Fall Is Here - Really, It Is

They say that it's finally autumn.  I'm working on getting ready. 

Some time back my family got me a sweaters worth of purple yarn in colorway "Thistle" from Brooklyn Tweed.

A some knitters love this yarn, and others hate it with a passion (the controversy!).

I for one am on the fence.  It looks amazing.  It knits up well and felts like a champion for easy felted or "spit splice" joins from one yarn ball to the next.

There is a truck load of VM or "veg matter" in the yarn which is a little annoying when you knit with it.  This stuff is basically little pieces of hay.  I don't know if they just use lower quality wool, or wool where it was not skirted properly, but there is certainly something going on there that is irritating at best.

The yarn also breaks very easily which is something people in general don't like.  I have not broken the yarn yet (!!) when I wasn't trying to, so for me it's not an issue but I don't yank on it very hard either.

That said, the sweater will probably be very sharp looking.  The color is amazing and the knit fabric is beautiful  I'm knitting a Cookie A pattern called Chicane which is sort of a motorcycle jacket / sweater.  I'm a long ways away from finishing it, but there are lots of soccer games on the weekends so it's not out of the question to want to wear it sometime this season.

In stitching news, I have brought back my hexagon quilt made out of Oakshott fabrics because it is portable.  I didn't realize how close to being complete it is.  I am excited and thinking putting a fork in it is also in order.

Playing around with Inkodye

Inkodye is a product that uses light sensitive ink to make an image on fabric.

I've seen some cool and creative uses of it lately and the colors of their dyes look very bright and cheery.

I got a starter kit to play around with the blue ink.  I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I'm armed with some t-shirts and some (expensive) transparency film that can be sent through my printer.  

I'm not sure how archival this ink is but it looks like it would stay a long time.  I want to try it on some shirts and wash them a bunch to see if they fade a lot before I try it on a quilt.

It might be good to try on a small project like a bag or something too.

I'll keep you posted on how it all turns out.  It seems like a much easier alternative to screen printing.  It comes in less colors and costs more for the inks but requires way less equipment and clean up so it might be an interesting trade off.  Given you don't have to purchase all the screens, it is certainly cheaper to get started.

Now all I have to do is start. Stay tuned!