April Garden To Dye For

I'm not doing a very good job of keeping up with the recording of my socks here... I'm just a little behind. These were knit from Wool2Dye4 Superwash 100% Merino, dyed with Paas, knit on US1 dpns over 60 stitches - plain vanilla stockinette. The heel is a short-row version of Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' design. I made a little gusset before and after the heel, otherwise the socks would have been a little snug and my mother would have gotten another pair. heh.

I increased a total of 12 stitches, then just before starting the heel I rearranged the stitches so there were 18 on each (of four) needle. After the heel was knit, I slid the extra stitches back on the sole needles - so that there were 21/15/15/21 just like after the increases. Then I decreased two stitches every other round just as in a traditional flap heel/gusset. When I had decreased down to the original 60 stitches I just went 'round and 'round until the toe decreases.

These socks also were my first time going with a rounder toe decrease. Although I do have pointy feet (thankyouverymuch), I prefer the new way.

Opalicious

Saturday Chuck the mailman brought me this:

See the return address? It was my box of prize Opal from PT Yarn - wheeeeee! Check it out


















There's Magic 1051, Prisma 1190, Petticoat 1290, Opal Uni 1233, Elements 1073 and 1077, Dreamcatcher 1236 (2 skeins), 1230, and 1234. Pretty cool, eh?

I've been carrying the bag ful of yarn with me from room to room. Makes me think of Jill with Pinky. Good ol' Jane - I even schlepped it to her house and she pretended to be interested - she even sniffed the Petticoat! It's like she says, I pretend to like the dogs and she returns the favor with my yarn/socks. heh.

It's Magic

Opal Magic, that is. The Opal Chatters Newsletter sponsored an Easter Egg hunt in April, and I won a skein of yarn. My very first Opal - how exciting! Using the Mermaid sock from Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks Warm Feet, I knit a cuff of about four inches over 72 stitches. From there I did a short row heel over half the stitches, then continued to decrease down to a total of 60 for the foot. Since the pattern stitch spirals, I morphed into a 4x2 rib for the instep, then to plain stockinette about 1/3 of the way to the toe.



As much as I like the looks of the spiral rib, it really eats up the stitches. I had to use 72 instead of my normal 60, and even then it's a little snug. Also seemed to take forever to knit it to four inches. I'm thinking I may save that stitch for smaller socks.

In dyeing news, I've had a colorway in mind for a few weeks now. Green with purple and yellow, inspired by my lawn full of dandelions and violets. I remember a couple of years ago being inspired by the same thing to make a bright set of floral beads.

I broke out some of the Easter Egg dye that Jane got for me, and dyed up a 3 1/2 ounce hank of Wool2Dye4 Superwash Supersock. Here's a picture of the skein. You know, I really like to look of yarn re-skeined after dyeing to show the colors together, but without a swift or niddy-noddy, I just didn't have it in me to do the work just for a picture. I think a swift purchase is in my near future.

After taking the picture, I draped the skein over the back of a chair and using my hand-held winder, made this ==>
(as always, click to biggify)

By now, I'm coasting toward the toe decreases on the first sock, just a simple stockinette on US1 dpns over 60 stitches. I did something a little different at the heel, but I'll go into more detail in the next post. In the meantime, dye on!

Chee-Toes

Finished the Cheeto socks yesterday. It didn't even take the entire 50 gram skein of Regia Stretch. I used US 1 dpns and 60 stitches.

Helper Kitty

Zack takes his helper kitty status quite seriously. Heh.... goofy kitty - he kept batting around the beads while I was trying to take pics.

Eggsellent Haul

Good ol' Jane. I had told her after Easter to be on the lookout for Easter egg dye kits on sale, and to buy some for me if she found a good deal. She was at CVS yesterday and bought all they had - at 90% off! I had fun opening all these boxes last night and harvesting all the color tablets. Some of them had packets of dye; it'll be interesting to see how that stuff works.

Thanks Little Sister.