Wednesday, October 11, 2006

An F.O. (or Major Frogging?) Coming Soon

I’m so happy to report that I’ve completed the second sleeve of the 6-color sweater and it’s now blocking! Although it feels great to have reached this milestone that marks the final stretch for this sweater, I’m feeling more and more uncertain about whether the sleeves are wide enough and also whether they’ll fit nicely into the armholes. That massive curling of the fabric that I showed you in a photo posted last week just made it too difficult to get a good feel for the fit.

The pieces will take a while to block, as I may have to spritz them again when they’re dry or perhaps do a bit of steaming to really get the curling out of the sleeves once and for all. The bottom of the body is also pretty curly and that may not be resolved in the first blocking. The sleeves were so curly that I ended up using about a million and one pins to hold them in place and actually ran short of pins for the body. I’m not worried about that though, because I can always complete the construction and then worry about the bottom edge curling afterward. The anticipation and trepidation I’m feeling as I wait to see how the sleeves fit is killing me and I’m not going to risk losing any time at this stage messing with the curly bottom.

In the meantime, I’m continuing dyeing like a madwoman. My recent obsession with browns continues. The latest addition to the brown family is this:



It’s Merino Wool Sock Yarn (not the superwash, but the plain old, vanilla merino) in a colorway called Mocha Spice. Although I listed the first skeins last week, you won’t find them in either of my stores. The first batch all sold within a couple of days, but never fear! There’s more drying in my workshop already.

I also have these same colors on DK Alpaca/Wool.



I haven’t listed these yet, as I keep procrastinating about the name for the colorway. The Alpaca/Wool takes the dyes a bit differently than the Merino Wool and I keep vacillating about whether to call it by the same name or give it its own name. Silly, I know! Perhaps I’ll just call it Rich Mocha Spice or something of that sort to give it a bit of differentiation.

In other news, I have nine new Superwash Sock Yarn colorways on their way soon. Six will be ready within the next week and three more will follow shortly thereafter. These are a new series that I’m tentatively calling “Tone on Tone.” Each of these new colorways is rainbow dyed using a single color in highly varied shades from the lightest, gentlest hint of color through to rich and vibrant tones, along with every shade in between. They are far more varied in tone than what one traditionally thinks of as a “semi-solid” yet they are still built on a single shade.

I absolutely adore these new Tone on Tone yarns and am just trying to restrain myself from making any more until I see how these are received. They’re such fun to dye and it’s so interesting to see how each color I mix comes to life in the Tone on Tone format that I think I could make a hundred different versions without getting tired of it!

It’s a little after 7 a.m. now so it’s time for me to get to work! I have more dyeing on tap today and am also hoping to find some time to get a new pair of socks on the sticks.

Great day to all!

8 comments:

Stacey said...

So pretty! I'm a huge brown fan also!!

Looking forward to seeing the tone on tones - I'm always on the hunt for new solid or semi solid colors to work with all my patterns!

Elisa said...

Pumpkin spice. (rather than rich mocha spice) Love the browns!

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see the tone on tones! That's my new thing lately, solids or single toned yarns... teaser! :)

Anonymous said...

Elisa's right - pumpkin is what I thought of too, when I saw the brighter tones of yellow/orange in that second skein. Or persimmon... bittersweet... Plus *more* gorgeous colorways? Deb, Deb, Deb. And you were saying you might have to cut *me* off this month for my own good? [vbg] (Moving along on the heel of my first sock, btw. It's looking wunnerful!)

Anonymous said...

Your going to kill me with the beautiful browns! I can't knit that fast!!

~Tonia~ said...

Ohhhhhh that is so pretty!! I understand why it is sold out in both stores.

I can't wait to see the tone on tone colors.

Anonymous said...

i can;t wait! i hope one of those tones is red!

The Knitphomaniac said...

Oooh, I'm really excited to see the tone-on-tone colorways! Sounds fabulous. I've been looking for something just like that lately, actually.