AlgernonKnits & a GIVEAWAY!!!

So, for the past few months I've been making a few very small hints that I've been working on something secret. I kind of doubt any of you noticed, but nonetheless, they have been leading up to something big... and it's time that something big was made known.

For several months now, I've been working on setting up an Etsy Shop. It's gone through some rough times, but I'm finally ready to open. However, I'm holding off for one more week. Why would I wait seven whole days to release my hard work into the world? Because I want to do something special to kickstart AlgernonKnits (the name, if you hadn't realized, of my new business). And that something special is a giveaway. 

Yes! To Live A Life's first ever giveaway! And, what's more, I'm going to be holding a second giveaway on my Ravelry group! First, let's have the details on the blog giveaway. 

What I'm giving away: 

An entire skein of gorgeous yarn, hand dyed by me! This is just a sample of the heavenly goodness I'll be selling in my shop. 

This is a variegated yarn, most lime green and white, with hints of mint at the color changes. I'm telling you, it's really difficult to part with this beauty. It's a worsted weight superwash merino (though I would recommend hand washing in cold water and drying flat), and you get an entire 100g/220 yards! Sounds pretty good, huh? 

Here are the rules:

-To enter, leave a comment on this blog post. Don't forget to give me your Ravelry username or email, so I can contact you if you win! I will randomly select one person at the close of the giveaway.

-One comment per person! Any extra comments will be deleted. 

-This giveaway is worldwide! Don't let your place of residence stop you entering!

-The giveaway closes on SATURDAY, AUGUST 10TH at midnight! I will draw a winner on Sunday the 11th.

-This isn't a rule, just a request. Please share links to this post everywhere you can- the more the merrier! 

So, now that the BLOG giveaway is all explained, let's go onto the Ravelry giveaway! 

What I'm giving away:

A pack of four mini skeins, dyed by me! 

From left to right you have a beautiful spring green, a delightful sky blue, cheerful sunny yellow, and a dusty purplish-pink! These fingering-weight mini skeins each have 25 yards. They are 100% wool; hand wash and dry flat! This yarn will felt (and does so beautifully, if that's what you're going for). Perfect for a Beekeeper's Quilt or an addition to a stripy scarf!  

Here are the rules:

-This giveaway is taking place in this thread on my Ravelry Group. To enter, all you have to do is write up a post. I will randomly select a post when the giveaway closes.

-You can enter as many times as you want! Bring your friends and have a nice big chat! 

-The giveaway closes on SATURDAY, AUGUST 10TH at midnight! I will draw a winner on Sunday the 11th.

-This giveaway is worldwide! Don't let your place of residence stop you entering!

-This isn't a rule, just a request. Please share links to this post everywhere you can- the more the merrier! 

Doesn't this sound fun? I hope you will all enter both giveaways and the best of luck to everyone!

xxx

IMPORTANT UPDATE: good news, all of my non-knitting readers! If you should happen to win, I will knit you something with the yarn I'm giving away! This is only open to the blog giveaway. I will knit a hat, cowl, or fingerless gloves- pattern of your choice! Also, if you are a knitter/crocheter but would still prefer an FO to the yarn, that's okay too! Just let me know.

Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you! 

both giveaways are now closed. thanks for playing and congratulations to the winners!

Spinning Show & Tell: The Tour!

The Tour de Fleece started on Saturday! Oh, the excitement!

In fact, on the actual day I only spun about ten yards. I was feeling very little spinning inspiration, and was more excited about knitting the new project I stupidly started that morning (more about that tomorrow!). I didn't meet my goal mentioned last Tuesday to finish spinning the alpaca singles I had been working on, but I did finished them today, and I plied them. I had a lot of fun photographing the progress.

Unfortunately, it didn't yield as much as I had hoped. From nearly four ounces, I only got 226 yards, which isn't nearly enough to make Orchid Thief. I'm guessing it's ended up being about sport weight judging by the yardage, though it really looks like fingering. It will probably bloom a lot with washing, but that's a job for tomorrow...

The alpaca isn't the only stuff I've been spinning, mind. I also spun some yellow fluff I dyed a while back. I spun and plied it on a drop spindle, and had enough for one or two hexipuffs, which is what I've  endeavored to do with the finished product. 

I haven't quite finished that puff yet... I've lost some of my interest in hexipuffing since starting some new, more interesting projects. 

That's it for me tonight! Check out Crafts from the Cwtch for more lovely spinning posts! Thanks for the linky, Sarah! 

