Ugly Green Yarn

 

I did some over dying yarn the other day. 

I hand done this sock yarn, with Easter egg dyes and did not like what I had.

So Over dying to help out. 

I added bight blue and some National Blue in speckles. maybe some other green too. I just played with the colours. Well I am not sure I like it now either. 

But Wait

I then put it in to a ball. Wow it changed so much. I think I like it now. this is closer to how it will knit up and it looks pretty good now. Sometime Over dying is the best thing to do. No more sappy weak green. Now just bright bolder colours. 

Rainbow Pinwheel Quit

One of my agility teachers has had a human baby girl. Her dogs had puppies too in 2020. It was a year of staying close to home and having babies. While I needed to make a baby quilt. Yesterday I dropped it off to her. 

Close up of the quilting and binding. I did loops all over. 

On the deck table in the sunshine.

As the quilt is going to agility person I had to do a photo shot out on the equipment. On the teeter just before the wind removed it. 

On a tunnel, the blue and yellows look good with it. 

I love this photo, on a jump. Kind of funny, as last week I was adding coats and blankets to a jump to let my dog see different jumps. Every time she came around to the jump it looked a little different. 

 

Easter Monday Socks

 

Chocolate Strawberry Yarn has been knitting into Socks. This is the 7th pair I finished this year (pair #6 start to finish for the year). I started these March 20th and had them done by March 30th. 

I used a pattern I had but slowly I make changes. So this pair, the new thing is how I cast on and the heal cap has reinforcement stitches, both I learned while doing a sock a long, with Kate Atherley. It was a good class done on line. 

Here is the yarn dry and ready to roll into a ball. The dyes I used for this yarn was a fast acid dye from Pro-chem. I used a casserole dying technique, in a pan with vinegar added and set in the oven to steam covered. It is a low emersion technique I learned for dying wool fabric. 

So I dyed more but this time I tried Easter egg tablet dying. Here is Green and Yellow tablets at the beginning. 

I couple minutes later.

So here is all the tablets. But I wanted more variety. So I added Bright orange dye in the one area.  

Dried and dyed. But I am not sure I like it. Maybe I will over dye some blue in there. 

Here is the pink blue and purple egg dying tablets. I used 9, 3 of each colour. This skein I used a the casserole dyed in the oven and low water levels.  

Here is the yarn dry and ready to roll into a ball. This is Cathy Colours for sure. 

So sock repair is also a thing I end up doing too. This was a very early pair of socks I knit. It started as a real pretty 100% Merion wool, super wash but the wool did not stand up to the wear of a sock. They were nice and soft. I decided to save the top ankle and re-knit from the lower ankle down. They look odd but you knew what? they are one of the best fitting socks I have. Lots of ankle room but not to big anywhere else. The new yarn used on the foot is Knoy yarn with 25% nylon so it will stand up real well. 

Green March

I got some Sister's choice blocks done in green this week. They will look good with my pink and yellow ones. I am so far behind for green this month. We have been warmer and most of the snow is gone. Many winters we have lots still and it is colder. Walks and training with the dogs has been great, but it means less time to quilt. 

To see more about the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2021 check out the link. For years now, about 10 years, I have been Following along and doing blocks in the given colour. I have many quilts done and many more started by doing the colour of the month. I love how it works. 

Two new books came this week. I have Lori's Farm Girl Vintage books one and 2. The blocks from these books play nicely with the other blocks in Farm Girl Vintage. I really wanted the other dog blocks. Looks like I might be making more quilts from here. Love the Christmas blocks. 

 

Sock Pair #5

 

This pair of socks is #5 started and finished this year. The yarn is very soft and is from local sheep. It is Smiling Sheep Happy Sock Yarn. It is 85% SW Merino and 15% nylon. It is a hand dyed yarn and the colour name is "All I Have To Do Is Dream". 

They knit up real nice. But for some reason I started the toe decrease too early on my first sock. I made it way too short for my feet. So I had to redo the toe and make it longer. All is good now. I must have been rushing too much. 

I have started to knit up the next pair. I am using my Chocolate Strawberry yarn. I had another class with Kate Atherley last Sunday, The Sock A Long, hosted by Focus on Fiber Art Ass. It was on zoom again. I learned to do a different heal cap that also uses the reinforcement stitch I use on the heal flap. So happy to learn a new thing again. I will be able to have better socks and I hope the heal will last longer. . 

