Dyeing Sock Yarn

Marmolejo Socks

This is a new pattern of mine, using an afterthought heel but with a gusset of sorts. They are very comfortable with no digging in or strangling of the foot. Great pattern for hand spun, wildly variegated or self striping yarn.

The Marmolejo Socks are for sale at Ravelry! And I could use a test knitter or two, so if you are interested in getting the pattern for free, let me know.

Pretzels

Real home made soft and salty pretzels. I love soft pretzels, I got the taste for them during a trip to Munic, I never could find them here in Sweden, now I can bake them my self. Baking pretzels contain boiling them in salty water before they go into the oven, which makes them crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Yummy!
Next bagels!

Carrot!

This beautiful scarf was created using one of my beaded yarns by Sonia a good customer of mine. I think it is stunning, and a great example of the beauty of hand spun yarns, beaded yarns and skilled knitting. And such a fun picture, especially considering the yarn was called Cultivated Carrot and the scarf Carrot Esker Scarf!

Becoming color

The sock yarns are slowly but surely becoming more and more colorful! I have made up a great way for me to dye them that I really like. I dye them in a big pot on the stove, first I make a base coat of a lighter color, then I make a knot (or two) in the hank (using insulated gloves, hot! ajaj) and put on a second coat of a stronger color, remove the knot, shake the skein out and I tie another knot (or two) and ad a third layer of color. If I like it I stop there, if not, more layers and knots. I am making the color combinations up as I go, so there are no skeins alike, unless you would like to make a special order. 

I am making a movie of this fascinating process so never fear if you did not get my confused explanation. :)

Sock-Yarns

Lots of sock-yarns to be, just think of the potential! Now is the time for custom requests. :)

Alpaca Silk

This is the yarn I have spun form the alpaca and silk I got from Åsa (Zhunee) in the fall swap. They were so similar in colour so I thought I would take advantage of that and combine them. I spun one single from the silk, glorious to spinn, so soft and in lovely colours, and two singles from the alpaca, very lovely too, and I made a three ply of them all. I ended up with surprisingly little waste, just a meter or two altogether! You can see the shine from the silk single nestling in among the fluffier alpaca. It turned out beautiful I think, and it is heavy and has great drape. I am thinking it might make a good lacy tam and if there is any left over, a cowl or some fingerless gloves or so. 

Wool

Massive update at Friday Studios, I got inspired. ;)

Fall Shake Swap

Or Höstrusk swap as we in Sweden would say. :)

Alpaca, silk, chocolate, candy, tea and fun little things, what more can you ask for a gloomy fall day. 

Birdies!

So I arrange the tripod, made my self a cup of coffee, fixed the remote detonator (I probably should have included "washed the windows" but… yeah…) and sat myself to wait. And every time a bird swooped in for some seeds I clicked away. I got some great shots, these are a few of them. 

Jane

She told me her name is Jane.

And I think that is great since one of my absolute favorite authors is Jane Austen and one of my absolute favorite book characters is Jane Eyre. 

This is such a beautiful wheel and I feel very privileged to have one of my own, I am all happy every time I see her. Just look at the details on her. And it is all maple and it is heavy, so you need very little treadeling action to get it going and the treadeling is so so smooth, almost effortless, and it does not move at all, she stands steady and still on the floor. I love the big paddles too, no hard edges to rest part of your foot on. She is totally quiet, not a sound, just the whooshing of the wheel moving the air around. 

I have definitely not finished exploring what she can do yet, but so far I have tried both the double drive and scotch tension, and both work great and are quite sensitive (in a good way) and the pull is very nice, I don't know how to explain it, there is not too much pull but it is strong and steady. The spinning is fantastic and the difference between this and my "old" wheel is very pronounced. 

It is just a total joy to spin on my Jane. 

Cold Rain

You really get a lot of knitting done while you have to lie still in bed because you just had to have the spinning wheel on the second floor now! Three pairs of socks finished (one pair of my own design) and a lot of other stuff got worked on. There is always an upside, ish that sounded way to cheery. 

These socks are from Cookie A's book Sock Innovation, that book is full of great, interesting and complicated socks, I love this book. I chose these, Wanida, with a sort of basket weave pattern and made them in Gepards Strong Art, my favorite sock yarn ever, which incidentally I don't know how to get anymore. I named them Cold Rain, because, if you remember, I knitted another pair of socks in this yarn that was called Warm Rain, logical. And yes those are my pajama-pants, the perfect accessory to hand knitted socks.