The Charity Auction!!!

***The auction is closed, thanks so much to the lovely bidders! Email me at lachesisandco@gmail.com with your mailing addresses and I will tell you how to donate and get your pretties on the way!! ***

Here's how it going to work - below I will be posting pictures along with the name and description of the item and the opening bid amount.  All of the items have been hand-knit and designed by me :)  The bidding will remain open until Tuesday evening at 8 pm EDT.

To place a bid, put the name of the item and the amount you are bidding in the comments (at the bottom of this post), bidding will be in increments of $5 (USD).  You may bid as many times and on as many items as you want.  The highest bid when the auction closes will be the winner and I will contact you with the information on where to send your donation.

You may donate by check, credit or debit card and all donations are tax deductible.  Proceeds from this auction will be going to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on behalf of one of my current Team in Training participants. I will pay all the shipping to get your carefully hand knit items to you and I will also include care instructions.



Sweet Shoppe Shawlette - a small triangular shawlette/scarf made from 100% merino wool yarn in bright candy colors, it measures 50" across the top and is 23" deep, additional photos here.  Bidding begins at $40.
 



Small Belmondo Shawlette - a small triangular shawlette/scarf made from 100% baby merino wool yarn, it measures 41" across the top and is 21" deep. Additional photos here. Bidding begins at $35.




Medium Belmondo Shawlette - a small triangular shawlette/scarf made from 100% baby merino wool yarn, it measures 45" across the top and is 24" deep. Additional photos here. Bidding begins at $35.




Spun Sugar Scarf - a lacy scarf made from super soft 100% merino wool yarn. Additional photos here.  Bidding begins at $30.




Snowberry Brambles Capelet - A snuggly little capelet to keep the cold air off your shoulders knit in a 70% wool and 30% alpaca blend yarn.  Additional photos here.  Bidding begins at $50.




Fondant Wrap - a versatile wrap tied up with a bow that can be worn in a variety of ways, made from 100% wool yarn.  Additional photos here. Bidding begins at $35.




Hesperides Shawl - a large triangular shawl/wrap with lacy stripes, measures 68" across the top and 34" deep, made from super soft 100% merino wool.  Additional photos here. Bidding begins at $75.




Amalthea - a scarf/wrap with a fringed leaf design along the edge, measures 66" by 9.5" and is made from a 51% silk and 49% merino wool blend yarn. Additional photos here. Bidding begins at $50.




Elisa - a large shawl/wrap, measures 70" by 23" and is made from a 51% silk and 49% merino wool blend yarn.  Additional photos here. Bidding begins at $75.

A huge thanks for stopping by and helping us raise money to fight blood cancers and continue to hopefully one day find a cure for all cancers!  If you would just like to donate because you are awesome ♥ here is a link to donate online. ♥ ♥ ♥

Its been awhile...

I admit, I have been a little lazy the past two weeks!  After finishing up the eBook, I just needed a little break from everything!  There were a few days where I had absolutely no idea what to do with myself...and I just couldn't decide what project I wanted to work on.  At the time I had one design languishing on the needles and a few sketches that I was really excited to start swatching for. 

Of course, after I got the swatches done, I decided just to swatch some different colors of tosh sport together.  I have ridiculous amounts of this yarn, but all in two or three skein quantities that I had just been buying to try to find colors that would stripe well ala treeline. Before you know it, I had two large swatches in 4 colors of reverse stockinette stripes and a sweater sketch.  Now I have almost a full sweater body.  Here is a peek at the swatches:



I am aiming high and trying to finish it within the next week - week and a half.  Currently, I am coaching two marathon teams and I am also marathon training myself, so I don't have quite as much knitting time as I usually do!  In a few weeks, though, my one team will be done and on their way to run in the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon. 

I love coaching for Team in Training and working with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and as one season come to a close, I am going to be helping out a bit with the fundraising.  If you like original hand knit accessories in wonderful fibers, keep an eye on the blog this weekend!  I'll be posting items to bid on...so you'll get to help fund blood cancer research through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and help support a member of my marathon team and you'll get something made by me in return for your help!

It's DONE!!!

So...I was going to wait until Monday to release the eBook, but I was too excited to wait!  All the editing and formatting was finalized this morning and I spent all afternoon in agony.  Really, how on earth was I going to make it through the whole weekend?!?  I gave into my inner child and published it this evening...may I present:





The eBook is available for $16.50 and the individual pdf patterns are available for $6.00 in my Ravelry store.

I am so proud of this collection and I hope you all enjoy it!

Sneak Peek: The Mermaid's Gift

mermaid1, a photo by LachesisandCo. on Flickr.

Here is a quick look at the final design for the eBook! I am so happy with the results and can't wait to wrap everything up and release it into the world next week. Stay tuned, I'll be posting a preview of the cover image within the next day or two!

Back, but not really.

Whew...I made it back from vacation just over a week ago with a ton of work to be finished on the pattern collection.  I had a great time, but my nose has been down to the grindstone since I got back...hence the lack of posts on my part.

So, the Mermaid's gift has been driving me batty and in a fit, I decided to change the design and start over from scratch.  This was after the original was already 85% done.  Once the new idea came to me, though, I knew it would be so much better than the original and that I would be happier writing the pattern for version 2.0 than settling for the first one because I was on a time crunch.