Here is the pretty photo of the Chocolate Strawberry yarn I dyed. I hope to do more dying soon. 

As I have been wearing my sock daily, they do wear out. I washed a bundle up and after they dry I check for weak points. This pair I had redone the toes and now the heals need help. So I dig out the left over yarn and stitch over the old stitches. I am glad it is just my socks I have to keep in good shape. If I had to do this for my whole family all winter long, I could not keep up. My men would have to learn to knit. 

Rainbow Scrappy Pinwheels

 

I did some machine quilting on Saturday, one of my quilts. I did loops all over as this baby quilt will get washed lots and it will be lots of quilting to keep it together. I love doing loops for baby quilts. There is so many fun prints in this quilt. 

The backing fabric is sheep. 

Here is the design wall. 

You can check out the Rainbow scrap challenge and see what others are making over at Soscrappy 

These blocks have been done for some time, years really. It is just a bit of a bigger box of blocks. I have dug them out because I am stating to think about how I might use them. 

My good friend Nadine has been working on her green scraps/ She got this block done, it is called improved 4 patch, Makes her think of 4 leaf clovers. 

I had better get going on the green scraps. I have so many and need so many blocks done.

Dying for Socks

 

So I got this pair of socks done in record time, 8 days. Wow ! I cast them on the needles on a Sunday and got then finished the following Sunday. This is sock pair # 4 started and finished in this year. 

I got a chance to take a sock knitting class on line with Kate Atherley. I took a mitten and glove class from her 2 years a go. I also have her sock book, it was on my Christmas list and mom got it for me.  So I picked this yarn that is a little bit larger then store sock yarn. This still has 10% nylon and should stand up to sock wearing. 

So with Kate we make a swatch for sure. Here is mine. But I did make a second swatch with one size down needles and have liked that better. I ended up casting on 60 stitches on 2.75mm needles. 

As the Sock-a-long is on zoom and set up at my sewing spot. Oh my, Knitting took over. 

A few days later after class, I had to dye some sock yarn. I had been getting all kinds of ads show up on my feed. So many pretty yarns. So I dyed these two. 

This one I am calling Chocolate Strawberries. I yarn I saw that inspired this, had a pale pink and my pink got away on me. I still love it and it is mine not like the one I saw. 

Then this one I call Birch trees and sky. Now can you see the black and white freckles are the birch bark the green for the tree tops and the blue sky. 

This photo might be the best way to see how it will knit out. I do not except any kind of row thing as the colours change is so quick. But I will love these colours. 

I still want to dye more yarn. Maybe this weekend. 

Pillows

 

I made these hand dyed strings blocks into pillow cases. When my son moved out I set them with him to use. As it happens, I do not have finished photos of my pillow cases. They are done.  

I am pretty pleased with how they turned out. Just wish I had a totally done photo of them 

Green Saturday

 

Today is the first green scrap Saturday. So far I just have the this little block done, a 16 patch. My list in the box had just one missing. So now the green is complete in that box and I can cross it off. I have been putting a list of blocks in the box, it helps to see quickly if I need any more done or not. 

Next up I have this laid out to piece together. 

Green scraps -What can I say? it is by far my biggest boxes of scraps. I love green and there are so many different greens. Wow. 

I have a number of green blocks missing to help complete sets. I t=really could do green for 2 months, I am sure. 

I have added this post to Soscrappy. She has many links to check out for scrap quilts. I could spend the whole day there.  

This is the last of my Yellow blocks left over from February. 8" log cabin blocks done on paper. I got them trimmed up today but I have paper to take out still. so mostly done.  

Pretty fabric. I just loved this wall of batik fabric and had to take a photo. It is Batiks on sale. 

This book, I found it. my mom and I have been looking for this book and this week someone local had a copy for sale. Glad to have a copy to share with mom. I sent it to her house before I had a good look. So not sure if I will start another string quilt yet or not. 

Green yarn! I am taking a sock knitting class on line tomorrow. I think I will try using this yarn, pretty Green again. 

Nadine has been keeping up with her Rainbow Scrap Challenge too. She finished up this yellow block last weekend for February. 

Then she sorted her green box of scraps and used some of the larger pieces to make this card holder. Her grandmother is in the hospital and loves to play cards. She is hopping this card holder will let her still play some crib. What a great gift. 

So much to show today.