At the risk of exposing myself as a less-than-sane person (this must come with the knitting blog territory), I present to you the results of a weekend spent unraveling.

Last week I unraveled the Old Navy sweater. That was cool. It was like getting yarn from nowhere! a little work - and yarn! I was hooked.

This weekend, I took it up a notch. Since I don't have any more spare sweaters of my own to unravel, new sweaters had to be procured. You know where this is going, right? It means taking a trip to the thrift shops and purchasing sweaters soley to unravel them for yarn.

Based on the troubled looks on the faces of my family when I explained my intentions, my sanity was in question.

But check it out! More yarn, rescued from oblivion!

This was a cardigan-style short-sleeve top. Its 272 grams of ribbon-like yarn, 100% polyester. I am thinking about the Honeymoon Cami or Grumperina's Trivoli T-shirt.

This was a cabled front cardigan from Talbots. It turned out that the front edges were cut, but the sleeves and back were usable. 265 grams, very soft wool, sportweight. I am planning to dye this, not sure what color yet.

This was a yellow Mr. Rogers-style sweater. It was very fine gauge, so I doubled the yarn while unraveling. 186 grams, wool.

This was a red version of the Mr. Rogers sweater. It was particularly annoying to unravel. The other sweaters had easy crocheted seams. Basically, you could pull one thread and the whole seam came undone. This one had some sort of super-strong never-to-be-undone seam. I used a razor blade and carefully cut the seam. It was a very meditative, first-thing-in-the-morning type of activity. That being said, I am not sure I'd opt to do it again.

Its lambswool, really soft, and a nice red color. 190 grams. Destined for gloves with flapovers I think.

In anticipation of the train trip upstate to my dad's last weekend, I packed the second striped sock. It wasn't that I wanted to work on it, more that it needed to be worked on. Second Sock Syndrome was not going to get me. oh no.

So I knit and knit and knit and knit all the 3 hours up there, reaching the heel turning by the time the train pulled into my destination. And by that time, I was into knitting it again. So over the course of the weekend, I finished it!

(by all means, feel free to ignore the disarray under my bed)

Here are the specs:
Yarn: Regia Mini-ringel sock yarn color #5340 on size 1 DPNs
Pattern: 64 st sock, with 2x2 ribbing on the cuff and instep
Striping: 9 stripe pairs before the heel flap; 6 stripe pairs before the toe.

This makes the fifth pair of handknit socks I own. My goal is to have enough pairs to wear only handknit socks in the winter. Not sure how many this would be... more than 5!

Lately I haven't really felt like knitting. It could be because of the start of running season (10k next weekend!) or the dead hot weather that has recently descended on NYC. Most likely it has something to do with my ongoing indecision about what to knit.

The thing is this: I seriously have more yarn than one person should have. I don't really want to buy more. But every project I want to knit seems to require new yarn. and I refuse to purchase more. Also, I've been lazy/nervous about converting patterns to new gauges. Thus, no new projects are getting started!

Instead of knitting, I've been Kool-aid dyeing! and I am way hooked.

With some Knitpicks Color Your Own sock yarn (unbeleivably soft yarn if you haven't tried it) and Kool-Aid packets straight from suburbia, it was on.

This is my favorite one. Its self-striping. Mostly green, with little orange stripes.

Working with Kool-aid is a challenge because pretty much every color is neon. The skein above was dyed twice. The first time, I used straight-up lemon-lime and orange flavors. This resulted in 80s-quality neon yarn. Not really what I was going for... So I decided to try overdyeing it, re-dyeing the green section with purple (Grape), and the orange section with red (Grape Illusion). I am so thrilled with the true green color!

Here's how to make your own self-striping sock yarn with Kool-aid dye. At least, this is how I did it.

1. The key to self-striping yarn is a reallllly long hank. The stripes happen when there are long stretches of different colors. To get these long areas of color, you need a long hank. I used two chairs placed across the living room from each other. Here's a photo of the setup:

(This was taken after the dyeing. See where the stripes are?)

2. Actually, before doing this, I figured out my gauge with the undyed yarn. Then I decided I wanted 3 different colored three-row stripes in my sock. So I figured how much yarn that would take and put the two chairs exactly this far away from each other. This is not entirely necessary. Live on the edge - guesstimate!

3. Once you've made the really long hank, tie off sections of it that will be dyed different colors. I used some dark acrylic to mark where the color changes should go.

