Dye all the things green...

I completely forgot to blog about my latest dyeing adventures - both my hair and yarn!

It's been almost two years since I decided to change my hair from red to black and pink.  I LOVED the colour but my hair had started to break from colouring and bar regularly trimming it myself I haven't had a decent chop for six years!  I started chopping a few inches off every time I cut my fringe - taking it from my lower back (when straight) to about bra strap length - whilst I pondered whether I had the courage to cut it short, which I had wanted to do for a few years,   The week before Christmas, with badly faded pink, roots and lots of white in my black, I shut myself in the bathroom for a few hours and chopped it all off.  A bit of bleach and a couple of pots of dye and I really rather love the results!

Before...

After...

(Excuse the twatty face - it is, however,  the best picture of the haircut!)  I've since trimmed it again and it was much less nerve racking the second time round - I have a rather odd fear of hairdressers (amongst many other things!) and since I cut everybody else's hair in the house as well as a few other peoples, figured I may as well carry on doing my own too!   I do have a dog grooming qualification and years of experience in that and people are much easier LOL!  I love having it short - it has to be literally level with the bottom of my ear lobes to not curl - and the green makes me SO happy!  

On to the yarn dyeing...I saw this amazing base from Chester Wool Company and had to grab a couple of skeins.

This is Yak Singles - 65% Merino, 20% Silk, 15% Yak, single ply with 480 metres per 120 gram skein of lushiness!  The undyed grey base in itself is beautiful - the silk means this really shines.  And after a dip in Chartreuse and Kelly Green Jacquard Acid Dye, they turned into...

There's not a huge colour difference in the two skeins and I'm still debating giving one skein a dip in something a bit darker.  I have absolutely NO idea what they are destined to become but it's such a gorgeous, luxury base that I am very likely to be getting more!  

The hugely long catch up post!

Apparently it has been forever since I wrote, completed and published a blog post!  I could have sworn I blogged just after Christmas but apparently I dreamt that.

Soooo...what have I been up to?  Well, obviously there was Christmas which flew by, as it does,  I was indeed lucky enough to get the Westknit's book that I had requested as well as copious amounts of marzipan chocolate, new sparkly body jewellery (I have expensive taste in that as well) and a beautiful felted picture from Carla.

I've been trying extremely hard not to start any new projects until I had completed all (well, maybe most!) of my current WIP's.  I did however have to cast on another pair of gift mitts for Lee's sister as part of her 40th birthday present (if I love you, I will knit for you!  And hand knit gloves are one of my go-to gifts!)

I decided to use some of my stashed Scheepjes Stone Washed and after falling in love with a stitch pattern, but finding the pattern didn't work with my yarn, I concocted a pattern on the go using quilted lattice stitch.

I can however recommend double checking your needle size - I managed to pick up the wrong circular needle for these which probably explained why they took me longer than expected (2.75mm oops!)  Luckily they turned out fine and the recipient seemed to like them as well,

Pattern: Christmas Lattice Mitts - my own pattern

Yarn: Scheepjes Stone Washed in 806 Canada Jade

Pattern Notes on my Ravelry here 

I then spent most the Christmas holiday's working on my Doodler.  It had been on the needles for a while and it was one of those WIP's that, once I picked it back up again, I LOVED knitting!  The Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light makes for such a smooshy knit and I now need to knit all the things in single ply yarn!  I added 2 rows of black in between each wedge of Colour C in Section 3 - because Edison Bulb is shit scary bright!

Pattern: The Doodler by Stephen West

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Twig (overdyed black), Fluoro Rose & Edison Bulb.

Full pattern notes on my Ravelry here

After I'd cast off the Doodler, it was back to gloves and finishing my Sod Socks (Warm Fingers).  After a bit of scribbling and calculations the pattern was adapted to add fingers and they have proved SO useful these last few weeks as the weather has cooled right down again,

Pattern: Sod Socks (Warm Fingers) - my own pattern, to be published

Yarn: Knitterly Things Vesper Sock in Witchy Woman 

Pattern notes on my Ravelry here

Before I decided to complete all my current WIP's I couldn't resist purchasing Knitvent 2016 from Helen Stewart (Curious Handmade) and cast on the completely gorgeous Alpine Sunset Shawl.  I'm using two skeins of Easyknits from my stash - Deeply Wicked in Keylime and Dusted Dreams in Neon Nights - which I think look amazing together (and Jon is one of my absolute favourite UK dyers!)  This is next up on my complete list - I'm currently half way through - so fingers crossed for a FO soon!

Pattern: Alpine Sunset Shawl by Helen Stewart

Yarns: Easyknits Deeply Wicked in Keylime and Dusted Dreams in Neon Nights

Right, I think that's enough waffle for one post!  I shall be back with some yarn dyeing, beta test knitting and FO's soon.  

