Another Dicebag & Ramblings

I spun up that lovely dark roving and got this:




And I couldn't leave it alone, so I wound it into a center-pull ball and knitted another dicebag with it. My tension(drape) and gauge are very different from the first and the shape and size of the bag reflect this discrepancy.

Front:


Back:


We visited el husbando's folks over the 4th of July. I gave his dad the hat I made for him and I gave his mom some bright green and yellow yarn. It was neat and bulky, but I couldn't quite figure out what to make with it. We managed to completely miss the 4 hours the yarn shop was open on the 4th, and they're always closed on Thursdays so that kind of sucked. They have a large variety of roving and spinnable fibers so I feel like I miss out if I don't go, but I really do have a ton of roving that I could be spinning...

On the way back to Raleigh we stopped in at Asheville to get ice cream (and let me go to a different yarn store, hehee) at Grove Arcade with hubby's aunt & uncle. The last time we were in Asheville I discovered the Home Crafts store for the first time, and bought some lush merino/silk blend from Mackey's Acres, and also some delightful black alpaca from Battman. I love the alpaca so much, but I've never had anything spin so happily as that merino/silk blend. So of course they didn't have any available this time. She kindly made a request of Mackey's Acres, and our Aunt offered to pick it up for me and bring it to Raleigh on her trip in a few weeks...ummm, I'm not actually sure when her trip is but she should be visiting us before we're back out that way.

So now I'm standing in a yarn store with money hypothetically intended for roving burning a hole in my pocket. Burning, burning... I wander through and pet the yarns and admire the expensive silks and the amazing alpaca yarns (almost bought one of the alpaca too, if it hadn't been bulky weight I probably would have). Then I came across the bamboo. I want to try spinning this stuff sometime, and soysilk too, but it's new and really popular right now and I'm kind of hoping the price will come down a little bit. There were a couple of bamboo yarns there and I got to touch bamboo yarn for the first time. It was almost as decadent as touching silk and had a sheen to match, with the friendly softness of cotton, and so smoothly and finely spun. And it was much less expensive than the silk. I had to have it.

I found a pattern in Knitting Lingerie Style that had a chance, and I got gauge right off the bat. Unfortunately I did run out of yarn (I bought all 2 balls in that colorway at the store). I hunted down the yarn locally, they didn't have that colorway but I found a coordinating solid. I barely had enough of the first to knit a stripe into each strap so it wouldn't look like I had just thrown it together. I had to dismantle the button band from another piece to get enough yarn. All of the pieces are knit now and I have to finish sewing it together and...

knitting the trim... I'm not sure if I will have enough of the contrast color I bought.

I'm pretty sure this yarn has officially driven me insane. I've been knitting and working on it pretty constantly to the point that my husband accused me of ignoring him all weekend. I'm scared I'm going to run out of yarn, and I'm terrified that it won't fit right when I finish it. Why do these factors make me want to work on it as if compelled by dark forces??

I don't want to show it until I'm done, but you can see some of the stitch pattern in this teaser:


I also got a lot done on Sahara during the trip. I'll have to take pics of my progress on that later.

Charts And Graphs

I'm working up charts in the normal alignment and removing the sideways ones when I do. (I still have the sideways ones. Just ask if you want the link).

I've just gotten the autobot one replaced. I probably won't put up any new posts as I replace the rest. So keep an eye on the "My Stuff To Share" in the sidebar!

More Stuff (To Share)

I added another chart. Check the sidebar for the Batman Logo Chart - and this time I made sure it wasn't sideways. ;^)


Also, I still love my new camera.

Stitch Markers In Silver

I made up a set of stitch markers for one of my knitting buddies. Check them out!



I liked them so much I had to make myself one too. I didn't take a picture of it though.

Ka-Chow!

Or whatever it is that Lightning says in Cars... I finally got a really dark dyejob.

It only bled for hours and hours and forced me to felt it to finally get all the red dye out of it. It seriously looked and felt like it was bleeding! Very gross. I think it would have been slightly less gross if it really had been bleeding. At least then it wouldn't have dyed my hands.



But it is so perfectly what I was trying to create! I just need to learn how to get what I want without wasting so much dye.


Also, I know what you crave, Barbara. Yes, that's right. Check this out:




At least one of those center pull balls is yours. I had intended it to be the 3-ply one, and I spun it first. But I didn't expect the single to come out so even or so thin... so we'll see if Beth sees any potential in it or not. I like them both a lot more now than when I was spinning them. I've never had to put so much pre-spinning work into yarn!

Anyways, gotta run!

Mmmmm, New Camera.

I think I might be in love with this thing. Of course the moment we ordered it the old one starts acting normal again. But that's okay because our new camera has macro out the wazoo!

Check this mad macro action:


Those pearls are about the size of rice crispies. And the fabric is a reasonably firm canvas.


And there is another sad report of kitty death by giant fish o' doom.


Poor, poor Kokomo. That fish really has it in for him.

Dyed To The Wine

I mixed some red and black to try and get a nice, dark, rich color. If I had left it in the dyepot long enough I might have succeeded. Yarn always looks SO dark when it's wet!

But it still came out a beautiful wine color. It is a little darker than the photos show. And I kept some dye from the dyebath so I can try it again later.









This is a 70/30 merino/silk blend sockweight yarn I got from knitpicks. They've been really good to me, and I've thoroughly enjoyed their yarn. I just wish they would get some more plant fibers in their Bare line (ready-to-dye yarns).