My little helper

I have a very eager little helper from time to time:

See the concentration he puts in to the winding.

Finally the sweater in domino knitting for the little helper is done and all loose ends fastened and cut off. I thought I would never get it done. It is one and a half years since I started to knit it and I am so happy to finally have it off my needles and stop feeling guilty about it.

Yarn: Sisu and Lanett
Needles: 3mm
Pattern: My own.

I find the pickupedges to be rather thick and the sweater very heavy due to the garter stitch in the domino squares. Now it's just to see if the little one ever will wear it! I have tried to have him trying it on it during the process but it has been a struggle.

Lacy Summer Socks

I started to knit these socks a year ago. I do not know why they have taken this long to complete since I like the yarn, I like the pattern and they were very fast to complete.

I have knitted a pair of socks in this pattern before but it seems I forgott to put post about them or at least I can'f find them in my archive right now.
I bound off the socks before cristmas, it just took some months to dig out the needle and darn the ends in. I have not been in a hurry since these socks have so many holes in them that they are not suitable for winterwear where I live and even if spring is starting to show, it will not be warm enough for another 2 months.

"New" socks on my feet.

Finally a couple of months after I took these socks off the needles thay I have darned in the yarn ends.
It took me ~10minutes or less.

Yarn: 7-veljestä handpainted by me
Needles: 3.5mm Knitpicks Options
Pattern: My own

The socks are started from the toes. 
Pattern is a *k2, p2* rib and a small twist on the k2 every fourth row to hold the rib together better.

This yarn is one of my failures in handpainting but still The colors are ok and I do need more socks. I do prefer varigated yarns that are more peacefull.

Painting yarn - New technique

When you want to make a garment where the colours slowly move in to each other and not have a repetitive colour sequence you might want to try the following technique out.

I have seen this technique on a few blogs and have had the idea to use it in the back of my head for a year or more now. One evening I decided it was time to activate the idea.

This technique is perfect for lace shawls knitted in triangular or squares knitted from the middle and out. Since complicated knitted lace could be completely hidden in variegated yarns and sharp colour contrasts this technique is a good way to colour up your lace.

Knit up a plain fabric of all the yarn you will need to complete your garment.

Wash the fabric carefully not to felt it, rinse and use a little white vinegar in the rinse water. Press out all excessive water.

Protect yourself and the painting area with latex gloves and plastic cover. Mix colors and spread out the damp fabric on the painting area.

Here you see my fabric spread out on my kitchen table, brushes and dyes waiting.

If you are concerned where the colours will come in your garment you need to make calculations. But otherwise just take out the dyes and the brushes and start painting. I had just a vague plan in my head and painted the fabric according to this.

Remember always use the colours that makes you tingle.

Paint the fabric roughly following the rows. The dyes can be slightly uneven applied, some will even out and the rest will add an interesting effect in the knitted garment to be. Let the colour changes be a bit uneven to make them slowly grow into each other. Sharp colour contrasts painted perfectly following the rows will make sharp colour changes in the knitted garment to be.

When you are done with the painting roll the fabric together vertically so that the same color is placed on the same place through the roll. If you do not want the colors to bleed, wrap the roll in plastic.

Put the role in a micowave safe container. Here I have rolled the role in the glass utensil specially purchased for dyeing.

Put on the lid of the container and place the container with the damp/wet fabric in the microwave. Turn the microwave on full effect for 3-5 minutes, until the water in the wet fabric is close to the boiling point.

Let the container rest in the microwave for 10 minutes and turn the microwave on again to rice the temperature up to the boiling point. Let the fabric rest another 10 minutes before rising the temperature up again.

Cover the container with some old towels and let the fabric slowly cool down. The longer cooling down period the better the colours bite on the fibers.

Here is my cooled down fabric ready to be washed to remove any traces of dyes left in the fabric.

Wash and rinse the fabric carefully. Remember too much agitation will felt the wool. Be careful!

Below is my washed and dried fabric. As the observant viewer will notice the colour has bled and into each other due to me not wrapping the role in plastic. The colours have also evened out some of the unevenness and the transitions between the colours have softened up.

Now it's time to rip out the fabric and wind it to a ball or a hank.

Below is my ready yarn on a ball.

This is the end of this story for now. The yarn has been added to my stash of yarns that needs to be used. Hopefully I will soon find the perfect project for this yarn.

Increasing amount of projects started.

I do not seem to be able to stop myself. I am just at the finnishing line with both my version of Arisaig and the sweater for the little one and what do I do?

I am starting new projects every day (Well almost)!

A new pair of socks for me in Trekking Nature, in color 1605.

A pair of socks for the littleone in Rellana sockenwolle color dunkelpastel.

And yesterday night a new sweater for the little one.
Look:

It is a Sasha Kagan Design published in the English magazine "Knitting" August 2006, I am using Drops Alpaca.

We, or rather my husband, have a small, very small, red sailing boat and DH and the little one likes to go sailing in the summer so I thought this sweater pattern could be changed to fit a child.

I am not so happy with the Intarsia part, and that is a big part of this pattern, I find that the articles I have on Intarsia in magazines and online mainly describe the very basic of intarsia. Like this boats sails and mast, should you use 2 white threads, one for each sail? should I make the mast with Intarsia or embrodery it later? and how do you carry the yarn along when a color moves many stiches away?

I thought I was an advanced knitter but now I feel like a beginner, like being snapped on my fingers for having to high thoughts about my knitting ability. Well there you see, one shall be humble...

Other things that has been on my needles lately is a bunch of swatches. I am thinking lace and beads, beads and lace and lace, lace, lace...

Would it not be nice if I finnished something soon?