Fibre DOne

DOne:

Twisted Socks:  a fun, straightforward knit once I got the magic loop set up right after the heel.  The cuff is a little tight, but that might be because I apparently do not know how to read a pattern.  The sizing was XXS, XS, S, M, L...  I wanted M.  I counted 3 numbers in and cast on.  Medium was 4 numbers in.  Oops.  Actually, the foot fits well, so if I were to do these again I would add stitches to the cuff somehow and then get down to the S numbers for the heel and foot.

Petunia Fractal fingering weight yarn:  Just needs a warm bath:

Baby Surprise the first:  begun, about 20% done. 

The beads on yellow string are a row counting abacus I made specifically for this pattern.  The BSJ depends on keeping track of your rows.  I still count ridges every once in a while, but if I'm good about moving the beads I don't have to count so often.

Peach Fractal yarn:  Found.  I knew I had spun a skein of this.  I just couldn't find it.  I did what I always do when I can't find something fibre related.  I called DaisyLady.  She always knows.  Like when I couldn't find my 2mm Addi Turbo.  "You broke it, remember?"  No, actually, I didn't.  That's why I called her, she remembers these things.  This time, it was "I think you sold it".  Really?  When?  At the Guild Sale?  Neither of us could remember.  At the February Guild meeting, however, all was revealed.  I had left it with Kelly at Just Knitting on consignment with several fractal rovings.  She brought it back as she has closed her bricks and mortar shop and switched to on-line only.

Sweet Tomato Heel Socks:  Wool-Tyme's annual sale is on.  I mostly bought Briggs and Little for workshops, but I did buy a tiny bit for myself.  Another skein of Bamboo/Cotton for the baby surprise jackets and a ball of Fortissma sock yarn in a neat purple.  And a variety of cottons for Thing Small who has discovered Kumihimo (more about that another time).

Most of my fibre time this week will be spent getting ready to teach a new workshop "Dye the Colour Wheel" on Saturday.  We (6 students and I) are going to try to make all the possible secondary combinations of my 6 primary dye colours.  And a value scale for each primary.  And 6 tertiary colours for each of the 8 combinations.  120 samples altogether, though I will have some of them done ahead as I'm testing procedures.  And we may be are in way over our heads.  I may be gibbering by Saturday evening.  The dyeing part is easy, getting them cooked and then labelled is going to be the sticky bit I think.  I still have no idea how I'm going to mount mine.  That will be an exercise left to the student...

Fibre DOing

I am usually a project monogamous knitter and spinner.  But not so much at the moment.  I just entered my current WIPs into Ravelry:

 1.  Swing Knitting Workshop 3 Blanket.  90% done - I just need to add another garter stitch band and sew in ends.  It's too big to drag around anymore.  Also, I didn't think ahead so I'm having to pick out a long tail cast-on to add the other band.  Note Ginny "helping" me with photo set up.



 2.  Swing Knitting Workshop 4 - Playground Wrap.  About 20% done.  This is the first panel.  I'm using 6 colourways of Fractal Roving going around the colour wheel.  This one starts with Peach (yellow-orange), then Forest (yellow-green), Ocean (blue-green), Periwinkle (blue-purple), Petunia (red-purple) and Pink Grapefruit (red-orange).  There are 24 short row "stanzas" per panel so I'm doing 4 in each colour.

It would be moving faster if I hadn't lost the freshly spun ball of Periwinkle somewhere in Kingston (probably the Invicta Centre, but maybe in the Napanee Arena) as I was knitting during Thing Small's last hockey tournament.  I have Petunia on the wheel now, so I'll have to finish that and then re-do Periwinkle before I can continue.  These are the yarns thus far.





Petunia on the wheel.

 3.  Current carry along knitting "Twisted" from Knitty in a skein of Apple Laine Apple Butter that had been languishing as a pair of toes for a very long time.  I've made it to the heel turn.






This does not include a few projects in hibernation or time out...

and updated my Rav queue with what I actually intend to do in the next while. 

3 Baby Surprise Jackets for 2 babies coming in June and August.  (I couldn't decide so I bought yarn for 3, either 1 baby will get two, or I'll go get more for the other one).
Longitudinal which I need to spin Peach Fractal for and I want to do in Portuguese style knitting, just to try it out.  It'll be a KAL with Jan, who is (still) learning to knit, this time we are trying Portuguese style and it seems to be working better for her hands and her (lack of) sense of direction.
Pull me Over which I need to choose a Fractal colourway for, dye enough for a sweater, and spin
Cat's Sweet Tomato Heel Socks.  Christine got me this e-book for my birthday.  It'll need a fractal colourway chosen and spun and to decide which pattern...
Swingy Hitchhiker in, you guessed it, more Fractal that I need to spin.  I want to use China Rose.  I'll dye some more or less solid of the grey from China Rose as the pause yarn.
Winter Waves  I thought I had the yarn spun for this, but I'm not sure I have enough, and something is up with the twist in the yarn, it isn't quite right.  So this one will wait a bit.

Oh.  Wow.  That's a bit.  I want to do a lot more in my Fractals, first, because I like them, and second, because samples are good for marketing and I need to do more of that.   More DOing required, less thinking.