Alice Jean

With these 3 wash cloths I am not that far behind with knitting baby gifts anymore. I made them with 2 threads of cotton and used needle size 4.5 mm. The smaller one is done with a 4 mm needle.

in our back garden.

"Who is this?" Dory is holding a chocolate figure she just got from her Aunt. "That is Sinterklaas ," I told her. She investigated the figure. "No, this is a wizard!" she decided. Santa Claus is called a 'little gnome' by her...

Lsst couple of days I used to finish some pairs of longies. Here the pictures These two pair are a custom. The farm themed one still needs a drawstring. And these Black Rainbow longies are for a special little boy

I knew Darcy was sending me some acid dyes and that she also put some 'Dora the Explorer' fabric and these cute flower buttons in the package for Dory. But I was very surprised to find something in it for me as well! As already showed in the top picture: beautiful hand dyed 3 PLY targhee by Dyeing to Fly , colourway 'Birthday Girl'. Thanks so much, Darcy! I am thinking to use this yarn for an earflap hat and mittens for Dory, these colours match her winter coat very well.

In the mail this week a lovely set of stitch markers. Ladybirds, so well chosen. Thanks so much Lieke , in the mean time I managed to take them out of the dolls house and to put them in my knitting bag. And because I am one of the participants in the Vintage Socks swap it occurred to me it could be a benefit to order the book . And I am glad I did, it is full of beautiful sock patterns. I also tried out to dye with Indigo. Before I believed it was a very difficult dye to use, now I know better. Dyeing with Indigo is pretty easy to do and a bit magical. In the vat the wool (and dye) are a greenish yellow, the horrid shade of this colour. As soon as the wool comes out of the vat and is exposed to the air, the colour changes into blue. The large skein is a Scottish Highland pure new wool, the smaller skein is 75% BFL/ 25% nylon.

I love this photo, it is sooo very sixties. My mum and me, year 1965.

Pumpkin Pie ! 11 Votes! Chocolate-Mocha with Berries got 9 votes. I am sure this season did affect the choice in especially browns a bit. So I wonder how this will be colour wise in spring and maybe I should have another contest by then. Many thanks to all of you. I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the kind words and the interest showed. Special thanks to Darcy , who encouraged me to have this yarn contest and also to Adrienne , it was your sharing the wealth that inspired me to do something similar. And of course thanks to all those bloggers who posted about this contest on their own blog. My daughter selected the winner of the yarn and the stitch markers this morning. She can't read, so the name was definitely chosen randomly. In the tub 74 names, a few people commented on my other blog or by PM. The winner of the Riverside is... Gini ! Congrats to you, I will send you an email soon.

Every once in a while I enter my name in a yarn contest at someones blog. Not that I ever did win something :-). But I like the idea and that is why I decided to do a small contest on this blog. Rules are simple, you have only to enter your name and tell me your favourite colourway on my Rainbow blog. That will help me to determine what colourway(s) I should dye more often. What you could win is Riverside , a skein of 75% Blue Faced Leicester/ 25% nylon sock yarn. Superwash treated, hard wearing and non felting. The yarn has a greatly soft feel and is hand painted. The skein is approximately 100 grams (3.5 oz) and 350 meter (383 yard). Fingering weight, recommended needle size is 2.5 mm. With the skein a set of 4 stitch markers, hand crafted by Dory and me. I will close the contest by next Monday, 15-10-2007 at 9 pm (UK time). The name of the winner will be randomly selected by my 3 year old daughter, who cannot read. You are all welcome to join this contest. To win the yarn will have...

If you find anything in this pattern that needs clarification or is incorrect, please don't hesitate to let me know! Lyonesse , semi cabled socks, aka faux cabled socks. The idea of the pattern is not mine, I found this stitch in The New Knitting Stitches Library by Lesley Stanfield. The only thing I did was 'building' a sock around it. These socks are worked toe up on a circular needle, the ‘magic loop’ technique. Directions are written for one sock. Materials 1 circular needle 2.5 mm, 60 cm. If you are planning two socks at the same time you should use a needle of 100 cm at least. 100 gram sock yarn. I used 100% Blue Faced sock wool (tension/ gauge about 28 stitches), but any fingering weight sock yarn would be fine. Tapestry needle. Abbreviations K = Knit P = Purl YO = Yarn Over SSK = Slip 1 stitch knitwise, slip 1 stitch purlwise, knit these 2 stitches together K2Tog = Knit 2 stitches together P2Tog = Purl 2 stitches together Sl = Slip stitch W = Wrap stitch Toe Cast o...

Okay, I knew from the start the socks would not be very original when I decided to use a stitch pattern I found in the New Library of Knitting stitches (by Lesley Stanfield). I thought it would be fun to write down every time what I had done while knitting the socks (I did them both at the same time on one circular) and to publish the pattern when they were finished. It took me some time, I started knitting them somewhere in August and only yesterday they were finished. Not that I am a slow knitter, but I had to work on more projects. When I was not half way with these socks, I saw a post on her blog, picturing a pair of 'Snake River' socks which were very alike! Unfortunately the link to the pattern did not work at the time, so I was not sure it was exactly the same. I decided just to proceed, working out the pattern while knitting the socks. Today I have tried the link again and yes, it worked. And yes again, the same pattern was used. It does not state where the pattern c...

I did some shopping online last week and want to share some photos of the purchases. At Stash is a half price sale currently, so I bought some Noro's there. Noro Silk Garden , lovely colors, soft touch, 250 grams. I was thinking to knit a jumper for Dory out of it, but since she has chosen her 'own style', I am not sure if I will do that. The Silver Thaw I picked because of the blend (apart from the beautiful colours), 50% Wool, 25% Super angora, 25% Nylon. I think this will be perfect for a pair of warm slippers. Anyone who knows of a good pattern? From Violet Green three skeins of Stroud Wool sock yarn. Two of them are pictured here. I don't know yet what socks to knit with the Rust and Pink yarn. The other yarn, the semi-solid Lichen will be perfect for a pair of socks for Reese. Just have to browse for a nice pattern. Any ideas?

I had 4 skeins, each approximately 60-70 grams, of hand spun undyed wool. Excellent to try out some natural dyeing. In the past I promised myself only to dye with natural dyes after I had done a workshop. But the workshop has still to be done. I bought some books instead, browsed the internet for more information and to buy some ingredients. After that I dyed the hand spun. I still don't know whether it was a bit disappointing or not. On the other hand it was the very first time to use natural dyes, so there is still a lot to discover and learn. The wool is of unknown sheep. The lady who did spin it has five sheep, but did not tell me the breed and I did not ask for it. The wool is a bit rough, I am planning to knit Dory a skirt out of it.... albeit she is currently very picky with what to wear and, above all, what not . Unfortunately hand knit items are in her prohibited list. Left to the right: dyed in madder root (I used only a little), annatto seed second dyebath, annatto seed ...