Finished, I guess: Peak's Island Hood

Well, I did it. I dyed my Peak's Island Hood. And it was a complete failure as far as a wearable finished object goes, but it was a heck of a lot of fun! I will let the pictures tell the story...

Oh bummer! I used two different colors of yarn (Patons Classic Wool Winter White on the left, Aran on the right).



Hmmmm...they are both cream colored, so I will just dye the whole thing once I am done and have a beautiful Peak's Island Hood to wear this winter.



Break out the Wilton's food dyes I have been hoarding! I want a nice deep teal, so I used Teal and a bit of Moss Green to tone down the brightness.



Play mad scientist while cooking dinner on the stove just to the right of this little scene. Hey, they are food safe dyes.



Let it cook in the crock pot all evening while I have a lovely chat with one of my dearest friends who joined us for dinner (homemade chicken noodle soup, perfect for this blustery October day). It eventually exhausted all that dye, if you can believe it.



Pull it out, rinse and blot dry. Great color. (It's actually quite a bit more blue than it appears here...late night light doesn't help with photographing this color!)



Um. I still have a two-toned scarf.



So, what have I learned? Paton's Classic Wool in Winter White is muuuuuuch better for taking dye than the Aran color (the Aran was very blotchy and took up much more of the dye than the Winter White did). And dye-ing yarn in the crock pot is a very pleasant way to spend an evening.

Also, I've started another Peak's Island Hood, this time with two matching skeins of already-dyed yarn. :)

Let there be color!

Don't you hate it when life gets in the way of your knitting? I sure do. Between school, work, colds, things breaking in my house, and fall fun activities like a trip to the apple orchards, I have had to stay up into the wee hours of the night if I want to spend time on my hobby...then pay for it dearly the next day when the kids are up at 6:30 am and want to come crawl in bed with me. It's adorable, but of course I can't go back to sleep. I always have to remind myself that they won't be little forever, and just squeeze them a little tighter until I am happy to be awake.

Despite the lack of knitting time, I have:

• made a very little progress on my Delancey Cardigan. WIP photo here.

• finished a Honey Cowl, for which there will be no blog post because it's ugly--there is no redeeming neon pink, yellow, and green varigated yarn!--though the free pattern is awesome and highly recommended. Ravelry pattern page for Honey Cowl by madeleine tosh.

• nearly finished a Peak's Island Hood by Ysolda Teague (Ravelry pattern page.). In a wonderful bonehead move, last year I purchased one skein of Patons Classic Wool in Aran, and one in Winter White, but didn't notice the difference until I was three inches past the skein change in my Hood. Argh. Silver lining: There will be Wilton's food coloring crock pot dye-ing to write about!

• knitted about 4 inches of the intarsia part of the Weekend Getaway Satchel (Pattern photo below from Interweave Knits, Fall 2005) .

So, leave it to me to choose a huge, involved piece for my first intarsia project! I had to giggle at myself when I started the first row and realized that although there are only 3-5 spots of color in each row, the black background in between also requires a separate ball of yarn. I had to wind about 6 balls of black as I progressed across that row! I think at this point, I am up to about 12 little bobbins at once. This picture was taken about 10 rows ago, and there are also some red and yellow patches involved now. It just tickles me to see all the colorful little bobbins of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes hanging off the back of the work.

This bag is a labor of love. It's not TV watching or social knitting now that the solid pieces are all done. I've even felted them already! As soon as I get some good pictures I have lots to share.