Racing towards the toe ...

Changed to stripes ... hey! it's late and I'm knitting as fast as I can!

New ... Bookends!

Crazy Eight - 8-ply European inspired sport wt

Here is a closeup of how the cabled yarn creates true visual texture.

Holiday Stocking 10 rows in

Holiday Stocking pattern by Barb Brown

30 minutes of knitting a cute, cute top!

Holiday Stocking pattern by Barb Brown

30 minutes of knitting a cute, cute top!

Update on Intuitive Knit Sweater Vest

Here are some pictures of the decisions made on the neckline (good decisions as it turned out), and on the hem (not so good!). The hem will need to be unravelled and a turning row of purl stitches inserted. You can see how easily and neatly the neckline hem turns with that one row of purl defining the edge.

Because of the square neckline, the front of the neckline is formed with double decreases in each of the two front right angles. After the purl (turning) row, all shaping is reversed, and so the inside corners now are formed with double increases.

The back of the neckline was raised with three shortrows. They were placed at 10 stitches on either side of the center stitch, then at 15 stitches, and finally at 20 stitches. After the turning row, when all shaping is reversed, the short rows were worked first at 20 stitches on either side of the center stitch, then at 15 stitches, and finally at 10 stitches on either side of the turning row.

Tacking down of the live stitches is shown in one closeup below, and makes for a neat and clean finishing touch.

No room left in the studio!

Overdye experiment

We have been making up new wholesale sample packets. Each one contains a butterfly mini-skein of about 12 yards of undyed yarn and wrapped in a sample of the same yarn which has been dyed and dried. This allows our customers to see the difference between the natural and finished yarn.

On Ravelry one of my customers has started to show several shots of her overdyed yarns. She loves to use a mild solution of black dye liquor and has achieved some beautiful results. Here is a shot of my first overdye experiment on Sheila's Sparkle. The yarn on the left, Cash DK 50/50, was dyed with Sparkle in the same pot, but not, of course, ovedyed.

My new colorway looks like the greyed down 50's aqua tones to me, and is OK, but not fantastic like my customer's work. I'll keep trying.

Sweater from Sock Yarn Sheila's Gold

Here's how far one skein of Sheila's Gold goes on size US 7 needles in a top-down, ragland style, square neck sweater.

new yarns ...

Sheila's Sparkle ... coming soon.

Crochet Games

Here are two versions of a simple crochet scarf using squares as the basis of design. The first is based on 3's ... treble crochet, skip 3 chains, etc., using a light sport yarn by Noro, Silk Garden. That is the multicolored one in the background. The lime green scarf is based on 2's ... double crochet, skip 2 chains to make a square, etc. using Ultra Merino 3Ply, a handdyed Wool2Dye4 yarn. I am liking the more delicate one.

New product at Wool2Dye4: Sample Pack DK

We have added a new sample pack to the DK collection. It is a set of 3 skeins of different DK weight yarns. This is the second sample pack offered on the site (see category Odds'n'Ends), following the Sample Pack ... 3 Fibers, 3 Pairs -- our Fingering Weight sample pack.

From time to time, the selection of yarns in the pack may change according to what we have in stock.
DK Sample Pack: Cash DK MCN and Silk DK 50/50 and W2D4 Merino DK-SW

3 Fibers--3 Pairs/Fingering Weight: Angel Delight Fingering and Platinum Sock and Sheila's Sock.
There is also a pattern for wrist warmers enclosed with the Sample Pack DK weight. In 3 Fibers, 3 Pairs, we include the pattern for Sheila's Basic Sock.