Lookie Here!

Remember I told you I was working on a pair of children's socks out of the yarn hand dyed for my by my SP10 pal, Robyn? Well, lookie here:

I finished the pair today, on break at work none the less. This pair went quickly, probably because I was anxious to see how they would look. They are nice and bright and pretty. I call them my Summer Sunset Socks because of the sunsetty (is that a word?) colours.

They are my typical stocking stitch children's sock knit on four DPNs (I think the size was 2.75 mm). In the picture they are resting on the rhodedendron out front.

Next up, for my knitting at work, will be a baby sweater done in Lion Brand Cottonease (I think) with a pattern I got from one of those tear off pads at Michael's. I chose the same colours as wasin the picture on the pattern because I liked the way they looked. There is a yellow (not bright but more mustardy I think), a rose pink shade, and a berry colour. I'll take a picture at some point when I start knitting so you can better judge the colours. Anyway, I liked they way they looked together. I'll also take sock yarn and needles along just in case I feel like working on another sock and not the sweater.

I ran into a big of a snag with my sockapalooza socks. I hope my pal doesn't stumble along to my blog and read this, otherwise she'll know I'm her pal. I've sent her an email with this in it, but she hasn't replied yet. I did a swatch with the needles and yarn, consulted my Sensational Knitted Socks book to see how many to cast on. So, I get 72 stitches because I'm using fine/sport weight yarn and size 2.75mm needles.

I've knit several rounds of the cuff, and only have a few more to go before starting the leg pattern, but to me this sock is looking big and would be too stretchy. I'm also afraid that if the sock is big, I'll run out of yarn (100g). She doesn't like toe up socks, so that is out of the question.

I guess my question to anyone who can help, is this: is 72 stitch too much? Should I cast on less? Should I disregard the gauge I got and just cast on the number of stitches the pattern calls for (60 stitches, but the size is for women's medium...my pal wears a US size 8 sock with a 10" foot length and 9" circumference). Help! I don't know what to do! I'm not good at substitution, so I don't know if I were to use a regular sock weight yarn if the pattern/sizing would work out well (since it would be a different weight sock yarn). Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas? I could really use your helps since I need to get cracking on these socks!

And, to leave off on a happy note...

Dye Job

Well, I've had a lot of free time since Thursday, and let me tell you I have enjoyed it! I have been working on some knitting - the "Secret Socks" from the disc my Secret Pal sent, another pair of socks from a pattern my Secret Pal sent, and my ISE4 pal's scarf...all while holding back from casting on for something else, because one can never have too many projects on the go!

So, the pattern from the Secret Socks cd is coming along nicely (no pics yet, I want to get another repeat done first), though I think I might have chosen the wrong yarn. The yarn I chose has some brown and grey and blue (and I think an orangeish shade) and as I'm knitting it up, I can't help but think it would look better as a simple plain stocking stitch sock, and might even look better as something to use for a man's sock. However, I haven't gotten far into it, so I might be surprised. I'm going to keep knitting on them though. The pattern is pretty easy, though I haven't gotten it memorized. As I was listening to it, I wrote down the directions for the leg pattern so I wouldn't have to keep rewinding to listen to it. I'm still not sure how it's going to work on the 2 needles...obviously there will have to be some sewing up afterwards. I just hope the bottom of the foot doesn't have to be sewn because I wouldn't think that would be too comfortable.

The other sock I started was the Razor Shell pattern, and I'm using my Trekking yarn for that. It's also a pretty easy knit, with 2 rows repeated for the leg. I'm not too far into that one yet though, so no picture of it either.

On Saturday I decided to try dying with the Easter Egg dyes I got on sale after Easter. I couldn't find the pack that had the tablets in it, so I used the one that had liquid dye. I decided to go with blue, red, and purple. However, as you can see in the picture on the left (and the others as well), the red is not so red - it's pink. But, that's ok because I think it looks good together with the other colours anyway.

There isn't as much purple in it as there is blue and pink, but that's ok - there are two sections of purple. I should say that I've not tried dying yarn this way (I've only done it on the stove), so it was a new experience. I put the dye in the jars according to the directions, shoved the yarn in and added some water so it would cover more of the yarn. I didn't let the wait til the dye was all exhausted, but for the most part it was. I lined one of the glass baking dishes with plastic wrap so that there wouldn't be any staining - though I don't know if it would, I just wanted to be on the safe side. I heated it for a couple of minutes (on high), waited, then heated it for another minute or so. I was starting to smell something - can't describe it - and since I didn't want to take a chance on burning the yarn or something, I didn't heat it any more. I hope that it was enough time though. Also, before I put the yarn in the pan I didn't squeeze any of the liquid out. The picture on the right is after I heated it, and was letting it cool in the microwave. It looks a little washed out or something in that picture, but that is just from the light in the microwave. Once it cooled down, I removed it to a plastic hanger and hung it up to dry.

The next day, this is what I had:

The colours don't look very bright, but that's just from the picture. In real life they are very bright and vibrant. When I was winding it in a ball (I don't have a ball winder yet), there was some dye on my hands after I was finished, but it didn't last very long. I think whenever I knit it up I will have to soak it some more to get the excess out. I used Patons wool in an off white shade, and there was just a little missing from it, as I had used it on a pair of children's mitttens. There is still plenty there, and I plan on making another scarf like the Noro one I made a few months ago. Since I started work today, I wanted some mindless knitting to have with my for lunch and/or breaks, and I figured that scarf would be perfect. I'll post pics as I get more completed - right now I only have about six or seven rows completed so it doesn't look like much.

So, that's all for now. I promise to get a pic of the socks in progress very soon so you can see how they are coming along. Happy Knitting!