Weekly Wednesday WIP Roll Call; ep. 24

Where we hold ourselves to account for the obscene number of ongoing projects we may or may not have

Katy

I’ve not done a lot this week, just a couple more squares for the Patchwork. I managed to squeeze in some crochet time en route to a weekend away with the family!

Also, popcorn!

Also, in non-crocheting-or-knitting news, I broke out the old Fimo this week and made some more crochet hooks! They’ve been selling steadily in the Etsy shop, and I received a custom order request! This green beauty with pink petals winged its way off to its new owner today:

I do apologise for the less-than-stellar photos this week, by the way; my PC is staging some kind of protest so I can’t upload from my camera. Phone photography it is!

You’ll notice that the hook size has been highlighted with a little paint in the top photo – what do you think? It makes it so much easier to see, but I’d like to play around with more a subtle variation, I think. I used a dark green; I think I’d prefer a gentler silver or something… Opinions welcomed and encouraged in the comments!

 

Nicole

Well, if you were to look at the above picture, you might be fooled into thinking that I actually finished my Flying Ford Anglia Stripey socks. Of course you would be wrong.

I managed to finish the toe of the second sock and got very excited about my next pair of socks that I immediately cast them on, using the needles I needed to knit the afterthought heel. What a chump move! I’m sure that I have another pair of needles, the correct size, but who knows where they are. I don’t mind though because the socks I’m working on are quite fantastic.

 

If you guessed I’d started the Every Flavour Mercury socks, you’d be right! I knew going in that the variegated nature of the yarn doesn’t really lend itself to a lace pattern of this scale. However, I honestly do not care. Seeing all the colours of the yarn play together is so much fun, every single stitch is different and the lace texture is softly subtle against the cacophony of colour! I’ve heard such lovely things about this pattern, it has been doing the rounds on the Ravelry forums I’m in and it has not dissapointed. The simple six stitch repeat is so rhythmic  I’m certain that after only three pattern repeats I have it memorised. I’ve made a couple of mistakes, having missed some yarn overs here and there but they are easily found and fixed. So far, so good! I’m not very far in so hopefully the rest of the knit is equally smooth

 

 

I’ve also been experimenting with African Violet motifs.These two are made using different size hooks to see how they work out with scale. There are some amazing patterns using these motifs to build amazing animals as well as beautiful blankets. The blue petaled flower was my first attempt and used a 4mm hook. It is the perfect size for blanket blocks as it works up quickly and has a decent area. I feel that the spacing in the middle and in the petals wouldn’t be the best for animal sculpture. The pink petaled flower used a slightly smaller hook, a 3.5mm, but again I’m uncertain whether it would be good enough for animals so will attempt to use an even smaller hook if I can find one! A reoccuring theme for me!

 

I have been working on the blanket as well, I quite like the look of the African Violet’s against the blocks I’ve already got. This will give another aspect to the blanket which I think works perfectly with the theme that I’m working with. Time will tell though!

 

 

 

 

Weekly Wednesday, erm, Thursday, just about, Wip Roll Call; Ep 23

Where we hold ourselves to account for the obscene number of ongoing projects we may or may not have

 

Nicole

 

 

So I didn’t finish the socks. Quelle suprise right? But look how close I am, I’m fairly certain I’m going to finish the toe today. I have been stung by my own hubris before though.Will I ever learn? I can’t even say that I was particularly busy this week, we did have a dye day on Tuesday, but other than that my week has been fairly quiet. Fingers crossed this week is equally quiet because I’ve already caked up my Every Flavour yarn ready to go for my Mercury socks. I’m itching to start something new but must resist.

 

 

I’ve also started joining the blocks on my blanket. I thought I had joined more and can’t decide if my memory is failing me, or that this project has fallen victim to tiny toddler hands. The blocks are working together nicely in a join as you go manner so that is positive!

 

In other news, we had a very successful dye day. I’ve taken a few pictures of the yarn we dyed but I think we’re sharing that in a bigger standalone post. For now though, here is a picture of the yarn being swiped by the aforementioned tiny toddler hands, please ignore the errant hair… where is the eyecovering monkey emoji when you need it!

