Musings

About a week ago, I didn't have anything on the needles. Then I decided to cast on for another Festive pullover -- in KP Swish Superwash instead of acrylic. I'm going to restart it in a couple of days. After blocking it on the needles, I decided that I had knit it too loosely (It grew.) and have since frogged it, rinsed and dried the yarn to get rid of wrinkles in the yarn, and wound the yarn into a ball so I can start again.

But, I did decide what to do for my next pair of socks. I was feeling guilty that I hadn't done anything with any of the mystery patterns from the Sockamania Sockalong at Yahoo. Then it came to me how to incorporate 3 mystery patterns into a sock. My only problem was that I needed a fourth pattern for the sides of the insole. Gail posted another mystery pattern yesterday that will fit the bill. I'm not sure whether or not I'll actually make a sock with 4 different patterns, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I'm knitting from the toe up and wasn't going to use the other 2 patterns until I got to the leg.

Saturday, the Yahoo Bits and Bobs group (which I had joined to learn how to make tessellated fish and hadn't unjoined) announced a mystery pattern. It really is a mystery pattern. It wasn't even clear to me when I started making it what type of garment it was going to be. I just had the first few rows of the pattern, yarn weight, needle size, how much yarn to buy, and the fact that it needed a button. Wool-ease was on sale when I went to Michaels. And so, I'm making it with that -- which I'd never used before.

Finally, there was a discussion in another group whether a vinegar bath helps keep cotton from fading. The arguments that it doesn't sound convincing. (To set a dye on plant fiber, one uses a weak base. To set a dye on an animal fiber, one uses a weak acid.) However, I've only had 2 dishcloths fade on me. (The other 20 or so haven't.) One was a variegated pink and the other variegated dark green and purple. They were the only 2 dishcloths that I hadn't given a vinegar bath to in the step before blocking. So, I'm going to experiment on my next dishcloth -- the September one from the Yahoo Monthly Dishcloth group, which I'm knitting in orange. When I get it finished, I'm going to dip one corner in a vinegar bath and the opposite corner in a baking soda bath and see what happens.
-- I'm thinking that the fading may have something to do with vinegar being able to get soap and detergent out of washed clothes (and hair). (Soap and detergent, as well as tap water, are slightly alkaline.)