Learning something new..

Like all fiber lovers, there is that drive to learn something new, to better our skills. So yesterday I went to a class at Yarntopia sponsored by Sky Loom Weavers. Penny and Peggy (who are Sky Loom Weavers) taught a dying class in the morning and a drop spindle class in the afternoon. Well after years of struggling with my drop spindle (yes, I put the DROP in drop spindle a lot), it all came together with Peggy's expert teaching. That morning, they taught us dying with acid dyes. OMG - what fun and the colors were outstanding. There was not a single skein of yarn that wasn't gorgeous. I fell in love with the process. Must be the painter coming out in me. Here are my three skeins that I dyed in sock yarn. One will be for the fall, one for wearing with jeans and one for a present.

TIP OF THE DAY (not that I'll have one every day but for today)... when I knit socks  I hate having a pair where the opening is too tight, doesn't stretch enough. Some people solve this with casting on with a bigger needle. Well, I  do something different. I do a simple small picot cast on. It leaves the top edgle a bit textured with little bumps, but gives so much stretch to the top opening of the socks. It's amazing!
Try it . For baby socks  or if I want it a little fancier, I increase the cast ons and bind offs in the picot to get it frillier.

Instructions for a picot cast on:
Cast on 6 using a knitted cast on.* Bind off two, slip the st on the right needle back to the left needle and  cast on 5, bind off two.* Repeat this until you have as many stitches as you need. If you increase the # of cast offs and bind offs, it changes the length and # of picots on the edge. So play with it. Makes a great edging for scarves that you don't plan to add fringe to or for blanket edgings.

Now to go throw some pots, spin some yarn and dream of colors to dye something.....