 

Katy

Dye day totally took precedence this week! It was SO MUCH FUN. More to come on that topic in another blog post, soon. 

Having said that, it was also my birthday this week! Yay. I was fortunate to be given some scrumptious yarn by Dye Candy and Fleabubs & Lala. 

Also this spectacular mug

 

 I will speak more about those yarns once I’ve used them, I expect. But don’t they look great?!

Now then. In terms of actual crocheting, I can confirm that I’ve been working on the Scrappy Patchwork blanket some more. I have made around twenty squares this week.

As you can see, I’m in the midst of yet another crisis about colour selections, as the squares are mostly divided into “proper bright” and “a bit less bright” currently. I don’t know. I liked the more gentle palette I arranged a couple of weeks ago, but I’d also like this to be a blanket for the boys’ room. While they’re not averse to a bit of pink and purple, I don’t know how much longer I have left before they do the “urgh but that’s a girl colour” thing. (Weep!) 

One last thing before I go – I worked up a square of some yarn I dyed on Tuesday – and I love it! Here’s a sneak peek:

Achievement Unlocked: We Opened An Etsy Shop! Plus: Exciting News…

Can you believe it?! We’re both completely giddy with joy, for a fortnight ago, we finally opened up our Etsy shop for business!

This is an exciting time for Kaleidoscope City, as – announcement time – we up our game with a view to start dyeing luxury yarns for sale within a matter of weeks. We’ve been slowly kitting ourselves out over the space of a year; picking up some large dyeing pans here, squeezy bottles for hand-painting there. A packet of citric acid; a box of latex gloves; pipettes and beakers and tiny measuring spoons. Both of us ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the colour chart of dyes, taking turns to pick shades. We’ve begun to stockpile samples of different “bare” yarns including superwash merino sock yarn with added nylon for durability, and GOLD SPARKLY yarn (I’m particularly excited about that one). Now, we’re fundraising to make a big purchase: a bulk order of undyed yarn. We CANNOT WAIT to get cracking with this, having had several practice runs in the meantime. Take a look at some mobile phone photos of Nicole’s gorgeous test dyes from last week:

I actually helped with the one on the left – I’d only popped over for a cup of tea, but you know how things escalate. Before I knew it we had masks on, a huge pot on the stove, and jars of dye in our hands.

Impulsive yarn fancification

Nicole has written about her exploits (and my enthusiastic joining-in) here, in this week’s Weekly Wednesday WIP Roll Call. Take a look!

So, currently in the Etsy shop we have for sale a number of hand-sewn project bags…

… and some polymer-clay-handled crochet hooks.

We’re thinking about making some stitch markers, progress keepers, and maybe some other accessories – if you have any suggestions, hit us up in the comments!

As you can imagine, this is a hugely gratifying and exciting experience for both of us. We’re forging a business doing something we love – who could ask for more? We’re both incredibly appreciative of our readers, followers, and now customers too!

See you soon with further updates on our adventures!

Weekly Wednesday WIP Roll Call; ep 21 – the one day late edition.

Where we hold ourselves to account for the obscene number of ongoing projects we may or may not have.

Nicole

 

Hey guys! Long time no see! I’ve been absent on here and instagram for TWO WEEKS and it has felt like an age. The first week I had extreme technical issues with both my camera and laptop which are thankfully sorted out now! Then last week I was visiting family with my daughter followed quickly by her 2nd birthday. It truly was a whirlwind of busyness with little time to check in. Don’t worry though, I do have plenty to share.

I have a lot of plans for knitting this year which involve a lot of sock yarn. Have you heard of the #boxosoxkal2017? It’s a year long knitalong where you knit at least 12 pairs of socks for yourself so thats where my yarn requirements come from. Knowing my plans, my husband treated me to a KnitPicks order as a lovely Valentines Day present. Don’t be fooled though; we share a bank account and it was really an excuse get me to buy him things for his hobby which I happily did!

