Dye Day...and

It was dye day here at Chez FiberDev. All sorts of things were cooking. Cris needed some skeins dyed black for a project so out came the dyes, dyepot and assorted items. Once the dyes are out it's an opportunity for any undyed yarn lying around -- why setup all that stuff to dye 3 skeins black? Julie came and brought her handspun. My girls had a blast dyeing Julie's yarn. We also made more knitted lined purses since Cris missed the class -- Cathy joined in on the fun and made one too!
Then, later after everyone left and I had dyes leftover I grabbed 5 skeins out of the stash and went to town. Here's a couple I dyed -- I grouped the dyes in 3 colorways, blue/purple, red/orange/yellow




and, still cooking, black








But before I go...it's my blog-a-versary! One year (and 10 days) ago I uploaded my first post. Since then I've finished 4 pairs of socks, 4 scarves, 1 cardi, 2 pullovers, 1 wrap, and a hat. It's been a great year of knitting triumphs (Mavis) and failures (didn't get the gold for my olympic vest), but all and all it's been fun. So here's to another year of knitting and blogging and to kick things off, here's the first pair of socks for blog year two, yarn: Trekking XXL, pattern: Conwy from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush.

Purple?

I seem to be knitting lots of purple lately...

I took a class this weekend and made alittle bag. The homework for the class was to knit a 6"x12" swatch. The class was Saturday and I knit the swatch on my bulky knitting machine Friday night.
This is the front of my bag.


And this is the back -- we brought fabric to match so I cut out a heart and fused it onto the knitting.

Get this -- it's lined! Check out the zipper detail. The class was Silver Linings and it was taught by Lorna Miser (formerly of Lorna's Laces Yarns). A bunch of us from my guild (South Bay Knitters -- see link at right) took the class. It was fun seeing all the different swatches and fabric. Lorna had a bunch of bags from her book Knit and Fused Purses. Her experience with this technique was invaluable -- she's worked out what fusing materials to use, how to measure and cut our fabric and how to get the zipper in,...I couldn't do this with just the book, having her there showing us what to do -- and what not to do was great!
I also finished Elana's hat. Elana's a classmate of my youngest daughter. Elana's 7 and was recently diagnosed with bone cancer. She will be undergoing several doses of chemotherapy. This hat is to protect her head should she lose some or all of her hair during her treatments. For this one I've used Lana Grossa's Cotton Fun. It's a 50/50 cotton/superwash that's machine washable and softens with each wash. Elana's loves purple and this is just the first of many hats I plan to knit for her. Here's the top of the hat -- the pattern is intended for self striping yarn and is available in the book Not Just More Socks.