Knitting weather, ready, set, go...

This week has been incredibly weird.  It started out or rather ended last week looking quite promising as the sunshine had finally decided to show its face here in Anchorage.  We had a marvelous weekend with warm temperatures and the beautiful bright blue sky!  The moisture dried up a bit and everything was looking up.  Along comes Tuesday, the day the FOG blanked Anchorage.  And not just a little FOG, this fog was thick and heavy and everywhere.  You couldn't even see in front of you when driving.  What we heard was that if the fog had lifted, we would have had the most beautiful days of the summer Tuesday through Thursday as there was not a single cloud in the sky.  I should have become a mountain climber at some point so I could have enjoyed that sunshine up there!  Friday is here and the clouds have rolled in, the cooler temperatures are definitely here and it is feeling more and more like knitting weather!  

The weekend before last I posted about our trip to Big Lake to dye yarn.  What fun we had.  I came home, rewashed my skeins as they still smelled of vinegar and I took some close up photo's of them so you can see the colors that we worked with and how things turned out.

This is my Faukland dyed yarn.  This is the yarn that was dyed using the one color and gradually dyed from dark to light .  It is a very nice purple color.  It is very hard to take photos with true color represented.  I love, love, love it!

 

This skein is Bamboo and Merino and was dyed using a hand painted technique similar to how I dyed my sock yarn.  It is in shorter lengths though.  I went from Orange, Darker Orange to a Pinkish Red.  Unfortunately this skein has a couple dark splotches from me being careless.  Hopefully when knitted up they will lend nice to the design...(I am allowed to hope)

This is the Bamboo and Merino yarn that was dyed using the crowded pot method.  I did not initially choose the colors on this one but was lucky enough to leave with it!  It was an extra, score me!

Here is our Silk and Wool crowded pot skein.  I love this one, in fact it is half knit up for a cute lacy beret, pictures coming soon...

And last but not least, my self striping sock yarn.  I am not totally in love with this yarn but I have been given orders to move forward with these toe up ribbed socks.  They are a little to Christmasy for my liking but I will work on them, slowly, I think...  I had a vision, it did not turn out the way I wanted it to!

Last but not least I would like to share a project that I have been working on.  It is called Basque Hat (ravelry link) and is a Norwegian design Tam.  I am using my Qiviut that was given to me for Christmas almost a year ago.  The yarn was purchased at the Anchorage Museum. 

There have been a few struggles along the way with this Tam.  I love the design, the chart is easy and really the floats are all managable.  The struggles I have had have nothing at all to do with the pattern.  They have to do with my evil, yarn hating dog, Sterling.  I went to the gym the morning after casting on this hat, knitting bag was on the floor (my fault) but in my defense, the project was buried under 3 books and all of my knitting "stuff" bags.  BURIED.  I received a phone call after my very relaxing yoga class from my 11 year old informing me that Sterling had "hog tied" himself in my $80 skein of green yarn.  Yep, I pretty much have had to piece that one back together, I have to rejoin every so often as my knitting progresses.  After I wound it all back up with loose knots I set it on the couch ready to knit, ran to the restroom, came back to the ball, in the dogs mouth, as he was bolting under the dining room table (his clever hiding place).  BAD DOG.  To further this story along, a week or so later I was working on the Tam from hell.  Set the project on a TV tray away from anything the dog could climb on to fetch the project and EVIL YARN HATING dog managed to get ahold of the whole dang project again and proceed to do the exact same tangling mess he did with the green to the PURPLE.  YEP, now he made a mess of the second color.  Well, I managed to untangle that one without scissors all while staring with daggers at the evil yarn hating dog.  We have had a few more run in's with yarn.  I obviously have not learned a good way to store my projects.  Ziplock bags may be the answer in this instance.  Long story short.  My new puppy Sterling LOVES yarn.  I am sure he fantasizes about clever ways to get ahold of my projects and rip them apart.  (I found him on the dining room table yesterday)!  All this said, I need to find an even more clever way to keep him out of it!