Because I haven't posted in a looooooong time.

Through an interesting series of events, I have committed myself to knitting a stuffed toy for each of my children as their Christmas presents.
Knitted dragons for my two boys that will be varying colors of this:

 

And the doll for my little girl.

I don't know about any of you guys, but the moment I put a deadline on something it becomes a slight drudgery.  So, self-discipline is a mantra I am going to have to say over and over until they are done.  Thankfully, I have finished all the knitting for my youngest's dragon!!  

I guess I have a lot of weaving in to do...sigh...

 

So.....

Things have been a little silent here lately.....there's a very good reason for that.

The Peaches side (Erin) to this venture hasn't been feeling too hot for the past couple of months.  I don't know how much she would want me to disclose here, so I will leave it at that for now.  I guess I can add that she is doing better now, but may still have some mountains to move.

The Purls side (Moi) had her workshop burned down a few months ago when hubby neglected a fire he built close by.  Thankfully my dyes and yarn were inside my house at the time, so I didn't lose those.  However, I did lose quite a bit of my supplies to the fire.  I have been slowly rebuilding my stock.  We have had a new workshop built, so I am hoping to be getting back to dyeing soon!

Now I will show you a few of the things I've been working on in the meantime:

This is the wrong-side of my Pippa Jumper.

It is inside-out at the moment since I want to take care of my tails before moving on to the collar and sleeves.  I was too lazy to rearrange it for its photo session.

 These are my Charlie Brown Socks, so named because the colors remind me of his sweater. 

I will probably end up giving these to Erin.  The pattern looks so pretty on the pattern page, but it has turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for me.

 And lastly, here is Hat.  I'm not quite sure what its name will be, yet.

 This is an entrelac hat that I have actually finished, but I still need to weave in some ends before it is ready for its finished photos.

Siren Skid Hat

Here's a project using our Sofee Sock yarn! It is the Skinny Skid Hatby Stephen West. I am using the colorways Siren Song and Skinny Skid Blue.


A few girls from my Greenville Knits group have knit this hat, and I just loved them!! Obviously I needed to knit one for myself! Off I went to my "yarn shop" (aka my stash) and selected the Siren Song, but could not find a complementary color for it. So I dyed one. (Goodness, I love being able to just whip up a custom color for whatever I am working on!)

Onto the knitting! I cast on my stitches and got to the double knitting portion of the brim...uuuggghhhhhh, and I thought, "This really is pointless double knitting." But, I trudged on, determined to knit this the way it was written. About an inch into the double knitting, though, I hit a snag: I criss-crossed my colors the wrong way and if I knit with the blue strand the way I would naturally the pink would show through the blue portion of the brim. So, I had to pull the blue strand up through the pink that had snared it before starting my next round. Two rounds later it happened again.

At that point I lost all patience for the pointless double knitting, put the back color on a spare bit of yarn and knocked out the front portion of the brim on its own.

I'm enjoying this hat a lot more now that I've taken out the double knitting.

And here's how far I've gotten:
I got the front done and cast off, and I've finished the length of the back! Yay! Onto the body of the hat.

Potluck Hanks

For those of you who may be wondering, Potluck Hanks are what I've decided to name certain colorways that are unrepeatable. They are dyed using leftover dyes from previous skeins, so the results are a potluck of dyes! Dyeing this way is just as much fun as creating the dyes for an intended colorway. Only in this process, I never know what's going to come out of my pot...ah...the mystery!

Potluck Dye Pot

Here are two more hanks for our shop, both on the Sofee Sock base, and both are Potluck hanks:

Bing Cherries


Midnight Iris

Anne Shirley Dyepot

Here are the skeins produced with the dyes from the teaser photo I posted.

We have Lady Cordelia:


on our Sofee Sock base

And Depths of Despair:

on our Blue-te-FuL Sock base

There was another skein to go along with these, but it got snatched up by one of my knitting group members before I got the chance to photograph it!

A Taste of Dyepots to Come

Here's a sample of what this week's dyepot results will look like.


I am just thrilled about these vibrant colors. It's taking all my will power to wait until my hanks have properly soaked to get started...just you wait, hanks, just you wait!