Thursday, February 12, 2009

Floating

Once upon a time, way back in the day, there used to be this independent dyer who had updates on her site. And if you didn't wait too, too long you could actually buy something. Before that time even, you could custom order. But that is long ago indeed. Now Sundara is a full fledged phenomenon. When I first started ordering from Sundara, I went to her site, emailed her what I wanted and if it hadn't sold it, waited patiently until it came. Those times have changed, but even with the craziness I have managed to stash away my fair share of the most amazingly dyed yarn. Ever. But back to this story.

In this story, I wasn't so thrilled with one of my early purchases. I had ordered a hank of Grape over Gray Violet which had been highly variegated in the sample photo. When the real live hank arrived, almost solid, I was convinced I had been sent the wrong thing. After time I accepted the reality of hand dying inconsistencies, so I stashed the yarn wondering what to do. After even more time I came to realize I prefer the more shaded solid, especially since I was becoming more interested in more complicated stitch patterns. At which point I wound it up and stared at it a good long while trying to imagine what it wanted to be.


Which brings us to last week, when I finally saw that it wanted to by joined by its Saffron Sun friend and become a sophisticated background for the Longbourn Sophisticate.

And now that I am knitting it up, I do see those flecks of Gray Violet and they make me happy, adding a depth and richness to the background without detracting from myriad shades of golden sunshine.

You'll remember the original photo I took last week, with flowers and all. Don't be fooled. That photo was hiding a terrible secret. Terrible, unruly floats!

When I tried on the sock, I just didn't like the way it was fitting so I ripped back until the cuff and sat on the whole thing. How embarrassing to have been faved by 37 fellow Ravelers for a picture showing a couple inches of badly done work!

After reading through the Stranded Colorwork section of Margaret Radcliffe's The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques, I picked a few pointers on catching floats and got back to work.

What a difference!

And look how smooth it is now. I'm hoping with blocking it will be even better!

And by the way, when I finally get it together to write up some book reviews, both the Margaret Radcliffe book and Knitting Socks with Hanpainted Yarn will be among the first.

3 comments:

lunaticraft said...

Those are going to be unbeleivable!

Megan said...

These are gorgeous- great color choices.

I love the Longbourn socks, but you could slap a "Pride and Prejudice" reference on almost any pattern and I'd want to knit it.

can't wait to see the finished pair.

Fran said...

I love purple and yellow combinations! Excellent pairing. The pattern looks beautiful.