....granny/baby square



Sometime back, i got carried away and bid on some cashemere wool on ebbay from china. The wool was cheap but when i got it, it was too fine and too soft for a lace shaw ( But did Haruni shawl with 150 grams of the brown) and even better, i realised i didnt have enough of each colour to finish something useful.

recently i decided to start crochetting again, i wanted to do a granny square but i dont like the idea of joinin a million squares, so i decided to do a single multicolour square.

so here it is, it is looking like a baby blanket, so it just might be a baby blanket. I must likely will use it as a throw......the wool seems to go so far, so it could be huge as i dont want to have any left overs.

The colourful square



Some hand dyed Beauties!

So i got some wool yarn and some dyes

Superwash wool selling here

trying to dry the yarn after dyeing!

some dry hand dyed yarn, selling here

some more, also selling here

I have been dyeing and experimenting and whilst i have uploaded some yarn on my etsy shop i will be keep some for my knitting as well.

I love hand dyeing but knitting is the ultimate hobby for me!

My etsy shop is updated

FOs

I am terrible at starting knitting projects whilst i still have so many others not finished.

However, now and then i do complete some stuff....... and i got some evidence ( well just one for now)

The shawl is real light...... the yarn is lime greenish, food bluish colour with a lot of white in it .....i hand dyed this yarn last year and for some reason i didnt like the yarn colour outcome.

i am please with how the scarf turned out, we just need some great British Weather to be able to use it now!

Unfinished

Finished and modelled by me!

African print fat quarters

Haruni lace shawl

Here we are.....despite having at least another 10 projects going, i could not resist knitting the haruni lace shawl..... i love it so far. But i must admit i am getting bored of the repeats .......it is a strugle to be faithful to a project for me.

the aim is to be complete by July (realy i only need three nights but who know if i decede to start on a sock)

below are some photos

at this stage am half way thru

You know she got the ball of wool and tore it apart, thank God i have had enough practice at detangling

Another pair of sock ....now completed

Well, we got another completed pair of sock. I feel the need to state that i knit other things but socks at this point. The recent sock knitting marathon was due to some lovley wool i bought recently on a discount and only bought 100 grams of each.........we will soon be back on the normal items i like to knit .....anything really to be honest but not too many socks.

I have also bought some undyed yarn and once received i will be dying and space dying wool....not sure what space dye involved but i have seen the outcome which i liked.

i liked the colours but the sock was too big, so hubby now owns them

knitting lace

I have another WIP in the works, i decided to bring this WIP out which i started in January. I somehow had forgotten why i had retired this item, but after 3 rows of the YO and K2T i now remember why this has been retired for such a long time - my wrist is in pain! somehow i have made it to knit it for a whole meter long. The yarn is cotton, not soft but it is smooth so am sure i will not felt this one. I have decided that i will keep this for myself. I deserve it after all the pain in the wrist.

The repetitive lace, it is now getting borring

at this point the lace scarf/shawl is measuring about 1 m long

my long rainbow socks

in the last few weeks, i have knitted a total of 4 pairs of socks.

i dont like to swatch, i have knitted so many pairs of socks i have not needed to, but the last 3 attempts have let me down and made my hubby very happy. i have set out to knit socks for myself on the 3 occassions and they all turned out too big on me but perfect fit for HIM. so i decided not to undo the socks but rather give them to him although that were never the intention at the start of the casting on.

anyway, the knee high turned out great for me, so guess not all is lost!

knee high socks, 100 grams of wool for the pair

Dye jobs .......not too sure about vinegar and i-colours

So, i have decided to try dyeing wool roving! it worked so well until after pouring the colours.

After the 4 minutes in the microwave i noticed the blue ( yeah that is blue in the middle) was 'fixed' but the rest of the colours were runny. well i could only think this had something to do with the dyes i used. The blue is Jacquard and the rest are i-dye or i-colour. comes in a satch like vegetable seeds and says add salt or vinegar. It failed to say it doesnt work as good as the real jacquard dyes. I am not getting them i-dyes no more, no good value for money.

Anyway, decided to buy citric acid off ebay as it is not in TESCOs and see if it will work. I will post them photos of dried wool once some sunshine shoes up around here!

wool in vinegar

ready to go, notice i am wearing pink hand knitted socks! proud of my socks!

looks great here!

in the micro wave for 4 minutes! everything goes wrong from here...

mismatched socks....completed

I have yet another completed item........i also have a few ( more than 6) WIPs well hidden away. Why hide them you ask? well, i feel guilty of starting something new when i havent finished what is on the needles. I noticed that I have only 3 magic loop knitting needles, so i guesse that means i should only have 3 WIPS IF i dont buy no more loops! fingers crossed.

trying to weave in the ends, this is the only part of knitting i HATE

Almost completed, used left over yarns......they dont match at all but they will be warm!

decided to show you my paint job!

Hand knitted baby boy sweater.......WIP

ok, this is what I have been working on recently, a baby sweater for my god son,

Below are the photos,.......oh yeah, the wool is 62% new wool and something else which is not wool. I have already felted more than 5 items unintentionally, and when i want something to felt intentionally it doesnt work as well.....but all well, i love wool.

Here is the sleece detail, i like to increase using a YO

and here is the box next as my hubby calls it, he doesnt think boys should have to wear this kinda a neck shape!

and here is the beginning, i used less than 100g of yarn.

ok, so i finally figured out how to upload photos, my ipad is thick ---it cannot do it (Not me!)

Below is what am working on at the moment, own design of a fitted sweater/cardigan (sorry cannot get my head around the difference!)

Check out the fitting, i love it. I love knitting this sweater because first it is a top down knit, so no seams at all and second at this stage am only about to finish  the second ball of 100g 60% wool. The wool isnt soft or smooth but the knitting is flying so i will not complain too much.

Hey forgot to includ my etch link http://www.etsy.com/shop/trendyjonez?ref=seller_info

of wool washing and hand dying ....plus socks!

This is what i did on the Easter weekend....a pair of socks and washed and dyed some wool.

The wool was too much for what i intended for so i have put some on etsy and some on ebay.......@trendyjonez in either of them if interested.

(time delay - perfect excuse i didnt know how to load them photos)

1st attempt to get the stitch design

second attempt

i gave up at this point, the socks are purple with a sparkly glittering thing in them! very girly which isnt my style but they are soft.

hand dyed lilac wool

sapphire blue - am in love with this blue

hand washed wool

Day one!

Ok, I am a knitter and I spin wool occasionally to give my wrist a break. I must admit that am now hooked to spinning wool although I haven't always been a fun of spinning on my home made drop spindle. I have knitted for just over 3 years now, when I started I thought I would soon be bored of it but it has now become a way of my evenings. I love reading other people's blog, so I thought I could start writing one as well. At the moment am knitting a pair of blue green purplish socks with handspun yarn for my husband. Don't know how o upload photo yet, but will learn how to in the next few days!