Charity Auction YYMN Slot & Yarns I dyed this week

the shorties are for the mama who won the charity YYMN auction for a cloth diapering mom of 8 children who is on a forum I'm on who lost her husband suddenly approx 2 months ago.





yarns I dyed this week - I had a pair of shorties for a trade nearly finished and they got left in the vehicle window for about 2 days worth of TX sunshine and got slightly bleached so I redid it (now the yarn on the bottom) and started dyeing another skein when the colors wanted to mesh together so I overdyed that to make the middle purple/black/etc one you see and then did another green/pink one (the yarn on top) to do a set for one of my own dd's at some point.



I don't know what to call the purple/black/etc.... (see below) - any suggestions?

Recent Finished Items

Finished up one tester pattern for a wahm but no pics to post as she is going to submit it to Knitty! I'm hoping the pattern makes it in! Very excited for her!

Recent Custom - the one I posted about the other day - This momma is so super sweet! This yarn on the other hand - was not so nice! However, it did finally cooperate! But it did not stretch as far as she would have liked. She had hoped for a 6" inseam and I could only get a 4" inseam. Absolutely love this colorway but the WAHM dyer is now out of biz.



I literally used almost every last inch of this yarn - here is what was leftover - less than a yard of the main colorway (6" ruler in the picture for reference)


This is the "True Love Cowl" tester pattern for Melanie of Adorabubble Knits. Knit with Bernat Satin yarn - this yarn is gray but has hints of brown in it when it hits the light just right.


Sugarbubbie Halter Tester Pattern knit from Lily Sugar'n'Cream cotton yarn. This one is for my baby cousin.

This yarn will not cooperate!

I finished a custom for a very sweet mama that I've knit for once before (finished pictures later). However, completing this pair turned out to be quite an adventure. This yarn wanted to pool vertically no matter what I tried - increasing a few stitches, decreasing a few stitches, going up a needle size, going down a needle size - nothing helped! Finally I added a rope cable - still not cooperating! As a last ditch effort I tried a braid and woooohooo! My last resort would have been to have knit from both ends of the skein. This project used every last bit of yarn. There was literally less than 1 yard of yarn left over of the main colorway.

Whew what a month!

Whew! We went out of state to visit family and ended up with two family emergencies and then after we got home I got a nasty cold and am finally starting to feel better again yesterday!

I have serious catching up to do now!
Customs I need to get out:
Megg's capris
Ashley's shorts (trade for laundry soap)
waiting on yarn for YYMN for Stephanie (Charity Auction winner)
trade is on hold for now (her mom is battling cancer - please keep D's mom in prayer)

I hope to finish both Megg and Ashleys' this week.

then as soon as Stephanie's yarn arrives be able to start on them the following week.

We had an unforcasted 2" of snow this week which melted by evening and left a muddy mess. They are calling for more rain/sleet/snow tonight. Don't these folks know it is April and supposed to be spring already! I'm definitely ready for some sunshine and blue skies and warm temps and for everything to turn green and not be a muddy mess!

Misc. Ramblings

Nothing further on dh's socks.

Started the tester cowl pattern and realized that it was not looking quite like it should. Told dh and he asked if it was me or the pattern LOL - I was not positive so I started a 2nd cowl - it still did not look right. So I emailed Melanie and there was a tiny note I had missed by following the chart and not remembering this little note! Ack silly me! However, I might have decided to use a different yarn that I have. I had planned on doing the worsted weight version so that it would knit up quicker but I do have a skein of Aracuania Ranco Multi Sock yarn that I know I do not want to knit socks out of but it might be nice for this - but then again it might be too colorful. What do you think?


In the mean time she finished up the another tester pattern so I started test knitting it.

Also finished a custom pair of shorts for a trade out of "Good Earth" Cestari Columbia yarn dyed by Lamar of A Time To Dye. I still need to weave in the ends and make the drawsting oh and lanolize it.

Dyed this Cestari Superfine yarn for a trade for some detergent from Ashley of Crunchy Clean Laundry products. I finished the waist and am starting the body on this pair.

What's on the knitting needles . . . . Pattern Testing & Dh socks

what's on the knitting needles?

I started socks for dh 2 days before Valentine's. I've not had much time to work on them though. However, I'm super excited about knitting this pair for him. The last pair was out of Dream In Color Classy worsted weight yarn using the
Knitty Thuja pattern. This pair is out of Zen String Lotus Toes BFL. I'm knitting the "Esquire" toe up (first time I've knit toe-up as the Thuja's and the other sock I've knit were top down).

When I first emailed Angelina of Zenstring - I asked her if she'd consider a colorway of navy, maroon, black or dark brown and silver/gray in sock yarn for my dh. She replied that she thought she had just the colorway that she had just created and was going to release soon. After seeing some of the other "Esquire" skeins knit up on Ravelry mine seems to have deeper colors and I'm so very glad! Some of the other skeins seem to have brighter colors and some pink to them and while dh does look very nice in pink I don't think he'd want pink in these socks LOL.

Here is a pair of socks knit out of a skein of Esquire by Angelina. The skein I'm knitting with is definitely deeper in color. Here is another skein of "Esquire" from Kingdom Knits on flickr. That skein definitely has lighter colors. I really do like the richness of the colors in the skein I received from ZS! I can't wait to see how they turn out. It's such a beautiful yarn!




Also test knitting a Cowl pattern for Melanie of Adorabubble Knits

Hand-spun Longies Action Photos

"V" was kind enough to send me these action photos of her little man modeling the Amber Beck Fiber Arts "Cameron" handspun longies.