Crank to Dye

What seems like forever ago I bought entirely too much Knit Picks Bare Fingering weight yarn to dye. I still haven't managed to get through it all. I decided it was time to use the circular sock knitting machine to make some blanks to dye. This is a great way to create gradient colorways.

Step one was to take those hanks of yarn and wind them for easy knitting. I used my Stanwood ball winder. If you're unhappy with your small plastic ball winder, this is a great upgrade option.

I used the 72 slot cylinder on my circular sock machine with the tension cranked all the way down. I want the fabric to be loose enough that the yarn can easily take up the dye.

I cranked and cranked. I cranked over 1500 rows. That comes to over 100,000 stitches.

With waste yarn on both ends of each 100 grams of yarn, I folded them neatly and put the sleeves back on so I won't forget what they are. I like to do my dye work outside, so this will have to wait for warmer weather. Spring is always a great time to dye.

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):
Stanwood Needlecraft large ball winder
Knit Picks yarn swift

Knitting: Bosc Pear Shawl

I've been working on this shawl for what seems like ages. Like most shawls, I cast it on several times before I figured out exactly what I was doing.

The yarn is Hawthorne fingering from Knit Picks. The pattern is Bosc Pear, free on Ravelry.

I knit in the car.

I knit while camping. I finished it up the last week of September.

Before blocking it didn't look like much.

I blocked it and opened up the lace.

If you want to try lace knitting  I recommend you give this one a try. The stitch is simple and effective. The resulting shawl is big and has plenty of character to make a statement. I will definitely be using some edge lace to spice up a shawl in the future. And picot bind-off? that's pretty awesome, too.

Happy Knits makes for a Happy Knitter

During my short time in Portland I stopped by Happy Knits because I learned they have Black Trillium Fibres, a local hand-dyed yarn that is truly amazing.

I couldn't resist and grabbed two skeins of this yummy Merilon Sock in the colorway Roco's Modern Tweed. I have tried to stop buying yarn just because it is amazing but I don't always win in this battle with my shopping.

I also picked up a skein of Jill Draper's Esopus SW Merino to finish this partially knitted shawl experiment.