Indigo Cardigan

Indigo dyeing on the weekend went really well. We successfully resurrected a 7mth old dyebath and dyed a great many things blue. I’m sure I’ll share more of them with you later, but I’ll start with the results on the grey cardigan from my last post.

This cardigan, folded and pegged

 

After a spell in the dyebath, turned out like this:

 

The positioning of the paler sections isn’t maximum flattering but the overall thing is really appealing. I’m very pleased.

A close up of the fastenings. The loops are made of leftover yarn from the indigo shawl. The buttons are from an old waistcoat that belonged to my Nana.

I’m delighted with it. Very comfy, good sleeve length. In a perfect world I’d have cut the centre front points a little lower and taken in the side seams at bust level a little more. I still love it. It’s a tidy, fairly elegant example of resist dyeing and pretty much what I was hoping for.

 

 

Grey merino rib

Sometimes fabric is cheap for extra reasons. I got this piece of lovely soft grey wool knit out of the cupboard to find two significant holes and a run about a third of the way across, going almost the whole length of the 3metre piece. Grr. I can’t remember whether I knew about this when I bought it from my favourite bolt end shop. It wouldn’t have cost me much though.

I did manage to cut a cardigan without flaws, which was my major aim. I  managed to also cut a skivvi, without holes, but with runs and one side of the back needing piecing at the shoulder.

What I forgot to allow for in cutting, was the extra widthways stretch from the rib knit. Sadness.

This is what happened to the cardigan armscye:

I wanted comfortably loose but this is droopy and over large. So I cut off the seam, recut the armhole and sewed the sleeve back in. I also took the side seam in a bit. The reset image is the skivvy because I forgot to take that pic of the cardigan, but that had the same issue. See the armscye now runs over the point of the shoulder and and the worst of the excess fabric has been removed.

here is the cardigan all assembled. It’s basically the same shape as the Paua cardigan that is sadly lost to me and I’ve been missing. I stupidly left it behind on an aeroplane and it was never to be seen again, by me at least. Hopefully someone is getting use from it.

This one has now been folded and tortured by pegs in the hope of being dunked into an indigo dyebath on the weekend. I’ll make fastenings after I know whether the dyeing happened and how it turned out.

 

Sock Pair #35

The latest pair of socks have gone to their person, so I can show you them here.

They needed to be a fairly strong colour, and I didn’t have quite the right yarn. So, surprise, I overdyed three different sock yarns with food colour. Before and after pics below.

 

I rather like the subtle shading. They fit and seem to please my dear friend for whom they were made.  Knitted toe up as usual. I’ve used the k2tog bind off for the first time. It’s good. Easy and well stretchy.

Indigo Shawl

One of the things I popped in the indigo dye bath last August, was a 100g hank of Bendigo Woolen Mills undyed laceweight merino yarn. I was in need of a craft project for travelling, and after a little searching, thought I would have a go at the Stormy waters shawl  from Life is Cozy.

When winding the yarn from skein to ball, I found it had been a little felted during the dyeing. This made the winding off process much more effortful than it ought to have been. I had to haul the yarn off the skein and wind it up in two separate processes. The yarn has stayed rather grabby. Enough so that it held the shape of the winding down to the last 5g.

 

I found the knitting a bit challenging. I hadn’t given the matter much thought, but this was in fact my first project in lace weight yarn. The early section is rich in errors, including several dropped stitches that had to be sewn back together. Much of my trouble came from the stitches crossing over each other as they were pushed along the needle. As the knitting advanced, I found it easier to read the work and identify these crossings as I came to them. The pattern turned out to be just a little too complicated for travelling. Too much needing to refer to the pattern and hard to remember where I was up to. Oh well. I got it done after returning home.

Here it is before and after blocking. I’m a bit amazed how much it grew.

 

and detail shots of the same, showing the improvement in definition of the stitches. This is only the second knitting project I’ve wet blocked, so I’m still pretty amazed by the changes.

 

Here is a shot of it on, briefly. Again I’ve made something in advance of the appropriate season for wearing. I like it. The striped lace pattern gives it some interest without being too girly. The colour is fabulous. The grabby nature of the yarn might help it stay in place during wear.  Tee hee, I haven’t sewn the ends in! I’ll do that after I post this.

I’ve gone and blocked my selfie mirror with a treadle sewing machine and cabinet, displaced by my new brewing fridge. Sigh. It needs to move, hopefully to someone else’s house after being swapped for some money.