Friday, March 30, 2012

How To Tie Dye Your LEGS



I am about to show you how to tie dye your legs... or leggs really.



 Yeah, they're just stockings, but the result is still the same. I now have 3 different crazy pairs of tights that each were made from old clothes and food coloring.


Friday, March 23, 2012

More dye


This is a brick of yarn. It came in a bag with a really nice, tangle free winding style which I have never seen in any yarn besides Lang Bebe. It is always a shame to work with this yarn after it has been removed from the bag because it is so much more tedious to work with a ball or even a center pull skein.  

The smooth pull of this yarn was sacrificed in order for it to be usable. All of our Lang yarn is from the 80s, and a lot of it falls into the category of frilly Victorian postmodern colors. Along with navy, red, teal and periwinkle, this color yellow was used to make machine knits for kids in the early 90s. I am convinced that there is no color more terrible for clothing. The picture does not quite capture it's unfortunate hue. It is a bit paler, and would only make decent clothing for a baby, or a darker skinned person under the age of 13. Even on someone dark, it isn't a great yellow.

Swatches were taken to find a dye color that will really work with his heathered red. I am not really into the idea of buying acid dyes when there is food coloring in the cabinet. I would consider it if I had white yarn to work from, but the yellow makes colors a bit trickier. I'm looking for a minty color. 

You can see that the closes to mint is light green at the top, made by adding only blue. The yellow it all from the pre dyed color. The ugliest but most intriguing color was that brown, made with blue and yellow dye. Something about the combination clashed in the dyebath and the yarn did not pick up much blue color. My favorite picks right now are the first and last colors. Not sure which is best yet, but both are a lot better than the original.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Easy

This is an easy pattern to knit, so it is called Easy.


It is knit flat in one piece, then seamed together to make a sweater. The pattern is very basic and well suited for a beginner who is willing to try simple color work. The shrug features short, dolman sleeves, an open front, and vintage styling. My favorite part is the contrast trim which allows for a lot of color possibilities. I like to play around with color combos, so it was fun to pick out two coordinating yarns. I actually didn't have the red that I wanted, so this heathered poppy color was hand dyed. The recommended yarn for this pattern is Knitpicks Palette, so I'm sure everyone will find a combo they like.

I made a point of making this to fit all ages. You can see my cousin wearing her easy shrug in a size 2. Knitting the small sizes was so fast! This was done in Lang Bebe superwash, which has a similar weight to Palette and is also machine washable. The children's sizes are almost identical to the adult so there is a lot of potential for matching family sweaters. The one difference is that the women's sizes do have some bust shaping.

The shortrow bust shaping is a little above the beginner level, but it keeps the sides from going towards the armpits. I'm personally not a big fan of wearing shrugs because the sides always seem to scoot over and I feel like by boobs are sticking out. The added rows help the sides graze over the bust in order to not create that "bearing my breasts" look.  

Hopefully you can get an idea of the fit from these photos. Someone in the ravelry forums recently suggested sharing model size when showing a pattern, so in the interest of full disclosure... Model is 5'6 and 120 lbs. Bust - 34 Waist - 26.

Here is some of the sizing and yarn info for the pattern:

Sizes: Children - 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16
Adult - XS, S, M, L, 1X, 2X

Chest Measurement: Children - 21, 23, 25, 26.5, 28, 30, 31.5, 32.5
Adult - 28-30, 32-34, 36-38, 40-42, 44-46, 48-50

Yardage (color A/B): Children - 180/50, 210/50, 250/60, 330/60, 410/70, 460/70, 490/80, 520/80
Adult - 540/90, 570/90, 590/90, 620/100, 650/100, 700/110

Finished Length: Children - 10.5, 11.5, 12.5, 14.5, 16, 17, 17.5, 18
Adult - 18, 18.5, 18.75, 19.5, 20, 21

Sleeve Length from Neck: Children - 8.5, 9.25, 10.5, 12.5, 13.75, 14.5, 15.25, 15.75
Adult - 15.75, 15.75, 16, 16, 16.25, 16.25

Help fund my acquisition of a knitting machine! Easy is available for sale in my Ravelry store for only $4.

Friday, March 16, 2012

potato snack tasting: American Style Cream & Onion

Yes, that would be cream and onion, not sour cream and onion potato chips.
They do taste a lot like american style chips, but there is something not quite right about the flavor. Most countries have their own  _____ and onion flavor, very often cheese fills in that blank. these chips taste like Irish cheese and onion Tayto crisps minus the MSG. There is a definite aged dairy taste, but no tangy sour flavor at the end.

The stranger part of the flavor is that, if I had to pick a flavor to fill in the blank, I'd guess that they were mushroom and onion chips. I do like it though. It tastes like America.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

This is for next week.

This is new. This is a shrug. This is easy to knit. This is two tone. This is for spring. This is for ladies. This is for girls. This is cropped. This is retro. This is cute.




This pattern is coming next week

Thursday, March 8, 2012

It's time we Met

For those of you who live near the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the phrase is familiar. The ad campaign from 2009-10 showed people and art from the collection interacting. I'm a little late on my entry, but here it is.
Notice anything? I have heard that fans of Harry Potter wear robes to book signings, Trekkies wear uniforms to cons, and sports fans obviously wear team colors for their outings. When I heard that Carlton was on display, I just had to go see it (him?), and when I went to see it, I had to wear my fan sweater.

This is me emulating the cantilevered shelves. I tried to think of a more clever pose but couldn't. Anyhow, by taking this cheesy picture, I can ensure that the internet knows that I'm a big enough designerd to dress up for museum trips.

extra nerd cred for anyone who outdoes me by wearing the infamous Eames leg brace to somewhere showing or selling bent ply furniture.

You might also like...