New puppy

My family's dog whose picture graces this website passed away; it has been almost two years since that sad day. Now a new puppy has come along, a black and tan dachshund - very sweet and a bundle of energy. He is going to puppy training class with my mom.

stripey socks

Some stripey socks. Instead of doing a regular symmetrical decrease at the toe, I tried making the sock toe shape more similar to my actual toes, by decreasing more often on the outside edge than the inside one. Yarn picked up at Sock Summit: Lana Grossa 6 fach stripes; 80% wool, 20% nylon.

ArtFibers yarn tasting

A local knitter Natalie organized a "yarn tasting" where we got to try yarns from a company called ArtFibers. It was held on a sunny day at a local park. We knit swatches, choosing from many yarn colors, textures, and fibers. After a few hours of knitting, our swatches got to come home with us - that's mine above. Following are some more details on the yarns that I tried (click on pictures to makes them bigger).

From top to bottom, the above includes: Pacino 7 (merino wool, nylon), Satori (silk, mohair, wool), Ming 11 (silk, merino wool), Pacino 6 (merino wool, nylon), Udon 4 (merino wool, nylon), Zoftig 4 (merino wool, nylon).


Continuing from top to bottom, these are: Casanova 18 (silk, mohair), Zoftig 13 (wool, nylon), Chanteuse (wool, nylon), Kyoto 20 (silk, mohair, wool), Kyoto 23 (silk, mohair, wool).

All yarns were beautiful... but as for my favorites... the colors of Kyoto were stunning, but I think I overall liked the Pacino/Zoftig 85% merino 15% nylon best - for ease of knitting, texture, and colors.

Another water bottle holder

A lot of steps for this simple water bottle holder. First unraveled the yarn from the Tasmanian sweater posted previously. Then dyed it into self-striping green and maroon colors (actually was trying to get blue and pink, but that's another story). Then knit into a generic water bottle shape with strap, using a feather and fan pattern to make the stripes curvy. Finally felted the whole thing by hand. Voila another water bottle holder for the collection - I use them a lot.

Summer socks

Spending some more time learning socks. It's slowly getting easier. Here are a pair for myself for summer. Yarn: Panda cotton: 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, 21% nylon

Purply blue hat

I had a piece of a thrift store sweater left over (bottom front) - not yet unraveled. I dyed it that way (progressive-type dyeing), and only unraveled it thereafter. It was an interesting effect, with color gradation from top to bottom, but also within each stitch - outside of stitches took more red dye, inside of stitches more blue.

I knit it into a hat of my own design. The seed stitch border looks nice, but is not quite as warm as a ribbed border which draws in close to your head. I like the way the purl-diamonds turned out.