July 30, 2003
Kooky Krafts Kontinued...
Kontinuing in the Kooky Krafts vein, from my sister, this link to knitted teacups.
And yesterday I came across this, a slightly creepy combination of taxidermy and furniture.
And this bead artist does some kooky, wacky, silly and amazing things.
Knitting Knews
Such as it is, here is a photo of the beginning of the Acoma Sock. It's not the best photo I've ever taken but I blame that on the 95 degree weather we're having, a slight case of dehydration, and a strong desire to run screaming from all forms of wool. Okay, lemme 'splain the photo:
1. The yarns are actually terra cotta and pine green, not the Christmas red and Christmas green that appear.
2. The funny little green line which runs down the left side of the sock and appears to interrupt the pattern is actually a seam-type thingy that runs down the back of the sock. I say "seam" but it's actually an MCW (Major Cop-out Workaround). I added it to push the stitch count up from 45 to 48, and it's also my lame solution for camoflauging the "jog" that would appear at the seam if I used two colors all the way around. And, well, suffice it to say I photographed the wrong side of the sock in the first place. (Did I tell you about our 95 degree weather?)
All the photo problems aside, I'm pretty happy with the sock. You can see that the triangles are starting to inch around in a "swirl" fashion. The picture shows the sock 19 rows into the pattern. I think the effect will be pretty cool by the time I finish the 45 rows I predict I'll need.
Working with the sock inside out has turned out to be quite easy and is really helping with the length of the "corner" strands. Thank you for the encouragement, Sheila!
Dyeing Dyegest
Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, blogging, and online groups, 30 seconds after I told the Yahoo natural dye group about my blog, I "met" a local lady who took pity on me because of my walnut-gathering fiasco and wanted to donate to my dyeing efforts a gallon of black walnut dye that she has had languishing around for 12 years. My "vision," if I even had one, for the Dyeing Project was that I wouldn't buy anything other than plants and seeds. Preprocessed dyes were verboten and I had to be able to gather everything I needed from K's yard, my yard, the yards of family members, or our respective neighborhoods. Using a walnut dye made by someone else maaaaaay be playing a mite footloose and fancy-free with the "vision" but (a) I DID collect walnuts, just not very successfully and (b) I didn't have to buy the dye, thanks to Pam's generosity. My conscience is clear. At any rate, here it is, my gallon jar of prime, grade-A, 12-year-aged, USDA-approved black walnut dye!
Uh, now what?