this....

Cool eh?

The rest of the work in progress looks like this...

and is made of Debbie Bliss, Pure Silk in aqua. So soft. I had tried to design a top with this in the summer, but the yarn is SO droopy and mushy, not good for clothing, but perfect for a scarf to wear flung over shoulders!

Lock Sock

If you go to the gym, or anywhere else that you need to bring your own lock, you often use a different locker everytime like I do. This can lead to confusion if many have the same type of lock as you. the solution is to use a unique lock or decorate it so that it is immediately noticed. I have seen locks with ribbons attached. So why not a sock?

Here is the pattern:
Yarn: left over sock yarn, preferably cool colours.
Needles: a pair of 2.5mm sock needles (2 of the DPN set should do)

Cast on 40 stitches for a medium lock (mine is 1.75 inches or 4.5mm across) Use more or less depending on your lock size Work in K1, P1 ribbing for 2.5 inches or about half an inch taller than your lock. Cast off all.

Hold into a tube...

Sew the side seam, leaving the cast off edge at the bottom of your lock. Stitch together a few stitches in the middle of the top seam, leaving two side top openings to allow the curved lock bar to come up and back into the hole on the other side (see photos).

The bottom remains un-seamed, to allow the key to unlock it. (a bit like a skirt) The ribbing should hug gently to the lock. Totally unique at the gym, and very easy to knit!

Family Day

A holiday monday, and an extra day for knitting, sewing and visiting with my daughter and her fella. It is Family Day, a fairly new long weekend for us in Ontario. I have worked on the dresses and have finished the third bridesmaid dress. (visit my sewing blog ----->)

I also have finished my rosy hoody and have to decide what kind of fastening I want for the front opening. Buttons, clasps, zipper? Not sure yet. I still want to wash and block it, then maybe the way it fits will inspire that decision. For now, here is the first photo.....

I will be posting the full pattern with the modelled photo in a day or two :)

Help - Need your Vote...

If you have a moment... flip to my OTHER BLOG... and look at the dress photos and vote for your favourite details. The survey will help decide how to further proceed with the various girls' dresses. If you haven't already paid a visit there, check out the previous posts to see all the dresses I have been distracted with for the last month!

Now I am back to sewing teeny-tiny pearls on the bodice of the wedding dress. Love that part! (seriously!)

Thanks for voting, the results were helpful and you can see the details we liked best on the newest dress on the other blog!

Blue Faced Leicester - turns Rosy!

What a face! This is the Blue Face Leicester sheep. I have 14 -50gm skeins of natural sport weight wool, and have decided to dye the natural creamy colour to a sweet rosy tone.

I used two plastic coffee containers (my usual dying buckets) and mixed up a slightly diluted wine colour dye. Split into the two buckets, I then pre-soaked the yarn in warm water....

this helps the dye to absorb evenly. Then I squeezed out most of the water and dropped 7 skeins into each bucket. They soaked for ten minutes.

Then I dumped the dye bath and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed.....

...with a final cold water bath soak for ten minutes. Taking them out and squeezing gently, I laid them loosely on the drying screen....

The natural variety in the tones adds to the hand dyed effect. It is due to the fact that I was not agitating the yarn in the buckets, so it was not completely even dying. I like this.

Yarn in the Mail

I received this today.

The perfect treat for an otherwise over the top crazy busy day (mostly a good day, just TOO busy and I am tired). We installed new software in the office and had a crash course to learn it, then with all the morning regular stuff still to complete, I ate a 3 minute bagel lunch and got back to catching up. I was running behind all day and did not have a moment to rest. I think I still had some things that I never got too, but I will face that tomorrow.... The software seems great and simple enough to use.

The yarn is sport weight Blue Faced Leicester, from Elann. It is in it's natural colour and ready in skeins to dye if required, and that is exactly what I want to do with it. I will do this this weekend, and will photo the process as I go.

I am dye-ing to get to it (teehee)