The Baby Hat is Done!

This is Neal, my Cabbage Patch doll from the '80s modeling the Blue Baby hat. The hat started out as piece of a sock blank.I cut off a piece and dyed it blue. I still have about half of this piece left. I'm going to add some green and knit another baby hat. I hope I like it as much as I like this one.

Sock Blank Hat Update

This picture is lighter than the actual blank, but it shows how the yarn is knitting up. I really like it. No distinguishable patterning at all. Perfect.

The bad news is, I misread my gauge and increased to too many stitches. The hat fit a 4-year-old. Isn't that the story of my life. So I frogged back to the increases when I was half an inch from finishing and started over.

The good news is, we were at the bowling alley last night for a family gathering and I made serious progress. I wasn't interested in bowling so I knit and knit. I'm about an inch short of finishing now.

I cut back at least 10 stitches probably 20. The hat is tiny, but about the right size.

I still have a nice piece of the blue blank left. Any yarn I unraveled but didn't knit will get knit back on the blank. Then I'm going to add green spots and make another teeny baby hat. Greg and his wife are having a boy sometime this year and I will gift it to them.

I really like how this turned. Thank again Sis for the sock blanks. This is definitely the way to dye yarn.

It's a Contest - Sandra Singh's 4 Years in Business

I had no idea Sandra Singh's website offered such a great variety of yarns. Even the much coveted Malabrigo sock yarn.

Darcy's Knotty Knitter is hosting a contest to celebrate Sandra Singh's 4 years in business. The winnter gets a fantastic skein of Malabrigo sock yarn in Lettuce - yummy.

Wiley Sighting

I've about decided to stop blogging about seeing Wiley, and just note the dates in the margin of the blog. However, I do want to note for future reference that today we saw her while were crossing the bridge. She was sitting in what I call the marshy area watching us pass.

I Dyed Part of My Sock Blank

Marshall noted Sunday that he would like me to knit a hat for one of his co-workers who just had a baby boy. Well, I figured if he's interested enough to ask, I would love to knit a hat for his worker's baby boy. Sunday night I was laying in bed wondering what yarn I could use from my stash.

Then I thought, why not dye my own. I have two sock blanks that my sister got me for my birthday. She sent me 6 dyes and 2 of those were blue - Sky Blue and Sapphire.

I cut off 1/4 of the blank to give me 100yds. The blank is doubled so I have two lengths of 50 yds. dyed together.

I prefer tone on tone semi-solid coloring. While I didn't quite master that with my blank, I like what I got. I knew I wanted a light blue base so I soaked the whole blank in a weak mixture of the sky blue. I dropped dye in while the blank was in the jar and got some mottling in that process. Then I mixed another jar of the sky blue, slightly darker and a jar of the sapphire blue. I applied it with a straw. It worked OK. I darkened both mixtures and grabbed a paint brush, but that didn't really work. So it was back to the straw. Then I added black to the sapphire and got almost navy.

In the end, there was too strong a variation from the background to the markings so I dipped the blank into the sky blue. I finally just dunked it into the sky blue for a minute or so. I also dipped a corner in the sapphire - oops. That came out strong, hoping it will knit up in an attractive way.

I think for the more subtle look I'm going for I might need more water on the blank. I twisted all the water out of it so where the dye hit, it stayed. If I had the blank in a flat pan with water, I might be able to layer the color on more gradually. I'll have to give it a try.

If I don't like the way this looks once it's knit, I'll mix up another batch of dye and keep adding color until I'm happy.

Mom's Pillow and Wiley Might Be a Girl

This is Mom's Mother's Day gift. A Pillow Sei Shonagon. I wrote a list of Thank you's for my Mom. They ranged from thanks for tucking me in every night to thanks for letting me go. Some Thank You's sentimental, some funny, some private jokes. She told me she read it through twice and cried. Then she went to Wednesday night church with her eyes all red and puffy. Mission accomplished. I just want her to remember every night when she goes to bed that I love her and I appreciate her. I had a lot of fun making the pillow.

Now, about Wiley the Coyote. We saw him again today, but now we are uncertain as to whether Wiley is a he or a she. She was in her usual territory and we spotted each other. She stood off the side waiting for us to pass. Similar to the last encounter. At one point she squatted and marked her territory. That's when we figured she might be a she because she squatted instead of hiked.

We've Now Named the Coyote

Yup, we saw the him again this morning. This time he crossed the sidewalk in front of us as we were headed back toward the cars, by the equestrian area. No interest in us other than getting away. He moved until he was safely away from where we were headed then he sat down and watched us go by. Once we were a safe distance from him, he backtracked the way he came made no move to follow us.

Once again the dogs gave no indication the coyote was in the area. Well, when we came back by the spot where he'd crossed they could smell him, but when we went by the firt time they were clueless.

On the scary scale, this encounter, if we should even call it that, was not scary. Just interesting.

I suggested we give the coyote a name and Adrianne suggested Wiley. It's obvious, but that's where I was going. So Wiley Coyote he is.