WIP Wednesday: Among Other Things

Today is my sister's 18th birthday. Thankfully, we aren't celebrating it until April 1st, because I'm nowhere near finishing her birthday present. I'm knitting her a Holden Shawlette, and I'm allowed to talk about it on a public blog because she picked out the pattern and the yarn. No pictures, though; I can keep that much a surprise.

I started the shawl yesterday, when the yarn for it, Knitpicks Gloss Fingering in Hawk, arrive in the mail. Also in the box was a skein of Bare Swish Worsted. First I dutifully cast on the shawl and worked a few rows, but then I got out the food coloring and started playing with my yarn.

I couldn't decide on a color theme, so I just did a little of everything, and came out with this:

The colorway is Impressionist, and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I put the yarn in a pot of water and vinegar on the stove and let it simmer for a while, and then added drops of dye here and there until I was satisfied. Then I added some more just to be safe. I hung it out to dry, and this afternoon I wound it into a ball and knit a swatch to see what it looked like knitted up. 

I'm thinking it'll be turned into a pair of fingerless gloves, or maybe two because I have 100 grams of this yarn. 

I'm linking with Tami's Amis today. 

Yarn To Dye For

That's a pun that's been used countless times. Don't think I'm original or clever when you read it, because I definitely got it from somewhere else. I just can't remember where. I think it might be the name of an Etsy shop.

But it is relevant in this occasion, because I recently dyed some yarn that is absolutely heavenly.

These are the 6 miniskeins that I just dyed about half an hour ago. I was so excited about them that I couldn't wait for them to dry before taking pictures. It was definitely the best dyeing experience I've had. Unfortunately, these miniskeins are not for my use but for someone else's... more on that in a later post. 

I'm happier with the way this rainbow of minis turned out than with my previous batch, because the colors are so much brighter and more vibrant. Instead of painting this batch, I put water, vinegar, and one miniskein in a 2 cup measuring cup, then put several drops of food coloring in. I put a sheet of plastic wrap over the measuring cup and put it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, until the water was clear. 

Most of them are almost completely solid, but the green as you can see is a little more variegated (the blue looks variegated but that's just the light). For that one, I experimented by just dropping in some blue, some green, and some yellow, and not mixing the colors up at all. For the most part, it just turned green, but there are lots of different shades of green, and a couple fragments of yellow and blue. 

While we're on the topic of green, I'll show you the other yarn I dyed recently:

This is actually the yarn I spun out of the Persephone roving I dyed back in December. Once I spun it up, I wasn't very happy with the lack of color in the yarn, so I decided to overdye it. I painted this one, and the colors are clearly much less vibrant than the miniskeins above. But I still love it, and am so much happier than with the yarn before I re-dyed it. I'm going to have to knit something springy out of this, a beret or a pair of fingerless gloves. 

WIP Wednesday: Productiveness

I've had a very productive day. I did three lessons of geometry (two of which were supposed to be done on Monday and Tuesday; but I couldn't do them then because I was busy doing Friday and Saturday's geometry), all my other schoolwork, got some knitting done, watched Arsenic and Old Lace, and dyed 7 mini skeins.

The highlight was definitely dyeing the mini skeins.

Only 6 are pictured here, and the colors aren't completely accurate, but I wanted to take some pictures before I started knitting hexiflats out of them. I'm giving all of them colorways, and I'm naming the colorways nerdy names, so from left to right: The Shire, Mirkwood, Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey, Rainbow Pumpkin Pie (not nerdy, but my sister insisted. It's actually a rose color but it shows up brown in the picture), Smaug, and The Shire 2. There's also a bright red one that wasn't quite dry so I couldn't twist it up.

Beekeepers (not actual beekeepers, but knitters who are making a beekeeper's quilt), I highly recommend this. What I did was buy a 100gm hank of bare KnitPick's Palette. I'm winding it into 30 yard mini skeins and dyeing them with food coloring. It's super cheap and it's possibly the most rewarding thing in the world. 

I think my favorites are Mirkwood and Smaug:

Smaug is actually more like a short-striping yarn with half coral and half yellow-orange/white. It's the first one I dyed and I love it. 

I was really trying to get a Mirkwood-like yarn here. Mirkwood is described in The Hobbit as dark, with a few patches of sunshine every once and a while that grow more and more infrequent as the forest grows deeper. I managed to get a murky gray-green, a few bits of brown, and some greenish-blue, but I don't think I'll really be able to get proper dark colors without black dye. 

While watching Arsenic and Old Lace, I knit a hexiflat in The Shire 2. As I had the lights off I couldn't see how it was turning out until the movie was over. I was gleeful at the result. 

Another terrible picture, sorry. The blues are more sky-colored, the oranges are lighter and brigher, and those brown stripes are actually pink.