Anyway, KnitPicks sell a self striping yarn called Felici and there is a particular colourway named “Beyond The Wall”. Any self respecting Game of Thrones fans will immediately understand the reference by the colours let alone the name. A sequence of blues and greys it perfectly captures the feel of the Night King and the White Walkers. I decided that this would be the perfect yarn to knit a themed pair of socks when the final season airs at some point this year complete with dark grey contrast heel, cuff and toe.

 

I’m also participating in another year long KAL, the Inside Number 23 Harry Potter 2017 KAL (#23hpkal2017). This one is make at least six Harry Potter inspired pieces within the year. I’ve already completed my first project for both of the KALs as thankfully double dipping is allowed, the Hermiones Everyday Socks. I am yet to write a tada post about these, will update the post when I do. The basis of Harry Potter inspiration is pretty broad, you can knit patterns that are named for an aspect of Harry Potter, use yarns that are inspired by Harry Potter and if you can describe why it relates to Harry Potter in some way its good to be included!

Now I don’t want to spend the year making Hermiones Everyday Socks, I do love the pattern but I also love variety so I decided to dye some yarn for my projects based on Harry Potter inspiration. I managed to include some undyed sock yarn from KnitPicks in my order and quickly got to work! My first dyeing attempt was a self striping colourway, ambitious I know! If I try it again anytime soon I’ll be sure to share my method with pictures, it was a bit time consuming sorting the yarn whilst monitoring a toddler. Shocking right?

 

My inspiration was the cover of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and I have named this colourway The Flying Ford Anglia. The green is the countryside, the blue representing the Ford Anglia, the slim stripe of grey is the trim of the car and Hedwig is in the thin white strip. I pretty much winged it in terms of measuring for the stripes which resulted in slightly thinner stripes of grey and white than I would have liked. Despite that though this yarn is pure joy and excitement. It is  pretty close to the colours I wanted to achieve and it stripes! That was the main goal so I feel happily smug.

I’m knitting it up as a basic cuff down vanilla sock using an afterthought heel. This will be my first afterthought heel attempt and I’ve finished the first tube of sock. Theoretically inserting the afterthought heel will mean that I have greater control over the stripe distribution. In my last pair of self striping socks, the heel was constructed as I go and the front has a tiny odd stripe on on each foot. I should be able to avoid this by inserting a contrast heel! I feel like this would be a fantastic way to level up my sock knitting game! These socks will also count towards the Pinfeather and Purls #stripeysockskal2017 as well as the #boxosoxkal2017 another double dipping win!

 

 

In my delivery I had two more skeins of bare yarn which I couldn’t resist dyeing. The one on the right is named Every Flavour and the left pair doesn’t have a name. Scratch that, its now named Anon, I’m punny like that… Anyway, they were both dyed with the same dyes but a couple of weeks apart. Every Flavour has ultra blue flecks whilst Anon has Turquoise. Anon was actually a bit of a collaboration between Katy and me when she popped over for a cup of tea at the beginning of the week. The yarn was placed in a pale yellow dye bath, I placed the turquoise whilst Katy added in the magenta with us both adding extra turquoise speckles. Every Flavour was a total free pour experiment with the three base colours resulting in so many beautiful hues. Its destiny is a pair of Mercury Socks once I’ve finished the afterthought heel pair whilst Anon will end up a pair of Harry Potter themed Erica Lueder socks, specifically The Weasley Homestead socks. So that is six pairs of socks in total that are either knit, being knitted or at least planned for!

Other projects have been left on the wayside a bit due to the time away. My blanket project is currently hanging out on this diy blocking board. This is just a gardeners kneeling pad picked up for a paltry £1 in Wilkinsons with some bamboo canes I had on hand. Pinterest has more details if you search diy blocking board,  this is quite a simple option for granny blocks. I’ve got a few more things to practice for this blanket before I knuckle down into complete making mode on it. My Granny Stripe Ripple had a couple of rows added whilst watching the Super Bowl at the beginning of the month but is too cumbersome to travel with these days. Finn also hasn’t been touched. I did make another Wickerwork Hat using some KnitPicks Brava worsted that is pictured in the delivery box at the top, but I have given that to my Nan without taking a picture of it. Well I took one which I’m going to share on Insta in my #yarnlovechallenge catch up!

