Central Park Hoodie

So the fronts are knitted and the back sleeves and fronts are put together.  I am 11 inches up the hood and am knitting the back cable across the top of the hood joining the sides to the cable.  When I get to the front cables I will stop the back cable and knit the front cables up to the middle of the back cable, Kitchener the cables and then decide on the front bands.  The pattern uses a ribbed edging, I want to have a zipper so a rib is iffy.  Once I have the hood finished I will put it on and see how much landscape is still hanging out to decide what to do with the fronts, just an I-cord?  a cable and I-cord knitted sideways?  a double cable and i-cord?  2 cables separated by a filler and i-cord? and since that could go up to 8" (4 inches on each side) i would think that would be wide enough.

So back to my chair and knitting 10 stitches back and forth and joining each row until I hit the front cable stitches. 
I should finish this just in time for summer.  About my speed. 

BTW (for anyone who doesn't know)that is not me in the sweater, it is my very skinny granddaughter.

Birthday Socks

Megan, my younger daughter is having a birthday next week, and her birthday present will go in the mail tomorrow.

These are the Dragonfly sock pattern, Free download from Ravelry, with some really old KnitPicks Parade.  Plus a little gray Regia for heels and toes.

Aren't they cheerful.

Finished shawls

In the last 2 weeks I have finished 2 shawls, but the cloudy weather and rain that we have been having has not made getting pictures easy, but here they are, the dark one  is Goddess Knits Victorian Romance  I used about 1000 yards of

Makalu Yarns Fine Wool Cashmere.  

The second is another one of Goddess Knits patterns called Ice Goddess but I call it  Sheer Dumb Luck because I ordered the yarn and beads off the internet and they match perfectly.  Used approximately 1500 yards of Colour Mart Cashmere.

I have been dyeing

I have a large amount of a cotton wool blend roving, (all of my real life friends can just shut up right now!)  Anyway, it is all white, and while white may be all well and good, I like color.
A friend gave me a large amount of Cushings Union dyes, that she had when they stopped making the union dyes and started making separate dyes for wool and cotton.

So armed with the correct dyes, soda ash and vinegar, I have been playing with the rovings.
Problem number 1:  The cotton floats therefore the roving floats, and I mean floats, it will float all night, so I took the smallest of the nested pots and placed it inside the middle size, and poured in enough water to hold the roving under the water with soda ash dissolved in it.  That worked once I jammed 2 cooking spoons in on either side to hold the smaller pot straight.  It still wanted to float, but I noticed that after it is in the dyepot, and heating, it does not float as badly.  So experiment number 2:  place roving in soda water, stick pot on top, heat on stove, hey that works much better and the colors I am getting now are darker.  So I may re-dye the first roving since I did have the presence of mind to record the colors that I am using.
The roving looks all matted when it is wet but puffs up once dry. I am having fun.