I took a break from the sweater. I've knit (and frogged) the knot for the back several times now. After pinning the most recent version out on blocking wires while I tried to decide if it's what I wanted, or not, I ended up taking a several day break from any knitting at all.
This is pretty major for me. I like to be working on something. Even better, I like to be completing something new to share and enjoy. I decided I had to finish something.. anything.. and FAST.
Digging through my stash yielded just too many nuggets of left over sock yarn. I figured some Christmas ornaments were in order, especially since my good friend mailed me a pattern for a sweater-ornament out of sock yarn. Ironically, I didn't even look at the pattern. I just cast on stitches and went for it.
These are made bottom-up. I decreased just a little for a raglan-look. There's not much done for the neck (IE: nothing), but it's not like they're actually going to go ON anything except a tree or wall. I considered intarsia/fair isle for decoration, but ended up adding the embellishments after the fact with duplicate stitch, which was much easier.
It is also an experiment in over-dying. The green sweater started out its life purple. Unfortunately I just couldn't love it. I loved the purple in the skein. I haven't really liked it for anything knit up. After glaring at it for quite a while, I ripped out the candy-cane and tossed the sweater in a cup of water with a tiny bit of Wilton's green food coloring and a glug of white vinegar. This whole thing went in my microwave until it boiled and then sat to cool. What came out was GORGEOUS green. The candy-cane, reworked, just pops on the beautiful color. You can check out the original, and overdyed colors.
I then went on to skein up about 25 grams more of the yarn and tried it again. This time the color didn't penetrate, but I think I rather like the new skein. It makes me think of Spring crocus, or violets, and I may make some baby socks with it!
No comments:
Post a Comment