What an epic catch up! It feels great to be back, now back to my socks!

 

Katy

Katy is away this week with her family! This time of year tends to be busy for both of us thanks to family birthdays and half terms. Hoping that Storm Doris doesn’t interfere with things too much for her, I’m sure she’ll tell us all about it and what she’s been doing soon.

Nicole’s Holiday Acquisitions (and sneaky project update)

I don’t know about you, but when I go to far off places I like to visit yarn shops. Often the selection widely varies from what I’m used to and I love the idea of having yarn in my stash that has a history. I have yarn from Canada that I bought whilst on honeymoon that is just waiting for the right moment/project. When they do get used the project will always remind me of where I was when I bought the yarn.

So of course when I went to Germany last week, finding yarn was high on my agenda.

My grandma lives in a sleepy little town that, while beautiful, is very quiet. There is one sewing shop there however and every supermarket seemed to stock sock yarn of varying quality. We didn’t explore the surrounding area greatly either, so I imagine I would have found more had we ventured further towards the more built up areas.

German Playground | Kaleidoscope City | http://www.kaleidoscopecity.wordpress.com/blog

German Tree | Kaleidoscope City | http://www.kaleidoscopecity.wordpress.com/blog

It wasn’t all for nothing though, I managed to find a couple of things that took my fancy.
In the sewing shop there was a wide variety of yarns. There were a few that caught my eye, but not that I could imagine making a full project with. I have a bit of a desire to make a sweater, but with no pattern in mind and limited suitcase space it seemed a bit foolish to commit to yarn in such a quantity. Sock yarn seemed to suit my need to buy yarn without being too absurd and I chose this beautiful Kaffe Fasset Self Striping yarn. The colours really appealed to me and I thought they would make fantastic socks or perhaps a nice pair of mittens.

Regia Sock Yarn | Kaleidoscope City | http://www.kaleidoscopecity.wordpress.com/blog

Regia Sock Yarn | Kaleidoscope City | http://www.kaleidoscopecity.wordpress.com/blog

In another store, a chain that sold mostly clothes and limited housewares, I found these balls of yarn. I have absolutely no idea what to use these for as of yet, they also aren’t my usual style of wool. A slightly plastic looking shiny yarn is generally the type of thing I avoid, however the colours won me over and it is incredibly soft. You can somewhat see a bit of a halo at the edge of the yarn.

Andrea Yarn | Kaleidoscope City | http://www.kaleidoscopecity.wordpress.com/blog

Andrea Yarn | Kaleidoscope City | http://www.kaleidoscopecity.wordpress.com/blog

Andrea Yarn | Kaleidoscope City | http://www.kaleidoscopecity.wordpress.com/blog

 

I really intended to post this last week, but since I was sick I missed it and also the WIP post. Seeing as my projects were also holiday related I figured I’d add them in here! They’re related right? If you saw my instagram post, and I think Katy included it on the WIP post while I was away, I packed two projects, the materials for a third and a book.  One of the projects was the Jake Amigurumi however I didn’t really feel like working on it. I guess because the momentum of the socks I took kept me going!

 

Vampire Queen Stripy Socks | Kaleidoscope City | http://www.kaleidoscopecity.wordpress.com/blog

Vampire Queen Stripy Socks | Kaleidoscope City | http://www.kaleidoscopecity.wordpress.com/blog

Vampire Queen Stripy Socks | Kaleidoscope City | http://www.kaleidoscopecity.wordpress.com/blog

 

I finished one sock! They are incredibly awkward to photograph though so sorry about that!  I finished it the second night I was there and then cast on the second straight away. After that I didn’t actually get much more done whilst away but I have since. I won’t show you anymore because I’ll either finish it (wishful thinking) or will need something for this Wednesday!

It’s nice to be back though, I never intended to be away for so long! But I’m feeling better and ready for what’s yet to come!