A PPaola to dye for - a tutorial

     I know...it's been a long time since I last wrote here.  I was busy with a very welcome commission and then nursing a cold - such a bad one I didn't even want to knit!

     Anyway, I had promised the test knitters that once we were done with PPaola, I'd post a tutorial on how to dye the finished stole.  The photos were taken some time ago, but like I said, I was busy doing some other (not so fun) things.
    

     Here is the image of the second PPaola I knit.  It was done with Franklin sock yarn, using AB beads instead of nupps. (I tried everything I could think of, but blogger insists on placing the image sideways).  You can find the specs for this one here.

     This was my first time "painting" a knit item and I probably made a bunch of mistakes, but it was fun and easy to do.

  


     Since it was the dead of winter (and I don't have much space outside anyway), I did all the dyeing on my dinning room table.
     You'll need old newspapers and some plastic (I used the real big grocery bags).  There were two colors used to get the result you see above - Evergreen and Blue Spruce.  I used Country Classic Wool Dyes, but you can use anything you got handy.  You'll also need a few jars to put the dyes in and one or two foam brushes.

     We'll start by soaking the item in water for at least half an hour.  A few tips here:  if you used coned yarn to knit your item, you'll probably need to take whatever sizing the used on the yarn off - so, first soak it in very hot water (DO NOT AGITATE!!!).  I used a few drops of dish detergent on the water as I wanted the colors to "run" a bit - soap lower the surface tension.
     After letting the stole soak for a good time, I made my first mistake: I took the excess water out by using the spinning cycle of my washer...because of that the yarn didn't quite work as a wicker as I wanted it to.  If I were to do it again, I'd just squeeze the excess water out with my hands.
On the other hand, by spinning it on the washer I didn't get a big mess of puddles in the carpet ;)

Time flies even if you don't have fun

I finally managed to release the pattern for PPaola.   The test knitting took way longer than what I've imagined and since (sadly) I can't turn off life when I have other things to do, it wasn't all fun and games.

So, after a few personal crisis averted and/or solved, the holidays, the pursue of a personal goal (still on going) you can finally buy it here.

I've done a second one using Franklin sock yarn and beads instead of nupps.  Working on the second one I had at least one aha moment, which will become another post.  I used undyed yarn on the second stole and took pictures of the dyeing process (to become a tutorial).
I haven't taken pics of the second version yet, as I'm waiting for a good day to take photos of the finished stole.

Check list

I usually don't write about what I plan to do because I feel like if I do, I end up not knitting what I had planned. :P
Oddly, this time around I managed to knit some of the things I said I would...Maybe times are changing, maybe it is the stars' alignment...I don't care, I got some stuff done and it's good. :)

This first picture is the hat I knit for the UPS guy. I used the method described on Knitting from the top, by Barbara Walker. I thought this stitch was called brioche in English - I was wrong. According to some of the stitch dictionaries I have, it's called a fisherman rib. Whatever you call it, it's a nice, lofty, warm stitch.
It took me a few tries until I got the number of stitches right - I still have the one I did before, which is suited for a giant...
Once I got the numbers right, it was a breeze. I love how it feels and am now in the process of talking Joel into a pair of socks done with this stitch. The second photo shows how the increases make a swirl.

To do (or not to do) list

     I've been busy working with a great group of test knitters, trying to get the pattern for PPaola ready to publish.  As the mistakes are corrected and less issues arises, my mind begins to drift towards other things I want/have to knit.

     I wanted to knit a pair of flip-top mittens for my BIL, like the ones I did for Joel last year and the FIL the year before.  I say wanted, past tense, because the SIL and MIL came up with some silly secret Santa where we have to give gifts that are traditional to some geographic area and tell the others about that tradition (sounds like school work, doesn't it?) - the giver chooses which tradition they want to follow.
  I'm leaning towards disregarding the silliness and doing it anyway.  If I think about it, most people who celebrate Christmas have a tradition of giving garments and in most places above the equator line it's very common to give winter items, is it not?

