Mid-Week Stop

It's Wednesday, and were halfway through the normal work week. It always seems longer following a short week, like the one we had for last weeks Labor Day Holiday. Isn't it nice that the Central Labor Union of New York City worked to get us working citizens of the U.S. and Canada a true paid day off? So nice of them, but ugh.. it sucks starting a new full week thereafter, oh well, guess you can't have all Monday's off, unless your a lucky one 8)

I progressed pretty good on my CLUE 1 of the Mystery Stole 4, I'll definitely finish tonight. I did get to skein my hand-dyed fingering superwash merino too. This was my official first attempt at a dyeing yarn "solo" and end up with a good colorway worth gleaming over. I don't have a skein winder, that's next on my list, so I skeined this laying 2 desk sized CD racks on there sides, and slowly wrapping the yarn around it. It took me about an hour or so, give or take some annoying tangles in between. to wrap all the yarn. I didn't get a tight tension when I skeined it, so of course when I went to form into a pretty braid it came out kind of loose. It still looks pretty though, my hubby said he would make me a skein winder and a warping board as well. I have some ideas for him to make an easier way to setup self-striping yarn, but will see how that goes. When I refer to skein winder, I'm referring to this:



I already have a large umbrella swift, which was oh so handy when winding my uber-duber 1750yds. of BMF STR Laci in "Typhoon Tina" the other night for my MS4 project. Plus my large ball winder too, that thing is a work horse.

Here's my braided version, though it's loose because of the tension I didn't have when forming it.








I really enjoyed the dyeing process.

And to share more my recent endeavors into the world of Crochet, I finished the "Undulating Cowl" last night. I'm liking the pattern and the way the Malabrigo Charrua looks, but I'm not happy with how small it turned out. My gauge was correct, but it's still small, and I don't have a big head, well in the physical sense (LOL!). Then I got to examining the photo on the pattern, the women modeling a completed Undulating Cowl, I'd have to say, has a rather narrow & small neck, so possibly for her a 60 chain stitch diameter worked, but for me, it's a little rough getting over my head. It would be perfect for a kid though. I ended up soaking it with some Aqua Soak that I had a sampler of, blocked it and will check on it later tonight to see if it loosens up a bit, but I don't think it will. I might start another one, possibly instead of the 60 chains, I'll beef it up to around 80 chains. It turned out real pretty though, regardless of the size.





Happy Wednesday Everyone!