My Works In Progress Mid 2018

My current works in progress.

First - the Wisteria Sweater, which I have decided to frog and start anew a bit differently. The problem is that the yarn is very very light and I don't like the fit. There is no flow and drape, the sweater just stays like a puffy cloud around my body, and as I did not make it with negative ease, it actually looks unflattering and the end curls up, despite the garter stitch edge. As I'm totally in love with the yarn and the color, I don't want to waste it on a piece I'm not going to love. So far I'm considering two possibilities - a loose cardigan to put on a colder summer night or a very fitting sweater, like Kim Hargreaves' Temperate. But that will wait, so far I'm just freezing it.

The thing I'm working on actively this week is my mitered square blanket. It is progressing nicely, I've dyed the yarn for the next row of squares. I plan to make it as wide as it is now - 13 squares and to grow it in length until I get tired of it. I'm still not sure what I want it for - a lap blanket - then a row or two more would be sufficient, a cover for the balcony sofa - I'll need about 4 more rows for that, or an actual full size blanket - I'll need at least to triple its length for this purpose.

My third knit is a cowl I started back in the winter, using my Biker Chick imitation yarn. I had finished the cowl and actually worn it once, only to find that the yarn was too scratchy to be worn around the neck. In January I had about 80 g left from the super soft black merino from the Bonus sweater, so I started adding a second layer to the cowl. I'm not hurrying it, as winter is NOT coming any time soon :)

Me wearing the one-layer cowl on peak Tumba in December:

Biker Chick Imitation Yarn

For my new yarn dyeing I chose the colorway of one of my favourite yarns - Miss Babs Biker Chick. The yarn is far beyond my yarn budget and I've only seen it on photos, but I love the contrast between the warm orange and the cold grey and black.

The dye technique I used is fairly new to me and proving to be my favourite - literally painting the yarn drop by drop, eyeing the end result, retouching and overlaying colors until I get it as I want it. For this yarn I used two yellows, one red and one orange dye for the warm colors and a grey and black dye for the dark colors.

Then I wrapped the yarn in a foil and microwaved it for a total of 6 minutes. The results are quite satisfactory - the dye didn't leak to the neighboring sections and the whites stayed white, the dye bled almost none when I washed it afterwards and this process is much more tender to the yarn as it gets almost no manipulation compared to kettle dyeing. This is definitely my technique of choice for multicolor colorways.

And I reskeined the yarn to show how the colors would mix during knitting.

It looks so great in the ball, I should buy a cake winding machine, even if only to show off my hand dyed yarn :)