How many miles (of yarn) per gallon (of dye)???

First things first. Here is a picture of the wool I dyed with the leftover dye from the previous day.
The Vivid Turquoise came out a pretty pastel mint blue, but the dye was not taken up consistently, so that one will be overdyed or hand painted with others blues/greens I think. The Olive came out sort of pale yellow straw-colored ( a little deeper in color that the above picture seems to reflect); I think it is acceptable as is. The Terracotta came out sherbet orange and I like it very much. The brown I have actually dyed a second time in the same brown due to the fact that it came out of the experimental dye bath the exact pinky-brown color of a baby mouse and I was freaking me out. While it was still wet from the original dye bath, I mixed up another batch of brown and left it overnight. Then I again put the dye pot outside in the direct sun and covered it with a trashbag to several hours. The dye was exhausted and the yarn was greatly improved, so now you are allowed to see it.

Not that I'm not a trusting person because, believe me, I am. It's just that darned What If gene; I can't stand to have someone tell me I CAN'T reuse dye or I CAN'T felt things in a front loading washer on the first trip through. BS. BS. BS. Can, too...

Matter of fact, I have a bag and strap in the front-loader right this very minute. I really should have taken a picture pre-fulling, but I got excited and forgot. Sorry! I will post pictures of the finished bag tomorrow.

COMING SOON: Links to all kinds of good stuff. Free patterns. Lots of good tips and techniques. Don't blink! Stay tuned! Tell your friends to subscribe!

Mostly, knit like you mean it...

All wound up with no place to go...

Yesterday's dyeing is done! Here are the finished skeins, all wound up...

Well, actually, all wound up except for the one that went maverick on me and needs to be untangled. I'm amazed that only one went awry; I put the loosely tied wet skeins in mesh bags and put them in my dryer. Oh, yes, I did! Two colors per bag, even, since I only have two mesh bags! I'm telling you, folks, I have a Risk-Taking nature! Maybe you could best describe my operating style as "what if" mixed with a dash of "whatever happens, it will work out okay." Those of you who know me are nodding knowingly and wishing fervently that I could confine that behavior to working with yarn...

In the interest if "what if," I've elected to experiment further with the leftover dye from yesterday. It was not exhausted (my back was, though), so I wound four 200-yard hanks of worsted weight wool, soaked them thoroughly, and left them in the dye pots overnight. Then I had Tall put them in the sunny flower bed for me and I covered them with trashbags and left them all day. They're still there. I will check on them after dinner. Once they're rinsed, I will know if I should put them in new dye baths or allow them to stay as they are. I suspect the dye bath was no longer strong enough to give me good, strong color, but I'll bet I have a good base color for painting over or overdyeing! Oh, Serendipity, you've been so kind to me at times; are you with me now?

I sent the pattern for Shirley off to Knitty. Could you please cross your fingers and toes with me until I say you can stop? Okay.. toes only. It's hard to knit with your fingers crossed. (I have knit with my eyes crossed, however. Story for another day...)

That's it for now, but I am sticking in this picture because I love looking at it. It tickles me! I would give credit for it, but it came from some random site on the web a long time ago and I no longer know the source. If you took it, thanks! It makes me smile. By the way, they're baby hedgehogs...

Wow! Knitters sure are helpful people!

I put out a call for pattern testers to my online knitting group and got a TREMENDOUS response! In fact, I sent the pattern out to many more than I had originally intended to, but I really wanted good feedback on this one and I know some people are probably not going to follow through on actually knitting the bag once. You know how it is -- other projects take precedence, the yarn for the bag is not in the budget right now, whatever... We all have plenty to do without knitting becoming another chore, so I hope no one stresses over knitting the bag. I'm happy for them to have the pattern, whether they knit it right now or next year.


In fact, I have about decided to submit this pattern to Knitty, which would make it free to everyone in the world anyway (provided, of course, it gets selected for publication). I may be fooling myself, but I think I have as good a chance as anyone else of having a pattern published! After all, the chances are 0% if I never submit it, right? So, from that perspective, the odds of my becoming a published designer will go up immediately when I press SEND on the submission email! I'm not too worried about being rejected -- I made it through far worse things and I'm still alive, happy, and living a blessed life. Therefore, nothing ventured...

Bet you want some kind of fiber content, huh? Don't blame you. Give me a few minutes and I will take pictures of the dye pots stewing in the sun. Just wait right here...back in a flash...


Okay, here they are:













I wound 15 100-yard hanks of Plymouth Stone Cotton (cotton/acrylic blend) yarn. The dye is Dylon and I chose to do 4 hanks of Terracotta, 3 hanks of Vivid Turquoise, 4 hanks of Chocolate Brown, and 4 hanks of Olive. I covered the pots with a black trashbag and left them in the direct sun (85 degrees F today) all afternoon. When I'm finished posting, I will go and rinse the yarn in vinegar and hang it to dry.


"What," you ask, "are you planning to do with this yarn?"


" Why," I reply, "I don't have the faintest idea."

Check back in a day or so to see if the yarn has Revealed Its Purpose...


That's it for today. This is Miss Me reminding you to... Knit Like You Mean It!

I've called in the Calvary!

Today was a good day, design-wise. I've gotten no knitting done at all, but I did get the pattern for Shirley (see previous post for pics) completely done and sent to a proofer! I've also put a call for help out to the folks in my favorite online knitting group asking for beta testers for the pattern. I can't actually put a link to the blog or post a picture, so volunteers will be expressing interest in a project that haven't actually seen yet. Not sure I would respond that myself, but here's hoping their curiousity will be peaked.

I will be getting the other two bag patterns, Julia and Jodie finished in the next day or so. I'm ready to start teaching these! They are so much fun to do...

Smiley just called from the 16th hole and is ready for Miss Me to head for the golf course to taxi him home. I'll be back shortly to start posting my teaching schedule for August...

My first post!

Hi! Welcome to Miss Me Knits. Not surprisingly, I am Miss Me. One could probably describe me as a Serial Crafter (a large club, I know). I have always been driven to make things and have, over the years, delved deeply into quilting, clay, stained glass, mosaics, beadmaking, beading, dyeing fabric and yarn, crocheting, and (most recently and, apparently, permanently) knitting. As you will come to find out as we get to know each other over the coming weeks and months, knitting has led me to some very profound experiences in the past few years and more than a few really good friends.

This will be a short post as I stumble around while learning How To Blog. For now, I just wanted to say hello and post a picture so you will have an idea of what is to come in the way of my patterns and ideas. Therefore, please meet my latest designs, Miss Me Knits Bags. The first one is "Julia."

The second one is"Jodie."

I am in the process of packaging both patterns and kits for each bag and ordering information will be here on the blog. I will be posting patterns frequently, so please subscribe so you don't miss new pattern announcements!

See you soon!

Miss Me