Sock blanks the easy way

What could be easier than knitting up some sock blanks on an antique sock knitting machine (CSM)? After skeining 230 yards of undyed sock yarn off a cone (two yarns held together) I wound the yarn onto a wooden bobbin and knit a blank tube ready for dyeing. I made two blanks today, a colorful one on my 72 cylinder Master Machine and the other on my 60 cylinder Canadian Auto Knitter. The 60 cylinder blank is narrowing but a little too long for my dyeing pan. The 72 is the perfect length, but a little too wide for the plastic wrap to fully cover it when "sushi-rolling" it for steaming. Steaming the painted blanks sets the dye.






I decided to go back to my tried and true rainbow method for one blank and attempt something new with the second.





I love how the circle designs turned out and I can't wait until they dry so I can knit them up!


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Location:My kitchen

Cool Site of the Week - January 26th, 2009

Are you crafty? Do you tie dye, knit, sew, paint, sculpt? Whatever you do, you'll find great prices and fast shipping at Dharma Trading Co.! A favorite for spinners looking for Jacquard acid dyes. Dharma gets the Cool Site of the Week award for simply being a great site that caters to all kinds of crafts and makes crafting affordable again.

Hawaiian Tropicana

The name of my latest yarn. 3.8 oz / 560 yds single, hand dyed, hand spun merino roving from The Sheep Shed Fiber Studio. Turquoise, Gold, Rose colorway with blends of green and blue.

Necia's dye job

Necia came over yesterday to spin and teach me how to dye fiber. We dyed up some white punta and grey stripey superwash from The Sheep Shed Studio. Necia however was less than thrilled with her work on the punta. I loved it! I think it has beautiful subtle colors that are warm and unexpected. My fiber screamed turquoise! red! and yellow! (pic coming soon).

Soft Drink Color Card

I found this at www.piper.com - its a color chart for Koolaid and other soft drink mixes. Drink mixes are often used as dyes for coloring yarn. I was at the supermarket this weekend trying to pick out colors based on the color of the drink in the Koolaid guy's hand. How annoying is that? I ended up with a pack of each: red, orange and blue colored flavors but I couldn't help wondering the color difference between say, strawberry and cherry. Or, tropical punch and mango-berry. Well, I wonder no more thanks to this neat little chart!