Thursday, August 06, 2009

Happy Birthday Sasha!

I hear tell that the baby that this surprise is for has arrived! One of my knitting group members spend a good part of last year knitting Baby Surprise jackets for math colleagues of her husband. (Well, their babies, anyhow.) So when Jodie, April and I heard that she was expecting a wee one, we plotted and schemed.

April and I bicycled over to Jodie's house with a basket of merino top (washed, carded, and combed fiber) dripping vinegar. Jodie had some dyes mixed up already (Jaquard acid dyes), and we mixed a few more colors as well. We tested the colors out on a paper towel, and fiddled around until we got some good colors that we all agreed on. Then came my favorite part: squirting dye onto the roving with squeeze bottles, the kind that burger joints put ketchup and mustard in. Jodie then wrapped the dyed roving in plastic wrap and steamed it in one of her dye kettles.


We then spun a few reference samples, went our separate ways, and spun up the fiber at home. Jodie and I spun very close to the same weight, April had a bit thicker yarn. We used Jodie's and my yarn for the jacket, and April made a matching hat from her yarn.

Dyed, spun, what comes next? Knitting! Jodie cast on the sweater, April knitted next, and I finished it up. April had picked up these buttons years ago while living in London (or maybe Toronto, I forget) and didn't know that she'd been saving them all these years for this project. The grain lines on the wooden buttons echo the stripes on the sweater.

Back view:


Fantastic, no? We entered the jacket in the Black Sheep Gathering Fiber Arts show, in the group projects division, and garnered a blue ribbon. (So did the other project in the category, but this wasn't due to grade inflation, just appreciation for the group creative process.)

Photographed against a wool blanket that we bought last year at the BSG.