Thursday, December 31, 2009

New Year, New Adventures

I've decided to try something new in 2010. I used some of my Christmas money to buy undyed yarn and dye from Knitpicks.com and I plan to start dyeing my own yarn. I might even start tomorrow.

I got the box today, and I am very pleased with the texture of the yarn. I'm particular about yarn being soft, so I was very leery of buying yarn without the opportunity to feel it first. I ordered two different types of undyed yarn: a merino/nylon 75/25 blend, and a merino/silk 70/30 blend. Both are fingering weight, and are nice and soft, although the wool/nylon blend is actually softer than the wool/silk blend.

It will be interesting to see how the yarn takes dye. I have some ideas about the kinds of effects I want to create, and how I might get there. I imagine it will take some experimentation. I hope I bought enough yarn.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas is Over...

... which means I now have time for blogging again. A lot has happened in the month and a half since I last posted. The new digital camera arrived, so I have pictures again. Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone. I knit like a fiend in between, and finished four pairs of fingerless gloves for Christmas presents. I also knit myself a hat. I gave my dad the Celtic cross sweater, and he wore it for the next two days straight.

It's finally time for me to finish my own fingerless gloves, which I began several months ago. There are a lot of projects in my queue that I've put off until Christmas was over: a hat and mitts for my dad to match his sweater, a hat for Paul to match his brown cardigan, an MP3 player cozy and a journal cover for myself. I'd like to crochet Paul a cute afghan with a checkerboard on it, and the checkers to match. I also have a couple of "impulse" skeins of sock yarn that I need to decide what to do with. One is handspun that I bought at a local fiber festival; the other is Lorna's laces shepherd sock in a colorway that I couldn't resist.

On top of all that, I got some knit-related Christmas gifts that I will need to use as well. I used some of my Christmas money from my in-laws to buy undyed yarn, a ball winder, and a basic dyeing kit from KnitPicks. I also got a gift certificate to my favorite LYS. I promised the giver that I would use it to buy supplies to knit something for myself, but I may subtract the yarn I bought for the hat I just knit, since that was for me. Maybe it's cheating, but I will knit something for myself at some point soon, so that counts, right?

Anyway, the holiday was nice for my family, and I hope it was for everyone else, too. Now, back to knitting!