An Old Project Revealed

Finally, the Spring/Summer 2010 Knitty is out, so I can talk more about the socks I made last September. I talk about my friend Jodie, who designs lots of patterns and knitted a giant shawl last week, often, and I showed you some close-ups of this pattern when I was working on it, but because we had to wait until it was published, I could not show you my versions of the Twisted socks Jodie designed. Here are some pictures of the pair I test knitted:

My GOOD Twisted Sock.

As you may recall, I used the Knitivity sock yarn in the Koi colorway that I asked Ray to design for me.

The sock I messed up on, but from its good side

I love these socks, even though I messed up reading the instructions on the first pair. I kept that sock, because, hey, it shows that I helped with my suggestions to Jodie and the instructions are way better now (actually, she did a LOT of changing after I knitted my trial pair. Any good author revises a lot!

The colors are great, and the slipped stitches really work well on a brightly colored yarn like this. The pattern construction is a LOT of fun, so I highly recommend you sock knitters give this one a try. It's worth the effort to get the feed perfect!

Congratulations to Jodie for being persistent and continuing to submit patterns until she got one in! And many hopes for more publications. Don't you agree that supporting our friends is important? If you have a friend who has done something newsworthy, tell someone. It feels good.

I have to go concentrate on the other kinds of work I do for a bit, but I'll be back later! I got up past putting the thumb stitches on a holder on the second mitten yesterday, so who knows, I might actually get to finish my shawl soon.

Preview of Fun to Come

Dyeing Sample Lace
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I have a friend (OK, it's Jody, who commented below, who is like one of my bestest friends, otherwise I'd not be plugging her madly) who is starting a business dyeing yarn. This is someone with an amazing sense of color and the scientific knowledge to do some really amazing things with the yarns. She's starting out with some semi-solids and made dozens and dozens of samples in colors that are so pretty it takes my breath away. I have NO idea how I could choose a favorite, or if I were a LYS owner, how I'd pick the ones to sell! Right now there is something for everyone in the selection and THEN some. I keep imagining the mitered square bedspread to end all bedspreads made out of all these little samples. OK, so that won't actually happen; she needs them!

We all had a blast at the LYS on Saturday looking at the samples, touching them, rearranging them, oohing and aahing. My friend obviously put a lot of work into making recipes and documenting them, and making all those samples! Whoa! Some of the colors were shades I had never seen in yarn for sale. Oh, drooooooool. Look at all those blues and purples.

Lucky for me, she made two samples of one color (this is, believe it or not, yellow base dye with black), so I could knit up a sample for our LYS, which is in the photograph. It came out a lovely olive green. I am enthralled with how the slight color variations make it shimmer without detracting from the lace pattern. The base yarn is a wonderful wool-silk blend that will be familiar to any lace knitter. It sure takes to dye well!! Do click the image of the sample to see it enlarged. It's so pretty, even in perhaps not the most exciting color on earth. (Hmm, it is the color of the earth, in my mind.)

I am enjoying using my new Addi lace needles on this sample, too. This is a size 4; a "normal" knitter would get this effect with about a size 6 US needle. The pattern is one repeat of a motif used in an item in a book I had laying around, but I am sure it is in one of the Walker books or a Harmony Guide--called "arrowhead lace." I think this would actually make a nice narrow scarf to wear as an accent with a button down shirt or turtleneck. Maybe when my friend makes more, I'll do that.

If you are interested in being notified when this yarn goes up for sale (I think she will have an Etsy store or something like that at first), you can send an email message to ColorMyYarnKrazy-subscribe AT yahoogroups DOT com (replacing the AT and DOT appropriately). It will be an announcement kind of list, not a mailbox-filling spammy kind. I think there will be laceweight and sock yarn at first. And eventually there will be hand painted sock yarn. However, these semi-solids are so lovely they'd keep me occupied for a while. I can't wait to see what she comes up with in the future!