Self-Patterning Yarn - Update

Not much posting last week...computer problems - which I attempted and perhaps succeeded in fixing after many recovery points, re-starts, downloads and scans.

On an exciting note, my baleen double point needles arrived so I was able to start knitting up that self-patterning yarn I had dyed. If you recall, our group was planning a dye day to experiment with dyeing our own self-patterning yarns. I did a quick experiment to see how it worked in order to provide tips to others who would be participating. The dye day was rained out and is being rescheduled. But the experimentation did leave me with yarn to knit.

It's weird starting into a new medium...when I want to do something I tend not to have the tools. Here I wanted to experiment with knitted I-cords and had no double pointed needles. I tried knitting them on my circulars...what a nightmare. In retrospect, I think I could have tried those bamboo skewers - that might have worked. Anyway, before buying any I took a test drive on the double points of a friend with a substantial double point knitting needle stash. I got to try wooden ones, bamboo ones, metal ones, plastic ones and a whole slew of sizes. Each had a different feel and many had different points. I liked the baleen ones best - flexible like my circulars and the points were great. I found them on sale at Joann's on-line so I bought all available sizes 4-8. No more excuses about lacking tools....

Liking yellow, I started with that ball of yarn. This is the amount if I-cord I was able to finish in one TV sitting. I now feel a bit more like a knitter since I have something that is mindless enough to knit while watching - actually listening to TV.

Not too evident from the photo, the colors move from a yellow to a yellow orange every inch to two inches or so. That was the desired pattern. The color shifts are a bit more subtle that I had intended. Next time I will use red instead of orange to get a bigger punch. The green flecks, unintended consequences of a sloppy clean up of earlier skein painting, are visible here and there. I am not sure I like the green spots as a 'design element'.

I have two other self-patterned yarn balls to knit that should be a more dramatic shift in colors with a more varied pattern.