Tribute to Tie Dye Start

Tribute to Tie Dye
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I am having fun with my latest socks. These are the Tribute to Tie Dye yarn knit up in the really nice Hawaiian Leis pattern. For some reason, the pattern is not showing up as attractively as it does in person. I do recommend it, though--it is fun to knit and just a bit different.

The yarn is simply cracking me up. I am knitting from the middle and the end of my skein, and look how different they are! One end is mostly red and blue (which is how I envisioned the yarn, but the other end has a LOT of green. I tried to put just a wee bit o' green in the skein, but it looks like it clumped. It's hard to see, but there IS green in the bottom sock, so these will be fraternal but definitely look related.

It appears to me that the silk blend (it's Knitpicks Bare) sock yarn did not take the KoolAid dye as well as 100% wool would have. The colors are a bit washed out. But the do remind me of tie dye, so I think I will like them just fine.

As for my crochet project, I am getting ever-so-slightly better at the "pearls" in the Ocean Pearls sweater. I asked the author of the pattern for insight, and it sounds like "practice makes perfect" is the key. The yarn is as catchy as it was with knitting, though not bad on the plain ole double crochets. However, trying to draw through ten loops with that fussy Mystik yarn is a major challenge. I hope I get the technique down, because I do like the pattern. The author liked it so much that she made herself a second one after she sent the original to Interweave Crochet, so it must wear well, too! I'll try to have pictures of that project when there is more than three rows to photograph.

On another note, I hope I survive through the endless posts and emails about the Ravelympics. If you choose not to do the latest mass craft hysteria, you can feel a bit bored and left out as an observer. At least all the photos of yarn on bobbins from the Tour de Fleece should be about over. I need to learn to spin so that pictures of lumpy yarn on bobbins is more enthralling, I guess. Of course, um, I'd accept any gifts of handspun. Hee hee.