Sunday 27 September 2009

Dyeing again

I've been doing some acid-dyeing today, in theory it is less faff than natural dying, but you know, its really not! Its equally unpredictable.

I had one nice result with some purple and black yarn, but the sea-green variegated yarn I was going for hasn't worked at all. In fact, it didn't hold onto the dye at all well, and I have green hands! I stopped using gloves for rinsing as the yarn always soaked up all the dye. I guess I'll go back to using gloves in future!

I'll have to assess the colour in daylight when it is all dried out (so probably next weekend then now winter is creeping up!), but currently I don't like it, its just a mid-green, very plain. I might try over-dying one skein and leave the other.

We shall see!

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Shawl progress


hanami 3
Originally uploaded by cob_web

I got to the end of chart C of the blossom section last night. 3 more charts to go!

Monday 21 September 2009

A Yarn Crawl

So I've been going to some knit-nights with Ravelry-types. We meet every other week and alternate between Woking and Guildford. Woking is great because i just go after work, Guildford is great cos I get the train and can drink cider... mmmm... cider...

We got loads of new people last time, but prior to that there was a core of just 4 of us, and we get on well, share a slightly wicked sense of humour!

It was proposed that we should do a yarn crawl around the area, and this coincided with the Stitch and Craft show at Sandown Racecourse. So on saturday we all met up at Woking station, and greentrianglegirl (I never know whether to use real names or not in internetland, I shall stick to Rav names) gamely volunteered to drive. She had cause to utilise her London driving Skilz so I was glad it wasn't me behind the wheel, I am far too meek a driver for almost-London-driving!

The show was a disappointment, especially since we were led to believe there would be wizards (long story) and, well, more yarn! There was one nice stall with a less-nice sales lady, plus a stand with real life angora rabbits (cute!). I got a bag of 10 balls of RYC Angora Soft (or something) in a nice purple colour for less than half price at a discount stall. Its a bit boucle-ly, which is never good, but its not too extreme, and should make a cosy jumper or cardigan. It will be stashed for now though, ready for when I can't afford yarn any more!

Other than that we all left with lovely lovely cheese.

Then we went to Hampton to find a rather bizarre yarn store with a hair dressers in the back. We were clearly not their usual age-range, and there wan't much for us there (not bad as such, just nothing out of the ordinary). Redcathy saved the day by buying a yarn pen thing, and then we ran away.

Then we went to Kingston to John Lewis. This is apparently my closed JL, but after experiencing Kingston and the car parks I'll stick to Reading thanks! No more sales, so we left slightly disappointed and raced down the A3 and A31 to Farnham. InterKnit Cafe was the highlight of the day really. They have less Collinette than they used to, but though it always looks lovely I've never had great success knitting it, so that's no bad thing. They stock Zauberballs! But I have 2 already so was good. Good to see they stock KnitPro needles now, I shall remember that when I need to stock up!

Then we went to Guildford and took in CandH fabrics and Pandora (where were not appreciated, we left after one of the staff members made a pointed comment about wanting to hoover but not being able to).

We had a nice drink, and then I got the train home. Reading trains appear to miss out Ash on saturdays now, so I had to wait for the Ascot train, but it wasn't too long to wait, and I got to sit next to a proper punk with an impressive mohecan while I waited!

Got home, and promptly tried to burn the house down :-(

As for actual knitting - I'm still plodding along with the shawl, near the end of chart C of the blossom end now, hurrah!

I'm knitting the second Giraffe sock at knit-nights, but the talking and the cider at the last one mean I've messed up quite significantly. I'm not ripping it though, they are for me.