Lady Purl Designs

I can't believe I never posted this, but a LONG while back I got a sock blank from KnitPicks and dyed it all pretty with a bunch of Jacquard dyes and Kool-Aid. These were my results:  I wanted to paint a design, but at the same time keep it simple. Stars worked well.  The lightest blue was Blue Raspberry Kool-Aid.  Then I used Jacquard Dye color Peacock.  And then ended it with Jacquard Dye color black.  These are the finished socks after knitting them up with the pattern Anastasia Socks . The color faded slightly in the steaming of the blank process, and the red and purple stars just came up as random stripes, but their pretty awesome socks in person. I want to do it again!

I've made so many new things that I think I'll just let the pictures do the talking :} I. Am. A. Geek.

So, I haven't posted in forever and a day. I would open up my site thoughtfully, look back at things I did months ago and think about all the crafts I've done since then and think, "I should update this," then I remember other stuff I have going on and think, "I'm too busy," and mosey on. IT"S TIME TO UPDATE! Anyway, I've been cross stitching a lot lately. I love it. Here's some of my newest stuffs: Work in progress and the finished piece. The Aztec Tomb! G.O.B. is my boyfriend! Actually this is a gift for my boyfriend for his birthday. He's a huge Arrested Development fam and quotes it daily, sometimes hourly.

So here's Tarquin's story. Tarquin was created for my friend Trixie. Shortly after being born off the needles he had to explore. Little baby Tarquin is a very curious little octopus. The first thing he had to do was meet Mr. Squid. I thought Mr. Squid took a liking to Tarquin right off the bat, but it turned out that his "sweet and innocent hug" was really a ploy to eat poor lil' Tarkie. So I quickly rescued him. Mr. Squid has yet to comment about his actions, but I can only assumed he's ashamed of himself. Tarquin, getting a taste for danger, decided to take a walk on the wild side. Here's a picture I snapped of him just as he was stealing my monies. He then ventured into my roommate's art project and decided to recite some Shakespeare. He quickly realized that he was in fact an octopus and having just been born had not yet learned Shakespeare. This saddened him. "Wherefore art... where the hell am I? Is this stage made of styrofoam?!" Resig...

I've been busy of late, which often prevents me from posting on here, but usually doesn't prevent me from knitting. Because if knitting is good for anything, it's to procrastinate another project or responsibility. I'm even doing it right now! The story behind this dog sweater is that his owners, my former professors, and their son named him Jean-Luc Piccard Colbert (lol, I can't make this up). So... I could not resist. Jean-Luc and his owners were very pleased with the results :D. This morning my friend and I had a "dying party" in which we dyed a bunch of yarn. I had made a yarn order that I had planned to use today, but it hasn't come in yet. Next post though (!) I will be dying. :} This was a little mini skien to practice on. We wanted to see the effects of kool-aid and some of the dye that she had. I used Blue Raspberry Lemonade Kool-Aid, Peacock dye, and Jade Green dye. The Kool-Aid ended up really light blue, but I liked that variation. I though...

I had a really fun birthday this week. Got my hair did, had some margaritas, got some fun gifts, and hung out with some wonderful people. It was a great time all around. I bought this yarn as a early birthday present for myself and was able to finish these socks in a little over a week, just in time for my big day. They're "Express Lane" on Ravelry and super easy. I memorized the pattern after one repeat. * *Damn it's hard to take a picture of your socks by yourself :P

It's been far too long. I keep thinking, I'll post as soon as I'm knitting something I can publish... then I start designing another project that I want to send out. Rules for publications are generally that you can't pre-publish/self-publish any of your work, not the pattern, not any pictures, and I really didn't even want to post stash shots in case it would get me in trouble, lol. So, I have been knitting, it's just... work related, and therefore confidential until publication. I'm sending one pattern out in April, and should hear back from them shortly after if I get into their Fall Issue. It's exciting but makes for meager post material :D ANYWAY. Something I can give you folks, as a consolation prize, is a FREE PATTERN to my Tassel Ta-Tas. A friend asked me to write this up, and I had a few to make to donate to a raffle, so I noted my process. Hope you enjoy! Tassel Ta-Tas Needles: 4 DPNS Size #5. Yarn: MC= Flesh Colored Yarn, I used Simply Soft (n...