The Next Level: Knitwear Design!

     Last year at this time I was working my trail crew internship at Baxter State Park and, in my spare time, knitting my first sweater (The Sublime Organic Cotton dk Pullover).  At that point if I so much as dropped a stitch off the needle, it would be a week before I would even look at the project again for fear of accidentally twisting the stitches trying to pick them back up!

It's encouraging to think how far I've come in the past year. When I opened my PennyMae shop on Etsy, I was just beginning to push beyond the basics of knitting.  In the next several months I filled my shop with many small projects using all of the new skills I was learning.  Now I have reached a skill level where I am comfortable enough to really move into the exciting world of knitwear design!  Despite my lack of recent posts, there are actually several things I have been working on that I can't wait to share.  Here are two of them:



Purple sweater vest using 100% local handspun wool from Chittendon, Vermont.
Since this picture was taken, I actually finished the main knitting (all except the edging along neck and sleeve openings).  However, I'm not satisfied with my decrease method on the sides of the sleeves, where you can see big stitches on each side, so I am going to redo it.  More on that later...





My favorite - I will go into much more detail about this item later.
Just a little teaser for now :)



the dip dye-ing process

Yesterday I began the dip dye-ing process for my knitted boho bag.Well, the beets did not exactly produce the color I was looking for - less deep red and more of a stomach acid yellow-grey, I would say. Luckily I did some small test pieces before throwing my final product into the pot.

I was about to give up on the whole "nature" route and spring for some powdered Kool-Aid when I decided to try using a bottle of cranberry juice berry dye.  Actually I will probably try Kool-Aid too another time, but for now I am keeping things natural.  Here are some photos of the process so far!

Step 1: almost all in, except the top of the handle.
I let it simmer for about an hour.

Step 2: lifted out the handle and simmer some more.
I left it in approximately this position overnight
then simmered for another hour this morning.

Step 3: after rinsing the cranberry juice off the bag,
I placed only the bottom portion in some tea,
where it is currently simmering.
I'll probably let it go about an hour.



UPDATE:

Here it is all done.  The cranberry juice barely stained the cotton at all!  I may add some store-bought dye to it later but for now it is a very light pink on top - although I do like the way the tea stain worked on the bottom.  On further research I learned that Kool-Aid works great on wool but does not work on cotton.



Color From Nature

I absolutely love color and while there are so many colorful products out there, I am excited to try dying things myself!  Rather than buying from the store, I'm gonna start experimenting with natural plant dyes.


I knitted another one of these "boho bags" but this one is bigger and made with a natural off-white cotton.

Everything about this screams "blank canvas" to me.  So I've done a little research and I'm planning to use some of the beautiful beets Ned brought home from his co-worker's farm the other day, along with some strong tea, to dip-dye this handbag and hopefully turn it into something much more exciting!

Lightweight Lace

A few months ago I started to get into knitting lace, but then got distracted by other projects and haven't been doing much of it lately.  I was just home in Arizona again last week and of course one of the highlights of my trip was my visit to Knit Happens.  In addition to the Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed I'm using for the red fox, I found several fine gauge yarns that I will be using for lace.  Here is what I started today using a fine 100% merino wool called Harmony.  It's going to be a little "capelet" to wear around your shoulders.

The waves are produced by
making four eyelets
then making four decreases

Red Fox Progress

Here is a sneak peak of the nearly finished RED fox!

Debbie Bliss
Donegal Luxury Tweed Chunky
in Sienna and Ecru

It's amazing how fast I was able to make this now that I figured it out the first time.  I did have to do a few extra stitches everywhere because this yarn is not quite as bulky, but I'm pretty happy with it overall, and without any re-doing!

Lux Knit Fox Stole

I'm happy to report that I have finally finished the fox!

Now that I've developed the pattern, I got some rusty red-orange and matching off-white chunky tweed to begin the next one...

Flat Fever

Ever since I found that Italian Ice yarn, I have become OBSESSED with flat yarns, aka ribbon or tape yarns.  Unfortunately the local stockist here doesn't seem to carry any.  I finally checked out the "supplies" section of Etsy and found some really amazing stuff.  I am exercising my self control and so far have only purchased the Sea Green Silky Tape below...