Knitting and Downton Abbey

What a productive day! Remember the socks I am knitting out of the upcycled sweater? One done (and all the fingers of a glove). How did I get an entire sock knit in one day you ask? Aside from having very short feet, that is:

I found Downton Abbey on the www.pbs.org website and watched all of Season 2. I may not be able to use my hands tomorrow after twelve hours of knitting (oops, lost count). But here is how the sock looks. It is made from a sweater my mom dyed (note to self- don't say "Grandma dyed" as the start of a sentence). Several objects went flying in the air amid startled childrens' outcries.

This is the sweater, featured in a previous blog, but pictured here as a reminder. It's amazing how looking at this photo there is so much yellow, but in knitting it there was so much red. These socks are so soft. I tend to start the toe too early but I wanted these to fit just right, so  I had patience and they fit like a dream. I'm about 1/2 way finished on sock two. If I can use my hands tomorrow, I may just finish!

I use I can't Believe I'm Knitting Socks as my pattern. It is super simple. Really just the knit and purl stitches, plus knitting two together. But everyone thinks you are incredibly talented so the pay-off is great. May I also point out that you can usually get a pair of socks out of a skein of sock yarn. With my short feet, I actually get two pair. Give it a try!

My Knitting Buddy

When you think of a knitting buddy, most of us think of going to a knit shop and hanging out with a group of women. Lucky me. Guess who I get to hang out with?

Staged you say? Well, only a little. This actually looks really sweet. But here are two other shots:

Nice, huh? Me shoving my son's head out of the way. My twelve year old daughter is a phenomenal photographer. What I love is that his head is blury, too. Because he's swooping in from the other direction.

Here's more of a reality shot. This really is how I get anything done. My son usually sits right next to me- when I sew, too. But honestly, I know in the next year or two he's going to find other things that interest him more than what I'm doing, and all this snuggle time will be just a memory, so I'll keep laughing and hope he doesn't pull my needles out.

Overdying Yarn

I got the best surprise in the mail today. This will be a multi-blog series, since it is involved, but fun.

Last year, I bought some home-dyed yarn at the quilt store, which was knit first, then dyed. You unravel and knit the yarn, and it makes a new design as it is reworked. That was our inspiration.

this is a sample of the reworked yarn

The photos above are the surprise I got in the mail today! My Mom has been shopping the thrift stores, buying old sweaters like this one, which started out tan (I thought it was cashmere, it's so soft, but it turns out it is Lambswool). I have asked her to provide the dyes she used.  A friend of mine who works with alpacas for 4-H says you can use food coloring. I tried that on raw sheeps wool and it did work. Keep in mind to read the label for natural fibers.

Try making consistent designs as you see on the samples above, and it should knit into some fun patterns on your new work. I like to use this for socks because of the fine gauge in store bought clothing. Once I get a sock done in this, I'll post it.