Test Dyeing And A Lace Doily

I'm going to have to do a bit of a catch up and remember how to use the old blogger interface. The latter shouldn't be too difficult hopefully. There still remains the issue of the uploading. I need to look into this. I am not in a position to want to pay to blog, ie if I have to buy upload space from Picasa.

One thing that I did remember about the old interface was that it loads the pictures in reverse...... I have a bag of coned yarns on top of our wardrobe. I have had them a couple of years. Only one has a label of what sort of yarn it is, none even have a brand name. I decided in the current climate of dyeing that I would do some test skeins and see what they are. I knew for definite that one was pure new wool and had a strong suspicion that one was acrylic. I have long since forgotten how to tell what yarn is generally what or what fabric is what. I can remember learning the tests whilst doing my BTEC OND Fashion in the 1980's, by setting fire to fabric swatches, but that was a long time ago. I digress.

So here are the swatches prior to dyeing. I soaked them in luke warm water for an hour or so, then put them in dye baths of two sachets of tropical fruit punch and about a pint or water, then left them to soak for a couple of hours.

I think a good over all result. I can now put the three wool yarns to one side to have a think about what I can do with them, how to dye them and what to knit with them.

On Monday I decided to cast on a new project, a bit of an impulsive one. Monday was full of things that I can't possibly blog about (unpleasant interpersonal stuff). On the back of all that was going on, I wanted to start something new. I almost felt that I didn't want my current knitting tainted with my then feelings. Have you ever been like that?

Not that I thought the new project would always remind me of how I was feeling, more of a distraction from it, a new beginning. I have been looking at Doileys on Ravelry. The thought to do this had popped into my mind. Every once in a while I have come across a shawl or cloth whose design was based on a doily, so I decided to look them up. OOOooooooh! I was full of oohs and aaahs and I want to make that now. So many beautiful items. Some were vintage and filled me with thoughts of another era. I settled on one pattern that caught my eye. It was one of the first that I saw. I didn't want to bog myself down looking through tons of patterns then getting totally over whelmed and not know what to do.

The pattern I chose was from Yarn Over Lace Knitting http://www.yarnover.net, via Ravelry. It's called Doily with Spiral. From Beyer-Band 167, "Neue Kunststrickarbeiten", Verlag Otto van Beyer, Leipzig, Germany. I am thoroughly enjoying it. I was very surprised that I wanted to do a lace item given my current state of mind. But I am flying through it. There are 100 rounds and I am on round 71. I am using a 4ply cotton yarn that I got from Lidl last year, the one I did the pretty lacy summer hat with. Yes the one that ended up being a bit big and took me longer to do that I expected as I fell prey to my old foes of tiredness and yarn overs.

To be honest I'm not overly keen on the colour ways, I think because it is pastel, not a colourway of choice. As soon as I saw it though, I knew it was the yarn to use. Funny how things work out. I have finished the spiral on it and a few rows into the outer lace work. I did end up with the wrong number of stitches, this took quite a while to correct, hopefully these corrections are not overly noticeable - I do have thoughts of Gosforth Show at this time of year.

I have had another look at Jane Austen Knits and remain enamoured with many designs in there. I want to do so many. I must finish Lydia Crescent before I start any more...