Friday, April 22, 2011

Handspun Friday a little different

I've always loved coloring Easter eggs, no matter how, it was fun. This year, my mom sent me some Easter egg colors again. I bought white eggs to get real nice colors, but it was not to be. They didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted them.

my mom sent me easter egg colors

I put in four brown eggs with the whites, and one of the browns turned into this pretty little red egg. The purple didn't take well, and neither did the blue color. Oh well. The funny thing though was, that most of them if not all, are colored underneath the shell as well. I don't like eating food coloring, avoid it if I can. Anyway, it would not be Easter without colored eggs, even if we don't really celebrate Easter anymore.

at least one red egg looks nice

I've used the purple and red color to over dye some experiment gone wrong from last year. It's not perfect, but much better. The yarn is Zitron Flame I bought a few skeins undyed.
Zitron Flame
Zitron Flame over dyed

Today instead of showing hand spun yarn, I'm showing you my latest FO. It's the No-sew blanket by Janice Kang, found in the latest Knitty Spring/Summer 2011. There is a KAL for it going on in the FatCatKnits ravelry group. I said I wouldn't join any more KAL's this year, but that was meant more or less for Mystery KAL's. I needed a break from lace knitting, and this little Blankie fit the bill. Besides, there's also some fiber to win, which was a great motivation for me. I've got so much hand spun yarn, from the very first moment I started spinning until now. I wanted to stash bust a little. Here I've used fiber dyed by different dyers like FatCatKnits, Spinning Awesome Good, Electric Sheep, Spunky Eclectic as far as I can remember.

No-sew blanket

No-sew blanket

Only two yarns used are soft and even spun, the rest was rather over twisted, but I could still work with it. This should normally be a Baby blanket, but there are no Babies in sight right now. So I've decided to use it to cover my desk chair (not pictured). That's also the reason why I didn't bother with the I-cord surrounding the blanket. If I were to knit this again, I would use soft yarn in one colorway (can still be colorful though), wound into a big ball, because I had to weave in a million ends as it was. The construction is a no-sew one, very clever, the pattern is very well written, and easy to follow.

No-sew blanket

No-sew blanket

pattern: Evelyn's No-sew Blankie by Janice Kang
yarn: my own hand spun yarn, various fibers, and colorways
needles: 5.5mm circs
size: 24" x 20"
I steamed it flat, and the yarn relaxed somewhat.
***
Maggie continues to do well. She's bursting with energy, wanting to play, but she'll have to wait another few days. All your well wishes must have worked. :o)
***
We wish you all a wonderful long Spring weekend. Ours will be a bit wet, I'm afraid, and cool.
***

15 comments:

wanderrast said...

Ich wünsche auch dir ein schönes Osterfest.
ich hoffe du kannst es genießen, trotz kalter Temperaturen!

2paw said...

Fancy the dye going through the egg shell, I have never seen that before.
That is perfect for your desk chair, and so nice to have no sewing, even though there were ends.
So glad to read Maggie is well!!

Alexandra said...

What a beautiful blanket! I love all the colors! I was actually looking at that pattern yesterday, the construction does seem very interesting. Hope you have a lovely weekend with good weather! :D

cauchy09 said...

hooray! i love this patchwork blanket. and i love the deep rich colors you get on your eggs. this makes me want to dye something!

momsue84 said...

Beautiful and very colorful. Glad to hear Maggie is doing so well. Happy Easter! Loved seeing the eggs.

knottygnome said...

your blanket (and eggs) look very colorful! i hadn't paid much attention to that pattern...i'll have to check it out.

Wanderingcatstudio said...

Love the blankie!
Quit making me covet your handspun!

Michelle said...

We are skipping the egg dying this year so I'm enjoying seeing other people doing their dying. The more I see other peoples no-sews, the less I want to wait for my new wheel. Going to work on that knit today and then I can start spinning this weekend!

Päivi, Lankakomero said...

Lovely dyings and beautiful blankie! Happy Easter!

Laurie said...

Wow, lots of fun, colorful eye candy here! I love that one perfect little red egg. Added the blanket to my queue. Drooled over the yarn. So happy Maggie is doing well! Happy Easter!

faith76 said...

Like the idea of a no-sew blanket as me and sewing don't really go well together. Love the colours used in the blanket and the eggs. Happy Easter x Leah x

Beverly said...

It pays to see a pattern worked up in different way in order to appreciate its' beauty. This is really lovely.

Virginia G said...

I really like what you've done with the blanket! It's lovely.

And I'm glad that Maggie is doing well. :)

Linda said...

Your blanket intrigues me enough to re-investigate the Knitty offering. It looks so impressive on the chair, wow!

hakucho said...

Love your "chair pad"...very colorful and useful! My kind of project :)