A back-handed compliment to one’s stash
Saturday September 23rd 2006, 1:58 pm
Filed under: Knit

 
Everybody needs one of these. You don’t even have to be a knitter: yesterday a hornet flew in the door, it and I played tennis for a moment, and the score was quickly 15-love. Sorry, bee, I hope it didn’t sting.

Don’t know what you call these. Don’t know the brand name. Made in China, looks cheap. The hubby found it at the hardware store for two bucks, and anyone who’s ever chased a moth within range of their stash needs to be able to zap where you can’t reach to slap, to be able to swing your arm wildly when you can’t even see the silly thing anymore–and then suddenly, you know you got it. Snap sizzle. No having to touch it; you just tap the side over the trash, the great outdoors, whatever. Gone.

And note that shade of yellow. Here, buggy buggy! Flowers! Yum.

I give you an update on the angora. Knitting and dyeing the stuff continues; I’ve got enough yarn for two more scarves, hoping for a minimum of holes in the rest of the balls. Let’s see, sisters, Mom, sisters-in-law… One other reason for dyeing it is that you know those bug eggs are definitely dead when you’re done. A shout-out to my sisters-in-law: if you want that yellow color, tell me quick. I’ll still throw it in the dyepot and simmer it a moment, I just won’t add any dye. That particular one shown, though, is about to turn blue.

Technical stuff: each one is 15 stitches, knitted with my 48-year-old Boule de Neige, on size 6.5mm needles. The dark green, yellow, and red are all variants on the theme of taking a right-slanting decrease, a left-slanting one, topped by a pointed-arrow-style double decrease. The only change from pattern to pattern is where I put the matching yarnovers. See what a difference such a simple change makes! As for colors, the light green is with a small amount of teal dye added, the darker one teal+sapphire, the red one vermillion dye. Jacquard Acid dyes, simmered a half hour in a stainless-steel for-dyeing-only pot, with very minimal stirring with a for-dyeing-only wooden spoon.
  


7 Comments so far
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I particularly like the red one. I think it is both the color and the pattern that appeal to me.

I’m allergic to angora but I’m pretty happy with the soft, fuzzy look and cozy feel of llama.

Comment by Marlene 09.23.06 @ 3:15 pm

You might consider creating home dyed, hand knit flags. LOL! Maybe Ethiopia, Ghana, Cameroon or Bolivia? Pretty colors!

By the way, I’m impressed with your posh swatter. I got my dinky dollar store ‘retro’ one out in an attempt to swat a large moth (not clothes moth) that I couldn’t capture or persuade to leave my bedroom late the other evening. There are times I really miss window screens!

Comment by Lynn 09.24.06 @ 6:22 am

I did dye a little extra yarn with each scarf so there would be the means to repair any problems that might ever pop up. But they would only make a really, really small flag.

Comment by AlisonH 09.24.06 @ 12:25 pm

I find the technical info you provide quite helpful. I have looked for technical info on blogs in the past. For the blogs I’ve read, the technical info is rarely there in a succinct and helpful way.

I loved the picture of all the different-colored scarves with the accompanying description of how many stitches, what the differences were, what the dyes were. Thanks very much!

Comment by Robin MacAskill 09.24.06 @ 6:28 pm

Alright! I’m so glad to see you blogging! I know you have no idea who I am, but I’ve seen your posts on the KnitList for years. I’m going to go add you to bloglines subscriptions now. 🙂

Comment by Joni 09.25.06 @ 12:48 pm

Oh boy, we have the same bug swacker! Same great price too. Now that I live somewhere buggy it’s a great joy. Dog doesn’t like it much though.

Comment by Marnie 09.25.06 @ 2:53 pm

[…] was thinking, you bought these how many years ago, dear? But while he kept looking, I did the not-a-guy-thing (Richard later said […]

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