Friday, March 13, 2009

Testing Vanilla

Vanilla soakerJust plain Vanilla

My latest FO - a small 10ply Vanilla soaker.

Vanilla is a soaker pattern designed to be simple with its seamless and graft free construction. It's the brain child of my dear friend Kelly who is one of those clever "thinking" knitters and this is her latest pattern that's just been released on Ravelry. You can buy your copy here.

I was very happy to give her pattern a little test knit. A very fun and quick knit using a pattern that has great explanations, notes and links to new techniques. The pay pattern covers sizes NB to XL in 8, 10 and 12ply so it would be a great one to cover all the bases.


Even though just plain vanilla is (one of) my favourite icecream flavours, I decided the soaker needed a little va-voom so I dip dyed it using Wilton's cake dyes (Pink Terracotta). So now it's a not just plain vanilla soaker (maybe raspberry flavour now?).

P3140791P3140790

This was my first attempt at dip dyeing (which I think I didn't quite master but at least I know what not to do for next time!). The yarn I used was John Q Mia - angora/cashmere/corn/silk/alpaca/merino/acrylic ...a bit like frankenyarn! But it is lovely and soft and dyed well so in that I'm pretty pleased.

This is too small for my nappy girl so I'm going to send it off to a friend up north for her baby girl #4 who she is expecting later this year.

Thanks Kelly for another great little pattern xx

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooooooo how lucky am I! I can't wait to see it IRL. The colours look gorgeous :D Thank you!

Anonymous said...

I think your dye job is wonderful. What a beautiful wee gift for a new bubby

Heart Felt said...

That colour is just delicious! Great job....xx

Jo's Place said...

That dye job looks fantastic. I must purchase that pattern for myself :)

Anonymous said...

Ooh, I love the dip dyed effect, it's so pretty! I used to use felt soakers for my babies; even though I knitted lots of things for them, soakers never occured to me!

Anonymous said...

Very interesting - what type of yarn (wool? cotton?) do you use for the soaker, as it will have to be washed frequently - and is it poss in the washingmachine? Thanks for the dye-tips. Lies

Aunt Kathy said...

I spotted that on Ravelry this weekend. I wish i had known about these when my kids were babies.

Mary said...

Love the dye job. The color came out wonderful!

Unknown said...

Love the colour of these, I am holding off buying the pattern until I have finished a few other projects (like the soaker I started last year that is still waiting for ribbing on the legs...). Your photos are lovely, I need to put some on my blog.

hanna said...

I'm so jealous of your knitting skills. The cardi's, the hats, the jerseys. All so lovely. And the very cute soakers. I so need some more of these. With my slow knitting though I think I shall have to make some out of some old jerseys.

Missynay said...

Could you tell me where I can learn about dip dyeing? Your soaker looks just beautiful.