Dishrag rampage.

Yesterday I was trying to figure out how to knit a nice squarish-square. It seemed unlikely that knitting and measuring in garter stitch would yield a perfect square, even with my best intentions. It then occured to me that the basic "granny" dishcloth, since knit on the diagonal, would necessarily yield a perfect square. So on I cast!!
The idea: knit a dishcloth-sized square of 100% wool and then felt to get a coaster. To try and get even fancier, I'm going to attempt to weave acrylic or cotton yarn through the yarn overs. I'm hoping that the wool will felt around the non-feltable fibers and give me a coaster with teeny tiny holes around it. I have NO IDEA whether or not this will work or whether I will get a mottled yarny tangle mess.

Anyway, if my test coaster (in primary yellow and red) works, I think it would be cool to knit and felt a whole set with undyed yarn and then dye the set together with some unifying treatment or color. I've never been a huge fan of hand-dyed yarn colors pooling (this is when multicolored yarn produces 'pools' of color in the finished knit fabric) so why not dye them at the end and go for a dip-dyed effect?

In the meantime, while I'm waiting for the patience to do the felting (I feel like my real laundry should take precedence, right?) I've gone on a dishrag rampage. They're addictive!

Bowlicious

Ok, so this project was a series of experiments (I'm a scientist, remember). First, the yarn was dyed with blue and green Kool-Aid. After that, I knit it up as a roll brim hat. Nothing fancy, just a simple chemo cap. Then I wanted to try over-dyeing the already knit piece. So I did that with more blue Kool-Aid. Finally, I wanted to give an honest go at felting (and I have to admit, it was kind of fun.) After less than twenty minutes in the washer, it was on to the pyrex for drying and shaping. I think with subtler colors, this could have been even cooler. But it seems to work quite well as an odds and ends bowl.