Heather Knits

There hasn’t been a lot of progress on the knitting front here in the last week. I have been catching up with work and a bit of household maintenance. The work is coming along, I have fixed the dishwasher and defrosted both freezers so I feel I am making progress, though my to-do list is still quite extensive!

I have been having a proper read of The Dyer’s Companion (Companion (Interweave)) and have discovered that I got the wrong end of the stick about the pH of the dye baths. It turns out that when she mentioned a pH of 4.5 to 5, that was referring to dyeing with premetalised dyes rather than with acid dyes. I have now read all the way through the book and there is no mention of what pH one should be aiming for when using acid dyes. I wonder whether this may depend on the brand of dyes one is using. I am thinking of trying some of the Kemtex acid dyes next, to see what they are like to work with. Also their literature may have some more useful information.

We woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow!

It is definitely starting to melt now, but was exciting while it lasted. Sadly I wasn’t quick enough to dash out and make a quick snowman – not sure there was enough snow for it either, and I may possibly have frozen to death attempting to do it in my pyjamas.

All in all I have decided it is safer (and definitely warmer) to be inside today. I am going to catch up on some work, and hopefully also have time to do a bit of knitting. I am still fiddling around with possible colour combinations for my next City and Guilds project. Here is my sample so far:

On the black and while photograph it is easier to see which pairs of colours don’t contrast enough to really show up a pattern. Although I love the reds and greens together, and the dark reds with brown I think they are perhaps a little too subtle (you can stop laughing now about the idea of me being too subtle). More playing to go I think. I want to try out all the colours against the dark red next, and then all the colours against the lime green. Then I think I will try putting the darkest colours in one pile and the palest in another and trying them out against each other. After that I will have another assess of the situation and see whether I think any of the combinations have potential, and whether there are any obvious colour gaps. Then possibly a bit more dyeing, or time to try knitting some actual patterns. I think this should keep me busy for a bit

We are having a nice quiet New Year, with some knitting and the latest experimental chili from the book Paul got for Christmas (today’s was good but we have even higher hopes for tomorrow’s!).

I don’t really go in for new year resolutions, my plan for 2009 is to become a bit more organised, and a bit tidier. I will be able to better enjoy all the lovely yarn that I have if I can actually get to it, and know what is where.

Happy New Year! I hope that you will all have a wonderful 2009, full of interesting things you want to do, and great friends to share it with.