Chickenlips Knitting

No, not the band--the chili peppers I refer to are sewn onto my most recent FO, another Baby Surprise Jacket. I used 2 skeins of Stitchjones Grand Designs Worsted Merino in Pepper Patch and size 6 needles.

Extreme closeup of the too cute buttons!

I dyed the yarn some time ago, before I understood how this particular yarn takes dye--it sucks it up like a sponge and lots of color mixing happens on the skein. Now I know how to make that work to an advantage and how to minimize it, so when I make the Pepper Patch colorway it comes out a lot less muddy than this early batch did. Still, there's some interesting pooling, especially the orange sections near the bottom of the jacket.

This is another one of those late night posts. I do feel sleepy, but since Geddy, Alex & Neil made their first American TV appearance in 30+ years on The Colbert Report tonight, I'm still coming down from the high. The boys were jovial with Stephen Colbert--at his request, they all signed his hand, and I loved Neil's quip "I better not see that on Ebay!" However, it being Comedy Central, they didn't get to finish playing "Tom Sawyer", or I should say the show ended before the song did. Feh!

My head is exploding. Wait, let me qualify that, as I sense some of you pulling away. You know how the kid in "The Sixth Sense" saw dead people? Well, it's like that for me, except that what I see are knitwear designs. I've started making a sock that's a simple knit/purl combo, and the longer the leg gets the more I like how it's coming out, so I want to write up the pattern and post it here as a freebie. Also, I've got a scarf design for my dyepot worsted merino that needs to be knit up--it may be sweltering July, but fall isn't too far off! Uh oh, don't look now, but I've turned into a retail machine. Oh well, the rationale is, the only way to be able to keep dyeing is to sell my dyed stuff, right? Right.

My not-so-top-secret stealth project is a children's sock kit. Today I made some headway with the dyeing, as my goal is to have 3 to 4 dozen ready to go a month from now. The kit packaging has been ordered. There will be 6 kid-friendly colorways and 2 themes: "Princesses" and "Wildlife". I'm planning two different sock designs: one with lace or a ruffle or both, and the other will have some sort of textured rib stitch. To avoid gender exclusivity, my idea is to include both patterns in the kit (the sheet will be printed double-sided, as the packaging is nifty but rather small). And of course, package inserts are needed! I'm whipping up a design for that, as well.

There's also been some indulgent yarn stashing this week, but I'll have to show you that next time. I'm off to brush my teeth and collapse.