4. Soak the hank in water while preparing the dyes.

5. Mix up some Kool-aid with water in jars. I used 2-3 packets per each color, and one jar for each color. The more dye, the more intense of a color will result. I found that with light colors like yellow (lemonade) and pink (pink lemonade), its better to err on the side of too much dye rather than not enough.

6. Meanwhile, heat up some water in a large pot to boiling. The jars will go in here to be heated, which sets the dye. Check to make sure the water will not overflow when the jars are added.

7. Heat the jars of yarn in the larger pot until the water in the jars is clear. Its not necessary to maintain boiling water at this point, but the water should be hot. It really turns clear or milky once the yarn has absorbed all the dye! This is the coolest effect. Stir a little bit, but not too much. Some of my yarn got felt-y, and I think this was the cause.

8. Remove the yarn from the jars one color at a time and put on a plate or in a strainer or something. The colors will not run into to each other, so feel free to let the colors touch. Let cool.

9. Wash and dry per usual.

10. Return the really long hank to the chair setup and wind into a normal-sized hank. Actually, you could go straight to a yarn ball from here. I wound mine into hanks because I wanted to see what they'd look like in hanks. Plus, I could use the yarn winder thing.

Here's the final result. Self-striping yarn, made at home, without the help of the Regia corporation!

References:
An excellent entry over at ginabeana
Shetha's recent spice dyeing entry
Knitty's article on Kool-aid dyeing
A great Kool-aid dyeing color chart

This was such a quick knit that I didn't even have a chance to write about its progress!

Its Glampyre's One Skein Wonder. I used size 7 needles and a yarn that got 4.5spi instead of the called-for 4spi. Before casting on, I spent a good week worrying about not having the correct gauge. When I finally sat down with the pattern and a calculator, it became quite clear that I could just make a larger size. no problem! silly.

The yarn is Cascade 220. This hank has a history. It started out white, purchased last spring while I considered a crochet edge on my very first scarf. That was an ill-fated idea, and months later it began again as The Thing. The Thing wasn't really my thing, but luckily, along came Kool-aid dyeing! As it turns out, this yarn was meant to be green.

This is my favorite thing about hand dyed yarn, the subtle variations in color depth.

The Kool-aid recipe: 7 packets Lemon-lime, 1 packet Lemonade, 2 packets Wild Watermelon Kiwi (also green), 1 packet Grape. The grape helps to tone down the neon green for a more reasonable color.

This was a total of 11 packets for 100g of yarn, way more than any Kool-aid dyeing article recommends (I've heard 1 packet per ounce). Its quite possible this same color can be acheived with less Kool-aid. I got a little concerned while dyeing it and poured in like 4 extra packets of green and the yellow. Just to be on the safe side.

It had to happen sometime. I've gone crochet.

Have you seen this lovely pattern?? Its from the RYC Classic Holiday book. I saw it online, bought the book, and found out that this bag is created soley through the dark art of crochet. oh. all crochet. not just an edging or optional finishing. The whole thing is crocheted.

What's a silly thing like crochet to stand between me and a cute bag? On Saturday, I gathered supplies and set out to learn it.

Supplies:
One copy , a super cute book dedicated to the dark side.
One set Boye hooks in many sizes.
Some yarn scraps.
The RYC Classic Holiday book, containing super cute bag pattern.
One cat (optional).

Following directions is really my thing. Nothing please me more than going through step-by-step instructions successfully. So I decided to do the beginner projects in Cozy Crochet. The first project is a very simple dishcloth in single crochet. I had enough yarn for half.

Then I made the next project, coasters, from the leftover Kool-aid yarn.

Finally, I decided I was ready to tackle the actual sling bag pattern, and practiced on the remaining yarn scraps.

See how its all ruffly?? A mistake. This wasn't a not-knowing-how-to-crochet error as much as it was a not-paying-attention-to-the-pattern error. Luckily, a helpful woman at the yarn store set me straight.

What's that? The yarn store? um yes. Projects on the dark side require yarn too. Nice yarn like Rowan Cotton Glace:

I almost don't want to say this, but here it is: crochet is actually fun. I got the same "hey look what I can do!" feeling that comes with first learning to knit. its not too bad over here on the dark side. not too bad at all.

The sling bag is starting to look like a bag!

Although its not going to be cylindrical. The shape should be something like this:

According to my calculations, there are only 5 more rounds until the split for the handles. hmmmm. How could this be enough? Cotton Glace is a bit skinnier than the recommended Cashcotton, so I think I'll do some extra rounds just to be sure. Of course, that could cause a serious yarn shortage, but this is a chance every knitter must take.

You know what? Crochet is just like knitting. except the stitches aren't held on a needle until the end. Each stitch can stand on its own right away.