New Yarn, Patterns and WIP's

New yarn purchases have been very much scuppered of late as my usual Yarn Fund (aka sell the things to buy more things!) is currently also my iPhone 7 fund as well as tied up as a "just in case" household budget.  Not only that but I had the misfortune of purchasing a couple of skeins of Wollmeise a few weeks ago only for the seller to disappear with my yarn and money!  Thankfully the joy of PayPal meant I got my money back this week but it always makes me a bit sad when someone from a community taints it by being so dishonest.

I have had a few skeins arrive though and, whilst purchased weeks apart, they are rather similar!  The first was a skein of Easyknits Dusted Dreams in the Halloween colour way "Betty Boo"

The second was a skein of Hedgehog Fibres Sock in "Pinky Swear"  which goes beautifully with the skein of "Jelly" I have stashed away!

I think it's safe to say I like pink and speckles!

There has been a huge amount of fantastic new patterns released just lately that I am totally itching to buy and cast on.  The two that I am really lusting over are the latest MKAL from West Knits - Building Blocks which is so unique and cleverly constructed!  I'm also very much hoping if I'm a good girl, I will be getting a copy of Best Knits for Crimbos :-)

And the latest release from Curious Handmade - Hundred Acre Wood (with kits available from Little Skein in the Big Wool) which is not only my favourite shawl shape but I was a massive Winnie the Pooh fan right up until the kids were born (and still have a boxed up collection of Winnie the Pooh bits that used to adorn the house!)

I have a rather important project to finish before I start anything new though (including Knitvent 2016!) as the husbeast has commissioned a knit after conceding that fingerless gloves are indeed the bomb. Mainly because he is down in our unheated, freezing cold garage alot!
So, he wanted fingerless mitts, in blue or black. I let him stash dive. I was thinking some nice but cheap acrylic blend because he’s not a fan of woolly feels and he’s very likely to get these filthy.
He has instead decided it needed to be a cashmere blend. He quite fancied some of the Wollmeise.  He was even asking about me buying in a skein of Blend - and he says I’m a yarn snob!!

Instead, I persuaded him that this was a good option:

This Noro Cash Iroha has been stashed for years, is a good dark blue (he’s an Everton fan!) and meets the cashmere criteria - plus it’s aran so these fuckers will be warm and quick to knit!  I refused his request for fingering weight yarn as his hands are HUGE! I never realised this before LOL

I'm one down and now just need to remember what I did for the first and write up the pattern (Man Mitts!)

It's a bit nippy!

The weather here has turned decidedly chilly during the last week.  Thankfully, I managed to sort the garden before it did, as it was getting rather neglected out there.  For a small "city" garden it is quite well planted and the trees have taken over somewhat since spring - I really haven't used or tended the space as much as I probably should.  Very much down to still getting used to the closeness of the neighbours here and whilst our garden is private - due to the trees and dense planting - it's still not what I've been used to for the last ten years or so!

This week marked the four year anniversary of my mum's death so me and the kids took a trip with my dad up to the burial site to freeze a bit!  It's strange that, despite living in Lincolnshire for years, I only realised how cold it was after moving to Leicestershire back in 1999!  Mum is buried in a green burial site in North Lincolnshire, which is beautifully serene but oh, so VERY cold.  Her Bramley apple tree is getting quite big now and the site has been filled with so many trees over the last couple of years.

Craft wise, I seem to have done quite a bit  in the last month or so - the sewing machine has even had a bit of love as well as the knitting for once!

I decided I needed some new project bags and since Halloween is my favourite holiday (year round!) I picked up some Halloween fabric whilst it was in stock every where.   I really need to take better pictures of the finished bags but for now, admire the glorious Riley Blake Designs fabric!

I also picked up a Riley Blake Fabric Panel for a Zoe the Zombie doll which I LOVE and has pride of place on my desk at the moment.

Knitting wise, I have have multiple FO's from the last month or so!  Feeling rather pleased with that hehe as I rarely seem to manage to fit much knitting into my weeks.

As well as completing my Semele in Wollmeise Pure Wasabi for Yarndale, I also added another Woolly Wormhead hat to my collection - this time the lovely Adiantum.  The pattern calls for a sport weight yarn but my stash is woefully lacking in that (and my yarn budget/savings are pretty tied up at the moment) so I used a skein of Wollmeise Pure in 26 Fe which worked really well and I love the finished hat (as always!)

I also decided it was time to finish the pile of Raspberry Mitts that I originally cast on two years ago to sell at a home ed group we no longer go to!  These are all in Rico Creative Designs Aran in colourways 04 and 05, with the five pairs of gloves taking 200g.  .Now I just need to sell them somewhere!

And if that wasn't enough I have also FINALLY completed my Aisling Shawl!  Seriously - on a roll! The last border repeats went pretty quickly and I had a whole 7.8g left of the Five Moons Artemis 4 Ply after cast off - good job I dropped needle size for the border!  I really love the gradient yarn with this pattern and the Truly Hooked blank knitted up beautifully.

I still have quite a few WIP's on the needles and am hoping to finish the year with a couple more FO's as I have a HUGE queue again and loads I still haven't managed to cast on!  I've also had a few really lovely skeins arrive over the last couple of months but yarn porn can wait for another day!