MCY - Mystically not Colourfast Yarn

I finished the cloud skein wonder, washed it and laid it out to block. An awful lot of blue came out the in the washing (water, no soap or detergent). Shmeh, I thought. It's hand-dyed. A little excess is bound to come out.
However, I didn't expect that so much dye would come out that the front of the cloud skein wonder would look slightly faded, while the back which (being 'underneath' when blocking, and thus where gravity took what water i didn't squeeze out) would end up a much more intense colour. See the line across the sleeve?


Not a shadow. A tidemark from where the dye leached from and to. After I squeezed out all excess water. That's not a little bit of excess dye. It dyed my towel too. I am seriously unimpressed, and join the ranks of those who wouldn't buy Mystical Creations Yarn again. There's more dye movement than after my DIY Kool-Aid experiments, for feck's sake! I can't decide whether to drop them a (whinging) line or not.

Anyway, here's the finished thing. Quite pretty, if you discount the dye difference. Not that i can wear it out anywhere it might get a little bit damp. I fancy my clothes not adulterated with more blue-green dye.


In better news, I've started playing with all the debbie bliss cashmerino aran I got on sale. Unfortunately, I was unaware of its reputation for pilling. however, two gauge swatches (yes, two! i'm trying to do this proper) went through the washing machine no problem. No fuzzing, no colour running (take that, MCY!) Though the yarn does feel a bit funny to work with. My fibre research has told me that microfiber (a pretty large percentage of cashmerino) is known for wicking moisture away. So I think the odd feeling is the yarn sucking away at any sweat/ oils on my fingers. This is the start of the cardigan for Arwen, from Winter Interweave Knits. Nice and casual (so if it pills, I'll still wear it to uni), but an unusual construction that I hope will teach me to understand short rows better.


I've been messing about with combination knitting, to see how I like it and how it works with my RSI. I might have tried to knit the whole thing combination-style, but I've discovered that the yarn is so smooth and regular and I'm so skilled that I can - wait for it - read and knit at the same time! Vistas open before me! Mostly vistas of spiral-bound uni readers right now, but eventually I imagine getting through books for work while making myself a useful garment at the same time.

sniffle

I'm sick. I'm horribly sick. This is no ordinary headcold, I seem to have caught some kind of mutant crossbreed of SARS and birdflu. My gums and the roof of my mouth are all tender and I am so thirsty. I feel like I've eaten a bag of salt. My thought processes are slow and plodding. Normally being inside my head is quite exciting. Not quite as exciting as being inside, say, Bjork's head, but there's a few things going on at once normally. Now my synapses are not so much firing as smouldering gently when they collapse on top of each other in a wearied heap.

i have curled up in bed with this:


my legs are actually under all that. the cloud skein wonder and my knit happens order, which arrived today (awesome. it arrives on the one day that I'm too sick to care). the noro silk garden is very pretty. perhaps a bit too pretty for my tastes usually. I'm rethinking making tithe, and thinking (very slowly, oh, so slowly it hurts... *sneeze, sniffle*) about making, like, a cushion cover and striped jumper. Maybe. I'll make a final decision when my zombie self is replaced with my real self again. the cashmerino aran is going to become this. Or if gauge doesn't work out, maybe arwen's cardy, from interweave knits.

I was going to go on for a little longer, but even my lying-in-bed-typing strength is fading. so farewell. If I never post again you'll know I succumbed to the fever. Make sure I get a nice obituary in the paper. And mention how I died. It drives me crazy trying to guess that when I read other people's obituaries.

Turns out MCY yarn can be frogged, which is handy, given that some of this yarn has now been knit and ripped five times. It's patently clear from the picture that I'm knitting a Frankenstein mash of the cloud bolero and the one skein wonder, right? which means I'm putting a feather and fan pattern into the one skein wonder, having thieved the idea from the cloud bolero.

It looks like something, right? Something that's not just a mess, I mean. I'm a little worried that uneven single ply yarn + lace = something 'bohemian' that a middle aged 'artistic' lady who also enjoys felt art and macrame might make. I'm also a bit worried about my ability to increase in lace. My skills so far have been responsible for all the ripping. I tried reading eunny jang's articles on increasing/ decreasing in lace patterns, but I think they're something I need to come back to another time. for now they're doing my head in.

See my pretty stitch markers? The ones that aren't loops of wool? Easter gift from someone in my stitch'n'bitch. Aren't they lovely? First time i've ever used 'proper' stitch markers, let alone pretty ones. I'm quite sold on them, I think.

I had this terrible gardening emergency yesterday (yes, more on my garden. I've got self sprouting sweet potato and garlic too now). The mulch has been growing this weird white fungus, but in the past 48 hours, due to pretty much constant rain I guess, the fungus went WILD. It was EVERYWHERE! Including on my plants! Growing on my living plants, but actually killing them off! There was nothing I could do to stop it! Maybe it was even poisonous to me, and I shouldn't even be outside breathing in the spores! I rang my mum, who said that a little fungus was normal, a lot was not. She'd never seen it kill plants. She recommended that i ring bunnings. I rang my local bunnings, who told me fungus was normal and good. Unconvinced, I rang a different bunnings, who doubtfully told me that maybe copper oxychloride would kill it. A quick google revealed copper oxychloride is for killing black spot fungus on rosebushes. Not deadly white grows-on-mulch-and-my-plants fungus. No good. I ring the people that made the mulch! The lady that answers gives me her husband' mobile number. This is an emergency! The guy has no idea what it is, has never heard of it. He's quite hopeful it's the delightfully named dog's vomit slime mould, but descriptions don't match. He tells me to pop down to my local indie garden centre. It's raining and I have no car. But this is an emergency! Heirloom beets are at stake! I throw some dead, fungus laden leaves in a plastic bag and set off in the sleet.
I find the guy at the local garden store. I explain my predicament.
"That fungus is normal. It's good for the plants."
"But it's KILLING them! Look"
He inspects my bag of leaves.
"Uh, nope. You're killing them. They've got collar rot. The fungus has grown on them because you put the mulch too close to the stems, and that also caused collar rot. The fungus by itself doesn't do anything."
"oh. you sure?"
"Yup."
"oh."
I went home a moved the mulch away from my plants. Periodically I also go outside and bash away at the larger patches of fungus with my trowel. More to make myself feel better than anything else. One beetroot fell victim to collar rot, everything else seems to be doing okay.