Two Skeins

 

I usually spin two bobbins full of wool and then ply them together. But I've decided lately that it might be better to half fill two bobbins, which gives me two skeins and can be completed in an afternoon. For markets, I like to have two matching skeins. Each skein/ball is enough for a woman's sock. If someone wants more than two, they can put in an order. 

Easy When You Know How

 

I made a waffle stitch backwards and forwards square, but have been wanting to try a waffle stitch square that starts in the middle and goes round and round. I had saved the pattern on Pinterest. So I looked it up and grabbed some cotton/acrylic yarn that I was given in 'payment' for knitting the bedsocks. And couldn't make head nor tail of the pattern. After several false starts, I decided to look at a video. I found 'Waffle Stitch In A Square Crochet Tutorial' by OkieGirlBling'n'Things on YouTube. Aha. Now I could see what I was aiming for. I went back to the written pattern and it made perfect sense. I now have the hang of it and it's so easy that it's a good project for taking along in the car or when having conversations. It's experimental, there's no deadline and I'll just do it when I want something easy. 

Progress

 

The socks are a pair; I've finished and delivered the jewelry bags; another batch of tomatoes and peppers has been processed:

 I may even be able to sneak in some tatting before I spin some more wool for Saturday's market. 

Juggling

 I'm busy with a number of small projects and tasks at the moment. I'm knitting socks for next week's market:

I've sewn 15 jewelry bags but have another 15 to do. I'll make a start today, but I'm not sure I'll get them finished:

Yesterday I prepared cards and envelopes for the craft group ladies to decorate tomorrow. Someone else has a plan to decorate them using paint and balloons, so I don't need to worry about that.

This morning I remembered that I must embroider teddy faces before tomorrow. Luckily, they don't take long, so I've done that:

Tomatoes and grandmother bonnets (bell peppers?) are ripening in Jack's garden at a great pace, so I need to keep on top of processing them.

I'm giving away some of the peppers too. They make a nice gift and that saves me from having to preserve them! I'm reluctant to give away tomatoes though because I put them in the freezer and use them myself. 

Round 11 of the Spring doily is languishing because I need to do the things that have deadlines first. 

Stained Glass Cross

 

I bookmarked the stained glass cross when I saw it on Lilliantatlace's blog. My granddaughter's confirmation was the perfect opportunity to try the pattern. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. 

I Lost

 

Unlike yesterday, I lost my game of thread chicken. I knew the ball was a bit shorter than usual, but thought there was enough for a pair of fingerless gloves. There wasn't. Plan B required. These are for an order, so I hope the customer will like my solution. The pattern is Nalu by Sparrowhawk, a favourite of mine. I had a pair in natural wool on my market table, but the customer thought they'd look dirty too quickly and asked me to make a pair in this brown/green wool. 

A Pair

 

Well, the plan worked and the socks are done, ready for the lady who wants them to come and collect them. I played yarn chicken with the mauve for top, heel and toe, but got there with about 20cm to spare, phew. 

Progress

 

I'm making progress on the socks. I hope that with coordinated shades and two socks the same, it won't look too much of a hodge podge. 

I Have A Plan

 

One of the problems with the  cotton yarn I showed in the previous post is that each ball is a different colour. I used to sell packs of coordinated colours, and these balls are obviously left over from one of those. How to make two identical socks with such a variety of colours? Yesterday I remembered the helix socks  I knitted last year. Aha, that could be the answer. I'll knit the legs of both socks using the helix technique and then decide whether there's enough yarn for both feet, or I should use the fifth colour plain. 

A Blast From The Past

 

This handspun cotton yarn was bought from me more than twenty years ago. It has been returned to me, with a request that I knit bedsocks with it. I wouldn't have spun it myself. At that time I employed a number of women who spun and knitted:

The photo is from an article I wrote for Spin Off magazine, Spring 2003. I did do the dyeing myself.

 I've been procrastinating about the bedsocks, but winter is rapidly approaching and I had better make a plan. The request was for ordinary socks, but long. Cotton lacks elasticity. I hope the length will prevent the socks falling off in the middle of the night. 

Working on Round 11

 

I've lost my momentum on the Spring doily. That's because I'm no longer trying to keep up with Renata. I plan to do one more round after this one, which is round 11, and then stop. I contemplated doing this round using all three colours, but eventually decided to use just the yellow, to echo round 4.  There are some fabulous multicolour versions out there, particularly Renata's own one, so it was tempting to follow suit. 

More Wiggling

 

I've just finished knitting the second Just Wiggle It cowl, pattern by Susan Ashcroft on Ravelry. I used the multicoloured skein I dyed last week, with natural. Interesting to see how the long colour changes work out. 

I didn't sell any cowls at the market on Saturday, but I did sell the scarf, the one I thought was going to be too expensive to sell. I'm happy to be proved wrong!

Colour

 

The tamarillo/tree tomato jelly is a lovely colour. I thought I'd aim for that colour when dyeing the wool I've just finished spinning. I thought I'd need to add grey to the pink dye to get the right sort of colour. Rather than just mix grey powder with the pink, I soaked the skeins in a grey dye bath and then poured pink dye over half of each skein, to get long colour changes:

I put them in the oven to set the dye, rinsed the skeins when they were cool and then put them on the veranda to dry:

 They're more or less as I visualised. I dyed two skeins in one batch, for the market, and another skein that I plan to use for a zig zag cowl, which is why I wanted long colour changes.