Also, unlike knitting, crochet looks like this:

The increases are the same as knitting though! It starts in the middle with a neat little circle thing, then increases are done in rounds, first increasing every stitch, then every other stitch, then every 3rd stitch.. (you get where this is going, right?) Eventually, the increases stop and you start working in plain rounds.

Its a different sort of look. Its not a look that makes me want to make shirts out of it, but for a bag - perfect.

Because a person cannot just knit one One Skein Wonder, I have started this:

The yarn is Blue Sky Cotton. Man, why didn't anyone tell me about the greatness that is Blue Sky Cotton? I am in love with it. Its cotton, but unbelievably soft. A whole sweater made out of this stuff would be perfection.

I love that this miniature shrug takes only one skein of yarn. Its a great way to try out new yarns! Who knows if I would have discovered the Blue Sky Cotton otherwise?

And now for the exciting news of the day:
I have been accepted into the NY Marathon!!! yea! There are so many people who apply that there is a lottery, and today they drew the names. The running gods have spoken! November 6, 2005, baby!!

Remember how the sling bag looked a few days ago? How it was starting to actually look like a bag? Well, today the sling bag looks more like potholder than a bag.

Last night, after completing the required number of rows and getting to the point where the bag splits into two handles, I decided my gauge was quite wrong. I was creating this dense, dense fabric that didn't so much resemble the picture in the book. This must be the reason it doesn't really look like a bag, I thought.

A looser gauge is the only solution. and the only way to get there is to undo what has been done. By 11:15pm, the bag was mostly back to yarn. I kept the bottom part with the increases, because hey, that part can be stronger and denser, so loose change doesn't fall out! Also, I didn't really want to redo this part.

Now, this wouldn't be necessary if I hadn't purchased yarn of a prehistoric dye lot. If more of this same color was available, I could keep on going with the uber-dense fabric and just buy more. Alas, I may be in possession of the last 5 skeins of this particular flavor of Cotton Glace shade 814. The ones I saw at Purl yesterday were off just enough to matter.

This pattern has no schematic(argh), but there is this sketch, from the "Designer's Notebook" section of the pattern book.

The new plan: crochet looser, and hope for the best.

The other day I noticed that half-knitted things were lounging on nearly every available surface in my room. Now, this is especially disturbing because at one point in time, I declared myself a one-project-at-a-time knitter. Ooops. guess I fell off that wagon.

Cases in point:

1. A partially knitted One Skein Wonder, looking lovely in pink on my nighstand.

2. The crocheted sling bag, travel-ready in a ziploc, waiting for a good subway ride on my fiber cabinet. (Yes, I have a piece of furniture whose sole purpose is to store yarn...there's no going back now.)

3. Long neglected, Orangina waits patiently on the top of the bookshelf, hoping someday to get that last 2 inches of ribbing. Someday.

4. Hiding out next to Orangina is a sock and half so unloved it didn't even warrant mention here before now. I made it quite far on this pair of socks before deciding the gauge is too loose and have yet to decide whether this development warrants ripping.

My goal: finish these knit items and send them on their way!

The second One Skein Wonder is complete!

I do love this pattern. Its so quick to knit, and more importantly, very wearable. Now, I am sure all of you wear your knit items frequently, but mine rarely make it out of my apartment. I know - I should wear them! But for whatever reason, I just don't gravitate towards them when deciding what to wear. Maybe they are just not appealing after all the time spent knitting.

The One Skein Wonder is an exception. I wore the green one to work yesterday, and didn't even question it. Its quite possibly the perfect mix of handknit + fashion.

(It looks kinda lopsided here, but that is just my rushed photo styling this morning. in real life it is symmetrical. really.)

This one is knit in Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton, size 9 needles, 4spi. The yarn is wonderful. It is super soft. I knit the second size. It seems that the cotton did stretch a bit, but it still fits! I had to cast off with size 9 needle even though the ribbing was done on 7s.

and this is the leftover yarn:

Phew! I was worried about running out of yarn.

I am already thinking about knitting another one of these - might need another color, maybe dark brown..

Check out what is finished!

Its the sling bag, all crocheted out and ready for the beach.

Here are the specs:
Pattern: Sling bag from Rowan Classic Holiday
Yarn: Cotton Glace, shade 814, 6 skeins
Crochet hook: Size F (I think, one size up from the pattern recommendation)

Some Notes:

Crochet. This was my first crochet project. It was super easy. If you're thinking about trying crochet, this is a decent beginner project. Its all one stitch, kinda the crochet equivalent of garter stitch, with simple increases and decreases.

