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Tres Chic Veronique

 

Behind the Scenes: Brooklyn Handpsun

There are times when it's really nice to know a lot of knitters in the city... Marie, of Brooklyn Handspun fame, is always generous about sharing her dyeing expertise. I emailed her last monday about the 1,500 yds of Habu single ply laceweight that I wanted to dye, and she invited me over to her place on wednesday! First, we wound my center pull ball into a big hank. How big? This big!
Dyeing with Brooklyn Handspun: the "Before" Pic

Then, we dyed a little swatch that I'd knitted with the yarn.
Dyeing with Brooklyn Handspun:
Here are my top 3 contenders:
Blue Spruce, upper right corner. Meh, too soft. I want a color with more pop. Next: Moss, bottom. Ooh, I like this one! And finally, Mallard Green, upper right. It's a green with a lot of blue in it, very unusual.
And the winner is......
Dyeing with Brooklyn Handspun:
Mallard Green!
I let it dry overnight, and here is my yarn all wound up. My Paper Crane donut included for scale. This ball is huge!
Dyeing with Brooklyn Handspun:
Oooh, nice. Much lighter than I anticipated, but nice!
Now, it hurt my arms to wind 1,500 yds of yarn, but Marie doesn't have that problem... She has an electric skein winder!
Brooklyn Handspun's electric winder!
She puts the hank on the umbrella swift (in front), and hooks it up to the electric winder (in back). And then she just lets it go!!
Why this additional step of turning a hank into another hank? Well, the final hank is a slightly different size than the original hank, and therefore the colors mix up, giving you a glimpse of what it will look like knitted up. See?
Brooklyn Handspun

Lest you think that everything is going perfect over here, here is proof that I make mistakes. I've been trucking along on EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket. That is, until I decided to count my stitches between markers.
EZ's baby surprise jacket
Oops, looks like the 2 "sides" are not at all the same shape! Start over.
Although baby Gleek will be born soon, I don't think she'll need a jacket this big right away, phew! And when I say soon, I mean Gleek is already on maternity leave, and probably sitting on her couch knitting as I type! She can't possibly be in labor as she *promised* to text me the minute she goes to the hospital. I've had a few scares already where she hasn't responded to emails with her usual promptness and I assume that she's had her baby without telling me... I know, how dare she! :)

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By Veronique
On Sunday, March 11, 2007
At 3/11/2007 02:15:00 PM