foot-high-5!

Another spectacular accomplishment. Just kidding, I am none too pleased with the outcome of these socks. I am going to be a trooper and hang on until the end, where I will look up ways to salvage the part that the toes connect to the foot, and at the end of that, I will throw my hands up and just make them into regular socks, casting them aside into a pile that will never be touched.

I also started the ripple blanket from a few posts back. I think I am not going to be too happy with it. What is with me lately? I don’t know, but I only brought a few projects wort of yarn with me to my summer classes, so I am stuck with this for now. I have made a vow to keep from buying more yarn until I can cut my stash into under 70 skeins. I decided to grab a rainbow of colors of Simply Soft and dig in. First I forgot that yellow comes after orange, and then the ripples got all distorted until violet came along. I will see what I can do.

Toesies

The only socks that I ever wear are toe socks. I don’t have any interest in knitting any other kind of socks, since I won’t wear them. Also because sock yarn seems expensive in comparison so the rest of the kinds of yarn out there. But, toe socks are a challenge. I looked around Ravelry for a good pattern, even tough I had the basic idea, and decided to cast on with some cheap acrylic yarn that I had hanging around in my stash. I have something like 15 skeins of Luster Sheen that I inherited after a woman dropped half her stash (a garbage bag full, quite literally) on me.

Anyhow, after a night of toe work, I finally started to connect them. That was a disaster. I wasn’t keeping any tension, so I might try to re-do it after the rest of the sock is done. Maybe not? It’s just a sock, after all, and it’s only the first one.

I’m going to combine some of this toe sock pattern with one for knee socks, because there is no better sock than a knee sock to me. We’ll see how easily I get bored with this, though.

As of the picture, I have about two inches or so of sock added past the toes. Who knows, maybe I’ll start to like sock knitting.

Dye, take two.

I wrapped up the rest of my skein of Fishermen’s Wool yesterday by dyeing it. I was curious as to what the results would be, since I had agreed on going with orange and green.

It went smoother this time, since I had a better handle on what I was doing, and also because I didn’t have to wait several hours for the last few packets of dye. I think I might have a new addiction in the making–and really, to think, I have way too much yarn as it is already without making more.

After letting it hang and dry out (impatiently, I might add), I re-wound it on the chair. I love how it turned out, even the browns that came out of the cross-dye. I will figure out what to make it it eventually!

Oh, but I crochet sometimes.

I don’t pay enough attention to what I title things. I crochet a lot, too. Usually when I want something mindless or simple, or bags, or something really quick, I’ll crochet it. I always forget to mention that. My ex-boyfriend is the one who taught me how, although once I started reading into it, I learned that what he showed me was all messed up and wrong.

When I was in Wal*Mart (sorry, guys, I know, I know), I was checking out their yarn selection for the blanket I want to make. I was browsing Ravelry and decided that I was going to do the Easy Ripple Afghan. I thought about colours and had a great idea. I really love the old muted 70’sish colors. The drab olive, burnt orange, mustard yellow. They remind me of the seat on the subway in Buffalo. I think I’m going to do it in those colors. Stupid me, I was off on what I’d already purchased, and didn’t think to grab the yarn I’d actually new. I grabbed the crochet hook, though? Yeah, that makes sense.

And how could I forget! I picked up kool-aid for another journey into dyeing. I picked up green and orange, so hopefully I can come up with something interesting.

Pretty Kool

I found a new interest in knitting-dye! I remember vaguely trying to dye some wool a few years ago and failing miserably (though I still have that yarn somewhere in my stash). I found a couple of packets of tropical fruit punch kool-aid when I was cleaning a house (don’t worry, it was abandoned!) and remembered that I’ve had a giant skein of Fishermen’s Wool for a few years now. I’d always intended to dye it, I’d just never gone through with it.

Well, I have some free time for the next few weeks, and I decided to try it out. I read up a bit on how to dye with kool-aid, and then when I was rummaging through the drawers trying to find the food coloring we’ve had for years, I found two packets of pink lemonade. Excellent!

You will have to excuse me, sometimes I get too excited to wait for proper lighting when it comes to pictures. I didn’t want to wait much longer, really. After the final dye, I set it between a towel to soak up as much as I could, and then hung it up in the bathroom to dry a little more. After a few hours, I rewound it.

I ended up using the two packets of pink lemonade, and then four packets of the tropical fruit punch. I like the saturation just fine for both. I’m already coming up with ideas for the next dye job.

It was a lot of fun, and I can see myself buying more wool just to play around with it in the future. Here is the final result of my first successful dye:

Now I just have to come up with something to knit with it.

Let’s get it on!

I decided that keeping a blog for knitting might be sort of fun. I’ve spent too much time on Ravelry. Either way, I guess look here if you’re interested in seeing what Hyz knits and thinks about. Something tells me that I’ll give up in a few days or even just forget about it. I’ll try not to!