When working with yarn that might bleed, you’re going to want to wash it before you knit to make sure it isn’t going to bleed AFTER you’ve wrestled with it for eons.


Here’s the back story on that priceless tip:
I WAS thrilled with the Vanessa socks and gave them a quick cold bath (I’d let the water sit for a day so it would be cool since it is like 105 degrees out and my tap water is warm). While taking them out of slightly brown water they’d been in less than 5 minutes, I hoped/prayed the yellow would be less green when they dried and tried to ignore the sick feeling in my stomach. No such luck. The colors next to the yellow bled and there was a darkish stain down the middle. I resisted a frustrated cry and wrapped the less than satisfactory socks up for Turtle.
God bless her, she opened them and exclaimed over them like they were the Sistine Chapel. Only a day later when I mentioned the stain during the photo shoot did she even acknowledge it. She agreed that if she didn’t crease them on that line when she washed them, the stain might fade. I offered to overdye them so they’d be semi-solid but she declined, declaring that she still loved them which made me feel worlds better. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why she is now the proud owner of a second pair of socks knit by yours truly.

I delivered the Rainbow Vanessa Socks to Turtle and was happy to spend some quality time with her clan.

Knit socks also make great hats.

I also had a lovely time playing Marco Polo in the pool with my brother and nephews and niece. The gray socks fit my niece; I was so pleased to find them a home with someone I love enough to give hand knit socks to….and it healed my heart to have them go to someone that knows and loves my dad (the intended recipient).

The niece may have a future in sock modeling.

I felt like a genius for coming up with this pattern (Vanessa antiopa Socks) and colorway pairing and getting them to play nice… until I reached the heel. After turning the heel, yarn started pooling in a Kermit-like manner on top of the sock (a lot of green). (note: I gave up on the dpn’s with this pattern and switched to circular needles – there was some laddering and I finally decided it was not worth it.)



Once I got down to 66 stitches, the color pooling started to behave itself a bit better and things were once again chugging along…..until I realized that I did not actually read the pattern and was supposed to have continued row ONE of the chart all the way through the gusset decreases. Well, crap.



I must frog. This makes me think of Kermit again.



Ok. Row one ’til I finish the decreases. check. Now, onto the foot AND the rest of the chart. In spite of the false starts, I still think these socks are a quick fun knit.

Mine raveled here

To see what others are working on, check out:
Tami’s Amis
Small Things (I finished reading Outlander – I rather enjoyed it. At some point, I’ll dive into the sequel.)
Frontier Dreams