Wet and Blocked

I finally finished my kitted Vonica sweater. It didn't take me a year which I am really proud of. There really is a distinct difference between a wool garment right after you knit it and after you wet block it. Looking up various tutorials for blocking, I found the most helpful to be the Youtube videos by Knitpicks. That seemed appropriate to me since I used their blocking boards to block my sweater. The only downside was that I did not buy enough interlocking pieces for the size of my project. I'll probably need another set for future large projects.

Here are the tutorials I used:

Dyeing to Dye

I've recently learned to spin but rather than buy colored wool roving I've decided to buy a bunch that is undyed and neutral colored so that I can learn to dye. Learning to dye is also exciting because I love playing with color and the thought of having custom colored yarn is too tempting. This is my first attempt at dying my own wool roving:

I've looked at various home dying tutorials but one of my favorites was on YouTube by a user named jennscharf. Her video shows how to simply dye the wool roving by placing it in a metal turkey pan, pouring vinegar water over it and then dripping food coloring and blending with a fork. Then you bake it in the oven for a couple hours. (Please check out the YouTube video for exact instructions.) I tried this process and am really pleased with the results.

Vonica oh my Vonica

I started knitting this sweater last year and I am proud to say I've made fantastic progress on it. all that I have left to do is the right sleeve and I am so close to being done with that.

Unfortunately due to a miscalculation I ran out of yarn before I finished the last sleeve. Not to fear though, it's a fairly common yarn and I know just where to get it (Jimmy Beans Wool). I have also found that my cats love my sweater as much as I do (or at least the yarn) since I have on several occasions found them either laying on it or found the ball of yarn hopelessly tangled all over the living room. I try to always put it away where they can't get it, but I sometimes forget and almost always regret it the next day. So far I've been able to salvage it each time, but I am definitely ready for this project to be done.