So yesterday, or was it the day before, well anyway I did a lot of reading on craftster on dying yarn, mainly with kool-aid. I'm so tempted to buy some natural wool yarn from knitpicks and try to dye some myself. I think it would be a lot of fun and I could make some cool color combinations. And really, how rewarding would it be to have an article made from yarn that you specifically made the colors for it. But I managed to fend of my craving to buy, which is good seeing as I don't have much money after the holidays and I do have a ton of yarn and projects to work on already.
Today with my freetime I've been going a step farther into the world of spinning. To actually spin your own yarn from raw materials, dye it, and knit something up well that would be the ultimate do-it-yourself, handmade product. Although that seems like it would be a ton of work and probably pretty expensive. Although I believe that wool isn't too expensive although I guess it depends on what kind of sheep it comes from. I did grow up with sheep nextdoor and even helped sheer them, but they were not wool sheep not like merinos. And those neighbors still have a few sheep I think maybe I could beg them for the wool when they sheer them in the summer. The schemeing has begun already. But once again it's a matter of do I really want to put that much time and effort into it? Will it really be worth it? I'm happy enough with my store bought yarn and if I really wanted some funky handspun yarn I guess I could buy it online, it just seems so expensive compared to store bought yarn. But I know that more effort went into making it. I've already been pining for some handspun, handdyed yarn I saw on etsy. But I will resist the urge to buy. I must, I have too many projects on my plate as it is.
For the Vogue Aran top, I've gotten as far as decreasing for the arm area of the sweater so only a few more inches and then I can whip up the sleeves and throw this baby together. I can't wait! I hope it fits and looks ok. I always seem to have a problem with making sweaters fit correctly, I think it's the fact that I'm too lazy to actually knit up a 4inch swatch for a gauge check. Usually I only knit like and inch and say well that's good enough. After I'm finished I'm planning on starting the pinwheel sweater, I think. Oh and I've got to work on making more of those crocheted flowers for the scarf as well. So much to do and yet I still want to do so much more.