Dye Day Socks Progress Report

As promised, I’m updating you on my knitting project. I’ve only started over once, changing from size 3 needles to size 2. All along the way I’ve been tutored by my dear friend Louise (Weezie) Bradley. She tells me to cast on 48 stitches. I cast on 48. She tells me to knit 7 inches and I do it. Last Sunday after our weekly hike she showed me how to start knitting the heel and in the process she discovered that I had been purling incorrectly—that would be for about 35 years. (I learned to knit in Iceland and therefore I’m a continental knitter.) I was so impressed with my friend’s ability to see what was wrong, fix it, and then show me how to correct my ways even though she herself is not a continental knitter. It’s good to have a seasoned mentor to show me the way.

Dye Day Swatches

Before I start ripping my painted sox blanks, I thought you'd like to see what I started with. I can't want to see what happens when I start to knit. But, being the non-knitter that I am, I keep thinking about how I can use this idea/technique for weaving...

Dye Day

My friend Maggie Casey of our wonderful yarn shop Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder gave her employees and a few of us lucky friends a wonderful gift. We each received a machine knitted blank (48 stitches knitted out of Henry’s Attic Kona (a superwash merino wool). She then prepared the shop dye studio for painting the blanks. We all have to produce our socks by April first (even a weaver must knit every now and again). I'll keep you posted

The whole dye day was super fun—it’s a great way to get you fiberholic friends together to try something new. Having a deadline for our socks will mean that we’ll get them knitted.

BTW: Maggie learned this technique from Nancy Roberts who teaches this dye workshop around the country. You can check out her website at: www.machineknittingtodyefor.com/