August 01, 2003
Take That! And That! And That! And That! And That! AndThatAndThatAndThat!
95 degree weather. A white-hot, unforgiving sun. A faded-blue cloudless sky. Just enough humidity to make you sweat even when you're sitting still. Parched gardens. Parched people. So how did we keep our cool? With a huge, no-holds-barred squirt gun battle, of course. Nothing was spared. Not hair, not eyeglasses, not shirts, not pants, not socks, not shoes, not the dog, not the inside of the garage, not even the inside of the kitchen. It eventually deteriorated to our just opening up the plugs on the squirt guns and pouring the water on each other's heads.
99 cent stores can be very useful sometimes.
Knitting Knews
Still plugging away on the Acoma Sock. It's still puckering too much. I'm this close to flinging all of the food from my highchair onto the floor, holding my breath until I turn blue, and lying down and drumming my heels on the floor.
Dyer’s Dyegest
For a break from endless pictures of swatches of yarn, here are some photos of some of the Denizens of the Dye Garden.
Here, one of the sunflowers. Not a single one of the regular sunflowers germinated but we're happy with the six or seven 8' tall beauties of this variety that we did grow successfully. Standing between the 8' tall sunflowers and 7' tall hollyhocks, one feels quite pintsized. But we've also discovered that there is one spot that seems to have a perfect feng shui balance, something which is hard for this stiff-upper-lippish, white, East coast WASP to believe, but it's true. You can quite lose yourself for minutes at a time in that one particular spot.
Here, one of the cosmos. I had grand visions of obtaining a purple or pink dye out of these flowers but when K and I ran a test last weekend, the water just turned yellow, thanks to the dense yellow pollen. Nary a drop of pink appeared, which is really a shame since I have bags and bags of these flowers stored in my freezer. You win some....
Gorgeous sunflower.........and I never had time to comment yesterday, but the beading was amazing! I have not been overly sucessful with my beading attempts, but those make me want to try again. Also, the knitted teacups/saucers were pretty amazing as well. The things you can do with yarn!
Posted by: Lisa on August 1, 2003 11:32 AMYou can always come over the Parlor for a helper session, Ryan :-) I had more trouble with 2-color knitting than a rat in a cat factory, but when I got it, I got it. What kind of yarn are you using, did you say? If it's a stretchy one, like say merino, you might have more trouble. Anyway, remember there's a soiree on August 16th!!
Posted by: Sheila on August 1, 2003 01:33 PMHello, friends!
Yes, wasn't that beading amazing, Lisa? I can't figure out how she does it: glues the beads on one at a time, makes strings of beads and then glues the strings on, makes a bead "cloth" and molds the cloth to the shape? I don't have a clue.
Sheila, you're right -- I may need some major hand-holding at the Soiree. I'm having quite the fit these days. In fact, this afternoon I'm going to go look for yet another project because I'm giving up on everything I've got going right now. (Oh, my, that does sound childish and spoiled, doesn't it?) As always, thanks for the gentle encouragement.
Posted by: Ryan on August 1, 2003 04:22 PMFabulous flowers. I assume that is the same muscular sunflower I was viewing earlier today in your archives - it grew up! :-)
Posted by: Fran on August 1, 2003 07:50 PMYou know, Ryan, I sometimes have that "puckering" in two-color stranded knitting when the pattern has the colors switch at the same place over several rows--as in a checkerboard or in your Acoma pattern. If the floats of carried yarn are long enough, the puckering always blocks out. (Note I say IF; puckering caused by floats that are too tight will never, sadly, block out.) Have you tried blocking yet? When in paralyzing doubt about the feasibility/beauty of a project on the needles, I will run a thread through the live stitches, take the needles out, and block the wee bit. Inevitably the problem disappears and I am able to resume knitting with a light heart (I must admit the knitting itself looks pretty darn odd from that point on, what with a nice, even, blocked area and one that is decidedly less polished).
Another thought, given that these are socks: You might try weaving in the float on the longest carry area. If you've never done this, I'll be at Guild this month and would be happy to chat and demonstrate.
I think these socks look fantastic, by the way!
Janine
Posted by: Janine on August 4, 2003 06:49 AMHi, Fran! Yes, that is the same sunflower. Aren't they the most amazing color? And each plant has many blooms, not just the one humongous one we think of sunflowers as having. A few of the blossoms were sacrificed to the Natural Dyeing God this weekend but there are still plenty to enjoy!
Janine, I will soooooo be hunting you down at Guild this month! This sock has been a fun experiment but, alas, at this point I don't think it will ever be wearable. Still, I don't want to be limited to one-color knitting forever. And I'm tired of feeling like a knitting doof, so your advice and encouragement are much appreciated.
Posted by: Ryan on August 4, 2003 09:20 AM