Painting Bricks

I love Stephen West's work.  His colors are so bright, happy and sometimes unexpected.  During quarantine I bought two of his recent patterns, Fantastitch and Painting Bricks.  I came home, as I still didn't have internet and had driven to the mailbox to check on IG and email, and printed out my new patterns.  Painting Bricks only printed 2 pages.  On the bottom of the second page it said that a Slip Stitch along would be starting April 3 and the pattern would be released just before that.  The 2 pages contained the yardage, needle and gauge info.

Another KAL?  Sure why not, what else is there to do?

So I got to work finding yarn.  My stash of DK weight wool is very small.  I gave away all of my acrylic and that is no longer an option with my allergy any way.  I didn't have enough for a main color in fingering but I had these balls of Classic Elite Water Spun in white that had been given to me.  I had time to dye them, but will it be enough?  The pattern calls for a size 7 needle and I had just finished another project with this yarn and that needle size so I knew they would go well together.

I decided to just go for it.  I dyed one ball of each of 6 contrasting colors.  That left me 6 balls for the main color, black.

Though it was a bit early in the year, I solar dyed these yarns in the back yard.

I put the black yarn in a large pot and put it out to set as well.

 
The sun proved to not be hot enough yet to fully set the dye and I had to finish the colors in the microwave and the black on the stove.

 
The yarn is discontinued, but it is a single ply yarn that is slightly felted.  It didn't take the dye the way Merino wool usually does that there was a lot of dye left in the jars when the was done.

I used M and Ms to figure out how I wanted to order my colors.

Then I cast on.  At first it went quickly.  It didn't take long though for the rows to become long and I was only able to finish 4 of them in an evening.

As I approached then end it became apparent that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to finish the entire piece.  I had already had to substitute some orange for the red I ran short of.  I wanted to be able to work the I-cord bind off and the black was getting low.  I made the decision to finish short of all the repeats and ended with this much pink remaining.

I did the next 4 rows in black and then worked the I-cord bind off.  The piece came out plenty big enough.  I did not finish in time to be included in the KAL that was on Ravelry but I am so very happy with the finished piece.

I often have about a dozen projects going at one time.   I understand that for most people that is very overwhelming.  I look at my knitting projects as T.V. shows.  With the capability to binge watch almost anything I understand spending the whole day on one show, however I don't think most people do.  I watch very little T.V.  We have a T.V. that is hooked up to a DVD player and that is all.  No antenna or cable here.  Even with the internet now we haven't subscribed to anything like Netflix and have no plans to.  There is little time for T.V. for my hubby and I.  Most of my time is spent knitting, crocheting, spinning or prepping for one of those.  What do I do while I sit and...  I listen to audio books and podcasts mostly.  In the evening, after dark and my hubby can't see well enough to work outside or it has gotten too cold we will watch a couple of episodes of shows we have on DVD.

For me to sit and make all day in front of the T.V. would be tedious, as I would often be pushing the pause button to that I can count.  I do that with my audio too.

I don't work that same project for more than about an hour each day.  Not every project is worked everyday or even every week.  I have a project that I work on during a certain book club book each month, another during my morning Bible study podcast, one for loading screens when working on the computer, another one, idiot work while making dinner and then whatever I choose for the evening.  Still other projects for the car and during church or in person Bible study.  Varying my projects is part of the reason I am able to make for so many hours a day.



I have decided not to become a creator on Patreon at this point.  I feel the Lord is leading me in a different direction at the moment.


I did get the third installment of my Can't Stop, Won't Stop up on YouTube today.

In the next week or so I will be looking for test knitters for a sock pattern I've been working on.  Watch here and on IG if you would like to take part.

I have finished updating all of my patterns available in my Ravelry store, my projects on my page and the Ravelry group that host.

I hope that your summer is off to a decent start.  I know so much looks very different now, and it will for a while.  Be flexible and you shall not be broken.

Until next time...

Happy making!