Sock Finish

Following on from the last blog post I thought I would actually show a comparison of the colours obtained from the purple carrot. When you look at the carrot it actually almost looks black and when cut bleeds a dark purple juice, they are dark purple the whole way through. It is only recently that these heritage carrots have started appearing in the greengrocers. I think that as more people are steering to vegetarian/vegan diets the variety of vegetables grown for market has increased. (They have always been around and as my friend informed me the purple colour was bred out of the carrots) Other than the colour I can say I am not at all attracted to the taste of these carrots, they are strong and almost bitter. I will save them for dyeing and at least I wont have to race my children to them, as all have vetoed them because of their flavour.

 Squares so far

And 21 weeks later a pair of socks is finally finished!
I actually have made three socks because I introduced the wrong colour purple in to one of them and decided I might as well finish that sock and match them up later. So. so far we have one pair and the promise of a second pair.
My mother has very quickly nabbed these to take to Holland with her. They are just a tiny bit short in the toe department for me and fit her perfectly.- they have happily been adopted. The second pair I have adjusted for the largeness of my foot (size 12 womens, 44 US= that is nothing to brag about but at least I am well grounded!)

Not perfect by any means but I am happy to be finished/

Knitted Cowl

On the last visit to Strathablyn, whilst op shopping, I picked up some hand spun yarn in chocolate brown and white. I bought eight balls for $7. Love a bargain!

Jordana asked for a knitted "scarf in a loop" in the chocolate brown, so three days ago I commenced knitting. The weekend when I started knitting was extremely wet and so I had plenty of time to sit uninterrupted. I feared that I wasn't going to have enough brown wool to complete the project so I utilized the left over wool from my knitted shoulder shrug- dark grey with flecks of brown. She Hates the combination of the two and no longer wants the cowl.  I quite like it and decided to finish it any way.
With each colour change I changed the patterning and tested my recall of patterns I had done years ago.
Any way here it is.. all knit and purl in different sequences.

 I look a bit weary after a really really hectic day at work. Boo Hoo! Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Haven't even done my hair, shocking!

Jordy really wants to be photographed. Not! I told her she is far more appealing to look at and I can also take a better picture than taking one of myself (as above)

 I think I will make a beanie to go with it.

Knitted Shoulder Shrug

I was treated a few mornings ago to the most spectacular sunrise.
Red sky in the morning sailors warning.. a forbearance to the impending inclement weather to come, but a spectacular display of beauty on the way to work. Some movement in the photos as I was driving (very slowly) at the time.

 I've been busy making a shoulder shrug utilizing Jo Sharp's contemporary knitting patterns in  Paton's Wilderness wool/ acrylic and viscose.

 Jo Sharp's finished garment

My finished piece.

I've also tried some solar dyeing. Starting with this, salvation jane and yellow weeds, wrap t in a bundle, rubber banded together and thrown on the roof of the pergola to face all forces of nature.

The resulting mess..this. A few green stains and the rest brown patches. This piece of material is definitely going to land in a dye bath when they are ready, although the star pattern is pretty in the left bottom quarter.

Back to the baby blankets, the mothers to be are getting closer to their ready made dates.
Stay safe and keep well. Would love to hear from  you.