After the finishing touches ,
and sewing on the label . . .
I am done with the Nieces’ Autumn Sweaters !
I always like to give a sneak preview before lifting of the veil so to speak,
which is scheduled in Calistoga this Sunday morning , photographing my nieces modelling them.
( I can’t wait ! )
Let me introduce to you
“Berry Smoothie” and “Woodsy”.
Knit with c r a z y hand-dyed yarns by me !
I took my knitting outside, one of the sleeves. I walked about, holding it up to the woods, against Madrone trees, against Bays, against the woods, to see if it is indeed a woodsy colorway. I think that it most definitely is! So it is decided, this sweater will be named ‘Woodsy’. The camera’s eye isn’t detecting the third color very well, there are three distinct colors here.
Woodsy on the bench…
Woodsy with Emma…
Woodsy down the road…
Catching up today with things In The Woods. I think I will be doing a knit-and-walk a little later (down that very road). I am thinking it’s highly possible, that if I don’t put my knitting down for any significant time, I could finish the nieces Autumn sweaters easily by the Autumnal Equinox. Easy peasy.
A blurry glimpse of my Emma & me (in the woods)…
Over-dye madness. Insanely intriguing varigations.
Here I have heaped the over-dyed green yarns for my Nine Year Old Niece’s sweater on top of the finished and waiting sweater for my Twelve Year Old Niece.
The ‘bug-guts’ yellowy green has over-dyed
ever-so-nicely into a color
which reminds me of golden green tips of bright moss !
All the colors of the foliage in the forest are running through these four yarns in a very earthy woodsy colorway.
I have roughly 200 grams each of four different greens, each with many varigations in their various journeys from dye bath to dye bath.
I’m not exactly sure what I am going to do with all of the crazy varigation. Yesterday was all about dominating the yarn, now that I’ve had my way with the colors, not exactly sure. I think I’ll let them dominate me for a while. At least until I get the sweater cast-on. I actually love the challenge of listening to my instincts , and the yarn. Sometimes this whole business of dying, knitting, and improvising is just downright delicious & fabulously exciting !
Beautiful cascades of yarn I’ve over-dyed plum and purple, to Eldest Niece’s specifications, for Autumn sweaters. Jacquard acid dyes : pink dyed over light blue yarn, and then lavendar over heathered grey. The over-dye and the original colors will make a lovely subtle varigation in the stockinette fabric that I just can’t wait to see, and since there are two nieces, there will be Autumn Sweaters (x 2) . Take a look at the other colorway overdyed from the same yarns which I bought a boat load of in a closeout sale. Superwash 100% Merino wool. Drinks in the dye, and exhausts the dyebath so nicely ! But committing to overdyed colors , I have found, is strenuous at times, because there’s no “I’ll just exchange these 5 skeins for another color” sort of thinking. Nooo… I have to make it work, in a sort of determined marriage to the yarn. So far I’ve casted on after switching needle sizes and swatching four times !
* * *
Meanwhile, Classic Socks pair number two continues to grow.
(Yes… more purple.)
Unlikely colorway?
Yes, but of course ! I want to think that somehow these colors are destined to match up, perhaps something more like disagreeable neighbors, but I have faith that it will finish harmoniously. A stretch of my imagination, maybe, but to be an Intentional Dyer is beyond my ability, and ‘I’m okay with that’. I often settle with leaving colorways up to the Sisters of Fate, and to just let the sweaters be what they want to be.
I managed to find some one-hundred-percent superwash merino wool yarn in DK (double knitting) weight, on close-out discount, and bought a lot of it. Light blue and a heathered medium grey. Over-dyed dramatically, to create one-of-a-kind colorways in my nieces’ favorite colors, for what will in a couple of months’ time ~ my nieces Autumn Sweaters. There’s actually really nice and subtle varigation from the original colors and the over-dyed colors… exciting !
What you see draped over the chair is for one of the sweaters, the younger of my two nieces. The other will make an appearance later, in a second colorway, in a second sneak preview. So here I go, winding off a gazillion yards into balls…
