Wednesday, October 24, 2007

What's wrong with this picture?

(seems I've used that as a title before)


Hint: Think of the directions accompanying every single pattern knit in the round "Join, being careful not to twist." Got it? Yeah. I got through thirteen cable rows of Rogue, plus the facing, with a moebius strip of knitting.
So it's all been ripped. Interestingly, my gauge on plastic 4mm circulars is looser than on 4.5mm metal addi turbos. So this time the facing and body will all be knit with the same needle (as I don't have a 3.5mm circular, and am not buying one just to do a facing).
The cables aren't popping as much as I'd hoped with the Beaverslide tweed. But it's okay. I was going for a sort of tweedy, woodsy, forest-dwelling rustic/ feral sort of feel, so subtle cables aren't a huge disaster. Also I may find they pop more when I have more than thirteen rows.


And this is the onion skin dyed yarn. I followed a bastard-child combination of these instructions and these instructions. I added salt when boiling the onionskins (about two tablespoons, I think) and vinegar (a cup) when boiling the yarn. This was the skin of maybe eight brown onions? It's slightly paler, and has this interesting pink undertone in real life. But the photo above is not a bad representation.
I boiled it for maybe ten minutes, then decided that so much of the dyebath had exhausted that I wouldn't bother boiling it any longer (real professional, scientific and precise I am).

7 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I love the natural dyes! I have a friend who just finished a huge project on natural dyes- all the skeins are for weaving, so they're not knitting quality, but the colors are amazing and she kept great notes on all her tricks.

reneeweaves.blogspot.com

Vyvyan said...

Ouch.

Strictly speaking, not a Moebius strip, as they have but a 180 degree twist, but not good.

Hah, I can comfort myself with the thought that at least the cardigan version is proof against that particular gremlin (I'm up to the second half of the front, doing the throat cabling, and it honestly feels as if I'm juggling fireballs, between cardiganising the bloody thing, changing it completely for M's weird body shape, and jumping back and forth between the charts and her very well- written but, well, very wordy written instructions. Argh!) Thanks again for the help on the fitting issue.

lupinbunny said...

Not a moebius strip? How much of a twist...? Oh. I see. You're right. You know I had to imagine tracing my hand along the jumper to work out that you were right? I was never very good at anything approaching visualisations of mathematical concepts. Geometry = a particularly special circle of hell.

spider_knit said...

Sorry 'bout your knit disaster.

oh, and ... tag! http://knitadventures.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I'm really exnjoying watching you experiment with natural dyes! Sorry about Rogue. Not fun at all.

BEESTLYproducts said...

so much knitting has been going on here! That onion skin yarn is amahhhhhzing. i love it.

Michelle said...

something interesting for you about mushrooms and dyeing!
michelle
http://kaisakaisa.blogspot.com/2007/10/dyeing-with-mushrooms-sienivrjyst-i.html