Before & After

I'm still not going to rank this NZ yarn among my favorites because of the prickliness, but I must say, it sure did dye up pretty. Here's a small swatch knitted on US 7 needles.

Before felting...After felting...
I'm very please with the results. The fabric is dense but not stiff and should make a great belt. The sample was 15 stitches wide and after felting is about double what I need my finished belt to be. So I figure 8 stitches should do it. It shrank very little in length. But even if I knit it too long, after felting it shouldn't be a problem to cut it off.

Tonight I skeined off 4 100g hanks of the tan wool to dye to make the Stag Bag from yesterday. Although I'm sure it would be fabulous to knit the bag in the alpaca yarn called for, I've got this on hand and am anxious to find a use for it. I realized, on further reading of the pattern, that the colorwork chart is worked back and forth. I loath purling in stranded colorwork, so that's just not going to happen. The pattern as written has the colorwork panel on the front and a plain solid color back. This creates a problem if done in the round since my 2nd color will be on the wrong side of the work when I get back around. I know there's some way to do it with slip stitches, but that's way more complicated than I want to try for now. I could work the back of the bag in a two color pattern as well, maybe a checkerboard or something. Or I could just cut the yarn and reattach at each new row. This would mean a ton of ends to weave in, though. These are all problems for another day. For now, the yarn is in the dye pot. Results soon.

SoS report: I knit an inch or so on the Horcrux while listening to Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians audiobook. In addition to SoS, I've signed up for the library's adult summer reading program. With the aid of audiobooks, I've gotten 2 books "read" already. And my hands are free to stitch away.

The result

The new yarn dyed up fabulously. The colors are vibrant.

These photos are a bit washed out because it is seriously sunny out today. But I think you get the idea. The yarn softened a bit in the process, but still not what I would consider next to the skin by any stretch of the imagination. I do think this will felt up wonderfully so I'm trying to think along those lines. I'm considering a belt or maybe hotmats or a placemat for the cat's food dish.

Knitting Daily featured this pattern yesterday for the Intricate Stag Bag. Add one more project to my "I HAVE to knit this" list!

I finished the gusset on the first Horcrux last night, but not much more before I fell asleep. I'm feeling discouraged at my progress. Yesterday on the SoS blog, they posted pictures of several pairs of socks people have already FINISHED! Urgh. I now I'm slow, but it's very disheartening.