Weekend projects

I often have weekend projects. Something I am obsessed with, but only over a weekend.

Couple of weekends ago I decided I wanted to make a hat. I had been reading Knitting Workshop by Elizabet Zimmermann, and in it she has a hat in the beginning to teach the basics of knitting. I thought I'd pick up a point or two, which I did, although I don't remember at the moment. It called for thick yarn and I grabbed bulky weight yarn on 6mm needles. Actually it was supposed to be worsted on 4.5 (or thereabouts). So the hat was too big.




I did the rational thing and threw it in the wash. The color bled of course, it's red, red almost always bleeds. Plus it's a Knitpicks yarn (wool of the andes bulky) and they have a reputation for bleeding. I can't believe how well it felted though (Knitpick yarns also have a reputation for felting well, even if they are superwash!).

It fits quite good now. A little short, but not too much.

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This weekend, however, I was obessed with Hyperbolic planes. Normal Euclidean plan is flat but a hyperbolic plane curves.




The first one I made was too big. I used too big of a hook (5.5 mm instead of 4.5), but it is perfect as a washcloth.




The second one looks great. I was hoping it would turn out to be more of a bath puff, but it is rather a decoration (hang it up in the kid's room?) or a playtoy. They like playing with it K. put it on a stick like she had caught it in the sea ;)




K. also requested one out of variegated yarn white/purple/pink. It ended up as a barbie hat ;)

This was fun. Now I have some laundry to take care of :o

The one with everyone dyeing*

So this weekend was the big weekend. We all (meaning the majority of the knitting group) went to Nancy B's house and ate and dyed :) It was a lot of fun and I got really into it. The scientist in me got out and I was experimenting what would happen if I did this or that, ha ha.



I brought only one skein. It was a white skein of lace weight Icelandic wook (eingirni), but Nancy had a tub load of yarn. She buys it, dyes it and then sells it at Shows with her Mother-in-law. They also sell knitted items and felted item (made into purses and all sort of stuff). So we practiced on Nancy's yarn before we did our precious yarn and Nancy got all of her yarn dyed ;) I commented that we would also end up buying the yarn that we dyed back from her at a show ;) he he

We also had some good food and Nancy taught me how to fry zuccini ;). We knitted into the night. I was actually the first one to go to bed. I'm so used to waking up early with the kids.



While I was there I manage (finally) to separate Clint's jacket at the sleeves. Now it's just knitting the body down to the waist. I say just because although I have 366 stitches on the needle, it is a vast improvement from having 466!

Curious on how my skein came out. Here are couple of photos.



I wanted it to be variegated so I put the kool-aid mix in the bowl first and then layed the yarn on top. I pushed on the top of the yarn so it would all soak, but the bottom was submerged in the dye while the top was in air. It was heated in the microwave for 2x2min with a 2 min break in between. Super easy. You don't even have to use vinegar!



I made 2 skeins with food dye (one neon green and one regular green) and then I needed the vinegar. The vinegar makes the solution acidic enough for the chemical reaction between the fibre and the pigments to take place. Kool-aid has added ascorbic acid (vitamin C), which makes it acidic enough so we don't need vinegar.



On Flickr you can see more photos. I had a great time (thanks Nancy) and the weather was good (for drying the wool after the dyeing part). The food was awesome.

*No, this is not a Friends episode altough it does involve a lot of friends.