Dying Sock Yarn

 

Wow I love how soft this yarn came out. I can be a little heavy handed with the colour and this time I was hoping to have soft. I think I got Soft! The dyes that I have are Fast Acid dyes from Prochem. The colours I used where Lobster Bisque #339, Lilac # 845, Magenta # 338. I did my favorite casserole dish covered and in the oven for 40 mins. 

I used a 100 gram skein of sock yarn with 25% nylon, Diamond Select Footsie. Not sure yet which kind of sock I will knit. Maybe a short sock for summer. 

Here is the yarn all caked up, ready to knit. 

Then I started on blues with a touch of lime green. The skein on the right has mostly blue with a touch of light lime. I love lime.

 I then did the left on because I had the colours mixed up. It has more Yellow to make up all that Green.

Both of these skeins is used colours Brilliant blue 490, sea breeze 408 and sun yellow 119

Here is my mostly Blue one, I am for sure keeping it for me. In fact I have just started to knit it up, only just started so not much to show yet. 

The skein with more green is caked up and I gave it to my mom. She knits socks too. So I thought it was a fun colour for summer. She is finishing up some socks for my dad then she can do this for her self. 

Here is my blue ball ready to knit. I think I will do short socks for my self. I looked up a free pattern called Rose City Rollers. They are cute. Let you know how they turn out. 

Mini Iron Bags

 

Here is a set of bags I have made. I love this colour works line of fabric by Northcott fabrics. I have a far bit of it and a few others to go with it. 

Well this past fall I found a pattern for a mini bag patter, the bag on the left.

I found this pattern at Lillyella mini maker case sew-along/ A Facebook friend had made one and I found the link with her help. 

Here is the iron in the case. In the photo I still have to sew down the inner lining by hand.  

On it's own.

I could not stop and picked out fabric for a second bag. This time my sea themed Batik fabrics. 

My finished bag! 

The inside with the lining sewn down. 

I added a new feature on this bag. I zipper tab on both end of the zipper. II could not open the zipper well and this helps. 

I have one more to finish. I better get it done too.  

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.