ooops!

I re-read my last entry, and I made a rather big boo-boo. The book that I used for my dyeing experiments is actually called "I'd Rather Dye Laughing" by Jean M. Neel. I really apologize to the writer.

As I talked about in the last entry, this book is a good introduction to dyeing wool. It especially has information and encouragement about a type of dyeing called casserole dyeing. This type of dyeing uses an oven as the heat source. I really enjoyed using this method for a couple of reasons. First of all, it heated my cold house. Now that winter is coming on, the battle of the thermostat is (excuse the pun) heating up. Secondly, it seems to be a no fuss, no muss way of dyeing fiber. I've dyed a couple of times in a big canning pot, and the casserole dyeing just seemed easier.

In other knitting, I finished my first custom job. I haven't heard from the lady who requested them yet, but I hope to soon. I'm crossing my fingers that the hat and mittens are what she was looking for. I'm a little nervous about this because I've been a knitter for a long time, and I've made many many things for many different people, but this is the first time that I've knitted anything specifically to order. I hope she will get in touch with me soon about the hat and mittens.

So now its on to the next custom order. This order uses the red-violet yarn that I casserole dyed, in the same pattern as the mittens and hat shown here. Both the hat and mittens are pretty basic styles that I have adapted to the lace rib stitch pattern, and to the hand-spun yarn I used. I should be smart and write down my pattern as I knit, but I just never manage to do what I should do. I'll start out by writing down my numbers, but by the end I have a paper full of chicken scratches and cross-outs, if I can still find the paper I started with. Now I think that starting with a general pattern and adapting it to my stitch pattern and stitch gauge makes it my pattern, but I am unsure if this makes an original pattern. If anyone has any feedback on this, I would love to read your opinion.