     I'm planning on knitting another set of flip-top mittens and a hat (if I manage the time well) to give to the UPS guy.  Just today I got some boxes sent through them and the poor guy was shivering...
     Then, there is the shawl I came up with a few weeks before starting the test knitting.  I've already knit one, using some handspun I had for a while (almost sport weight), but didn't like the edging (or lack thereof).  I have since, come up with some prospects for a good edging and now the shawl is screaming to be knit again - with cobweb no less!

     So far, very doable, but wait!  There is more.  There is this idea for a cabled stole that I'm too lazy (or too fed up) to chart, the Wonderful Wallaby I was knitting for the nephew (that I might frog and knit again in black - the one I was doing is white...sigh), the Fireside Jacket that I was knitting for myself and lost my place, which I'll frog and start again aaaaaaaaaaaand another idea that has been haunting me since Spring.
     I want to do a raglan sleeve, top down, in the round sweater for myself and I want to do it in brioche st.  I've played with the idea earlier in the year, but it was taking forever, so I frogged.  Today I saw the most amazing sweater on Ravelry and decided to give it another try.
     I know that for my idea to work, I'll have to take some serious measurements and swatch and that is what is holding me down - for now.

     I still need to finish the second PPaola I'm knitting, but am waiting for more yarn to be delivered.  There are a few other ideas for new patterns, but I think I'll wait until the holiday knitting is done (or when I get tired of fast ST st) to begin working on those.

     Now, if you excuse me, I'll go cast on for a hat ;)
    

My favorite holiday (kinda)

     Happy Halloween! A few days ago I saw this über cool wreath in Craftzine and decided our front door needed one. 

Good news, everybody!

     I finally got my act together, made the last chart for PPaola, put the document together and managed to get an awesome group of test knitters working on it.
     I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep track more than 2 or 3 people working on a pattern, but I'm changing my mind about that.  With more people testing at the same time, one can help the other when I'm not available, giving me more time to do something else.

So many ideas, so little time

A few days ago I took the plunge and bought the Intwined Pattern Studio software for charting patterns.  I did it mainly because it would write out the charts for me (something I cannot do by hand - you'll understand when I post a video of me knitting).
I didn't have high hopes for this software.  I'd tried similar ones in the past and they just didn't click for me.  The only one I've tried and enjoyed was AranPaint Pro, which, albeit very nice for cables, has one major flaw IMO, it charts two rows at a time...
So, I bought Intwined, half expecting to have a huge learning curve ahead of me.  Boy, was I wrong!  I actually like the software and it's fairly easy to use.  There are a few features I'd like for it to have, all of them very specific.

Charting, writing and whatnot

I've created a little routine for my days.  It starts with me opening the back door and filling the food bowl (for the cats) and then sitting down with the laptop on my (duh!) lap to check emails and Ravelry.
Once I get to Ravelry, I first check my personal messages (if I have any), reply to the ones that need an answer and then check what my friends are up to.
Seeing what people are linking to/marking as favorites/doing fuels my own creativity and it's amazing how many things I end up finding interesting after seeing someone thought they were interesting...
Anyway, from there I check blog posts from my contact list.

This preamble was meant to explain how I ended up today in Amy's Rainbow's blog, laughing myself silly.  I'm in the very same situation...well, was, last week.  Those little squares in Excell do tend to become blurry after a while and no matter how hard you stare at them, the symbols don't magically appear on the monitor.

Yet another design

The problem with new ideas is that they pop up at the most inconvenient times - like in the middle of another design, when I'm trying to figure out a good edging...

This is how Mari came to be.  I needed something to distract me while waiting for a good idea(TM) to slap me in the face; so I went digging inside one of my yarn bins and came out with this "swatch" I've knit a long, long time ago.
I became, once again, obsessed with that particular stitch pattern and had to use it somehow (I've already written about this here).  Around the same time, some talk came about on Ravelry with the idea of doing lace with cables.

Latest FO, a few news and a rant

I've been working on my latest FO on and off ever since March.  I don't know why it took me so long to finish it, usually when things go wrong after 4 or 5 tries, I give up and move on, knowing there is some flaw in the design itself and no matter what I do at that moment, it won't work.

Knitting PPaola was an interesting experience because, even though I had all kinds of things going wrong with it - there were at least 4 false starts due to me not being pleased with the yarn and or needles I'd chosen, another maybe 3 times I had to frog because I was cocky and didn't use st markers...