I also just finished the sample for the two-color version of Elisa.  This was another last minute change, and I just love the way the design looks in both the solid color and the smaller version with two colors.  The contrast really shows off the curves the lace creates!  Here is a quick shot with the help of one of my dogs, Roxy:



If all goes well, the collection will be ready for release next Monday and with all the loose ends that need to be tied you may not hear from me until then!  I will try to get a sneak peek of the final photos up before Monday, though!

Sneak Peek: Elisa

In Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans, Elisa is a beautiful princess with eleven brothers. When her brothers are cursed and turned into swans, she takes a vow of silence and must knit them shirts from stinging nettles to return them to human form...This was always one of my favorite fairytales, and I remember being so taken with it the first time I heard it. I had been on a great search recently to find it again after I had forgotten the name of the story. I love wikipedia…all I knew was that it involved knitting and nettles…and I was able to find the beloved story!

So here is the shawl that the story inspired:

 

The double sided lace comes from Babara Walker's Second Treasury and I was inspired to adapt it for this project since it was named "Porcupine Lace." A prickly name and an interesting pattern to resemble the nettles. I have a smaller, two-color version in the works, that will show off the wonderful curves in the lace even more.



This is shown in Malabrigo Silky Merino...obviously nothing at all like knitting with stinging nettles!  I did find out today that Classic Elite makes a yarn with nettles: Woodland. Pretty amazing, right?! Even though my stash is spilling out of its closet, I may just have to grab some to knit yet another Elisa, I mean that would be totally fitting.  Plus the fiber content, weight and sheen would work quite well for this pattern. 

I will be away for a bit, so don't think I am abandoning you!  Just going on a nice long vacation, in the Florida Keys ♥

Live like you were dyeing...

I really need more hobbies like a hole in the head...but I have been wanting to learn how to dye my own yarn for ages.  Most things I usually just jump in with both feet, but not this.  I have spent the past few months reading every dyeing forum on Ravelry and going through the guide I got (World of Color) with my Greener Shades beginner kit obsessively.  I couldn't decide which method I wanted to start out with, what equipment I wanted to use and how much dye stock I should mix up.  This is funny since I used to whip up a batch of candles, soap or mineral make-up on a whim...but I was just so afraid of ruining my yarn!

Anyway I finally did it!  First I got some natural color Red Heart: Heart and Sole yarn...so absolutely no guilt if it came out horrible!  I decided to go with a kettle dyed/immersion for the first batch, using quart mason jars in a turkey roasting pan with a rack on the bottom so the jars weren't in contact with the bottom of the pan.  I wound the yarn into 7 - ~7gm mini skeins and used 4 figure eight ties on each to prevent tangling.  Next, the mini skeins soaked in warm tap water with a drop or two of Dawn dish soap for about 2 hours.

While the yarn was soaking, I mixed up some stock solutions.  Since I had enough jars, I mixed every color all at 1% depth of shade (DOS) or 1 gm dye powder to 100 mL of water. I have a pretty good scale from my soap and candle making days, so that came in handy for weighing out the dye powder.  After every color was mixed, I wrung out the soaked yarn and began to prepare my set up.

Once all of the jars were in place, and filled with about 3 cups warm tap water, I added the dye.  I have a ton of 3 mL pipettes, which were extremely helpful for measuring the small amounts of dye stock needed for my mini skeins, as most were done at .2% DOS, requiring only a mL or 2 of each color.  After the dye was added and stirred, the yarn went in.



I heated the jars of yarn and dye until they were approx. 175 degrees F and held at that temp for 10 min.  Then I added approx. 1/4 tsp of citric acid crystals to each jar and stirred well.  I upped the heat and waited 5 mins to see if the dyes exhausted.  All of them, but the Hot Fuchsia and the blends with Coral Reef Aqua had exhausted.  So I added more citric acid those colors, approx. 1/8 tsp every 5 min until the dye had exhausted.



Next I added an overydye, Midnight Black (at .05% DOS) or Silver Gray (at .5% DOS).  I learned the hard way that you shouldn't add it undiluted directly on top of the yarn as it will strike extremely fast!  So I moved the yarn to the side of the jar, and mixed the dye stock with a few TBSP of hot water from the dye bath before adding it.   I was very pleased with the results, a lovely "shaded" look.  I let the yarn cook for another 10 min at 180 degrees F, then took the jars out of the roasting pan to allow them to cool.  The Hot Fuchsia and Coral Reef Aqua needed a bit more time and higher temps, so I let them hang out for 10 mins longer and heat to about 210 degrees F.



From top to bottom:

• Jacquard Silver Gray @ 1% DOS
• Greener Shades 55% Ruby Red, 20% Yellow, 25% River Blue @ .2% DOS overdyed with Silver Gray @ .5% DOS (this is the one I added the overdye directly on top of the yarn and it came out a bit splotchy)
• Jacquard Hot Fuchsia @ .2% DOS overdyed with GS Midnight Black @ .05% DOS
• GS 65% Coral Reef Aqua, 35% Ruby Red @ .5% DOS overdyed with Midnight Black @ .05% DOS
• GS 55% River Blue, 45% Amethyst Purple @ .2% DOS overdyed with Silver Gray @ .5% DOS
• GS 80% River Blue, 20% Amazon Green @ .2% DOS overdyed with Sliver Gray @ .5% DOS
• GS Coral Reef Aqua @ .2% DOS overdyed with Midnight Black @ .05% DOS
  

So I am super psyched with how the yarn came out!  As soon as the eBook is finished, I am going to go on a crazy week long yarn dying bender!