Ties. I think the ties were supposed to just go through the bottom row of the straps, where the straps divide. I wanted the bottom of the bag to appear deeper, so I laced the ties through about 10 rows between the straps. Its virtually unnoticable.

Yarn Shortage. Its important to buy enough yarn! My LYS only had 5 skeins of cotton glace, which I somehow thought was enough. It was such a perfect color, it had to be enough. Alas, color perfection is unrelated to yardage and 5 skeins got me about halfway up the straps.

Luckily, through a stroke of goodwill that can only happen in blogland, Julia noticed my plight in a previous entry and offered a skein *of the same dyelot* from her own stash. Julia totally rocks. The sling bag would not have been the sling bag without this:

I am beginning to feel a bit behind with progress for my Secret Sock Pal.

Lots of other members in the exchange have yarn, patterns, and a plan. Grumperina has conducted scientific tests regarding gauge and foot size. Carolyn is knitting socks at a remarkable rate to warm up. And Purly Whites is trying out patterns in practice socks to ensure sock perfection when it really counts.

I have .... a couple ideas and a fair amount of stashed sock yarn, none of which seems appropriate.

Also a factor is my serious stash of Kool-aid packets, featuring basically every flavor known to man. Dyeing yarn seems like the way to go. Which I will do as soon as I get around to ordering some more dyeable yarn. Hey, I have until September 15, all kinds of time!

This weekend I made a half-hearted attempt at trying out a sock pattern.

Although it might look like nearly nothing, this was in fact the beginning of Ann Budd's A Pair of Socks (the girl version) from Interweave Fall 05. (link to the pdf)

However, early on I decided this pattern with this yarn (Koigu P822, previously seen as a contender for the Chevron Scarf) ended up looking too messy. Instead of pretty ribbed socks, I went with the old standby, 2x2 ribbing.

and they're not for my sock pal. The yarn is seriously the color of antifreeze. I can't send that to someone I've never met! Besides, I kinda want to keep them...

As you know, I find the One Skein Wonder irresistable. It defies the logic of traditional sweater proportions. It uses up stash yarn. Quite difficult to mess up while knitting. Its like a sock, except for your shoulders. (just go with me on this one..)

When I decided to make a dark brown one, it seemed like a golden opportunity to use up this worsted stash yarn:

Here we have nearly two skeins of Harrisville Highland in Cocoa.

They are left over from an Entrelac pillow I knit last May, using a pattern in Debbie Bliss' How to Knit book.

Since I have nearly 2 skeins of yarn to use up, a slightly larger small sweater is in order. Enter Glampyre's Minisweater. Could it be as cute + stashbusting as the OSW? Only time will tell.

But first, a little yarn tweaking.

Harrisville Highland is one of my favorite yarns, but its not the softest yarn ever. This 100% wool is not ideal for next-to-skin wearing. Perhaps carrying along a strand of mohair will help..

I swatched the Harrisville + mohair, and it *is* softer, but fuzzy. Too fuzzy for a summer Minisweater?

Instead of the mohair, I am considering carrying along a strand of Habu Textiles Tsumugi Silk, if they have a nice dark brown. Ideally, it would clarify stitch definition and add shine. Two good qualities for summer knits. I think I'll check Habu's selection at lunch.

Hmmmmm. This stash yarn miniature sweater is so far requiring multiple yarn purchases...

Actually, only say no to laceweight silk.

Really, just say no to the idea of winding your own center-pull ball from 840 yards of the above without the help of machines.

Most importantly, just say to no knitting from both ends of said center-pull ball. Logic suggests that this would be a great way to knit with two strands, but its wrong. very wrong.

I know. Because I tried, and here's what happened:

A huge tangled mess! ack! This silk nearly cost me my sanity.

After a great deal of time spent untangling, a fair amount of cutting, and some sacrifices to the silk gods, I now own two non-center-pull skeins of indeterminate length.

Is there still enough left? Who knows! I will knit with it, and if I run out, I will return to Habu Textiles, purchase more, and absolutely request that they wind it into a ball.

The good news is that I like the way it works with the worsted wool.

The swatch below shows, from the top down: Worsted+Silk(two strands), Worsted alone, and Worsted+Mohair.

The silk is barely noticeable, but adds a little bit of shine, and changes the feel of the wool. On the reverse stockinette side, the two strands of silk end up right on the purl bump. Which means that it should be nicer next to skin! yesssss. Mission accomplished.

phew. all this, and I haven't even started knitting yet.