fluormania-3I finished my Regia Fluormania socks a couple of days ago. Since this batch of Regia yarn has been known to have dye bleeding problems, I immediately did a citric acid dye fix recommended by The Knitmore Girls. I am still on bed rest, but it is not super strict bed rest and I am able to do small things in the house like getting snacks or water and going to the bathroom. Pouring water into a bowl and using the microwave seemed like an acceptable task…

fluormaniaFor these socks I did two cycles of the dye fix and followed up with an additional soak in some Eucalan wool wash. There was still a little color in the water after both dye fixes and soaks, but I thought surely two treatments will do the trick. If not, I guess I’ll have some color fading, but for now this is the best I can do. Maybe when I’m off bed rest before I wash these for real (likely next fall when it’s cool enough to wear them), I can do a third dye fix just to be safe.

I learned about the color bleeding in this particular Regia colorway on The Knitmore Girls podcast. I’m a huge fan of Regia for their durability and crazy fun colorways. I’ve never heard of them having bleeding issues before, but I trust input from The Knitmore Girls and I was happy to have that information before I put these in the wash. The fun part of these socks is their crazy crazy bright color, so I want to preserve that if possible. fluormania-2There was a bit of bleeding during the jelly roll portion of the dye fix. If you want to know what the heck I’m talking about, check the bold link in the first paragraph for the dye fix instructions. I had woven in the top strand of yarn, but forgot to cut the strand before I rolled the socks up in plastic wrap and microwaved them. There is a faint vertical red line on one of the socks where an uncut red strand from one of the socks was pressed against the sock. I’ll be more careful next time I try this.

The socks are fraternal twins, since I wanted to maximize the amount of yarn I could use. There are probably 8 grams leftover. It’s not enough to make kid socks or even baby socks. I suppose I could have used every last bit, but I wanted something to be finished!

I’m still working on the Pinwheel baby blanket. I got to the addition of the third ball and took a break since it was getting monotonous. I’m not worried about finishing it by the time the baby comes because it will be warm out and I won’t be wrapping that kid up in wool anytime soon. I picked up my Breezy after a small break from it. While it’s cool enough I’ll be trying to finish it up. I know I won’t wear it this season, but it will be nice to have it finished. The weather here has been glorious and it’s making me resent bed rest, but it helped me remember a couple of spring/summer projects I should finish… I have a nearly done Linum Tee that will hopefully fit sometime this summer. I also have a Vitamin D that probably only needs a good couple of days’ work to finish. I’d like to get as many of these finished as possible so when I look at my Ravelry project page I don’t have a full top row filled with ongoing projects.

Whew, this is a long post. I’m still on bed rest and I haven’t been able to socialize as much as I like so this is a good outlet for now. Thanks for all the encouragement in the comments on my last post. Some of you ladies had MUCH more intense bed rest situations and that made me feel grateful for my situation and put things in perspective. My doctor told me that if I make it to 36.5 weeks I can get out of bed and resume light activities and leave the house. I’m about 35.5 now so I only have a week to go and I’m feeling better about it all the time. I’m really hopeful that I can make it that long without having the kiddo and I feel more confident every day that she is incubating as much as she needs and is growing well. I’ll keep up the knitting, reading, and Netflix in the meantime to stay entertained. I’ve had many friends stop by to socialize and bring needed items or treats and I’m very grateful to them. Having small doses of socialization through the week has made an immense difference in my mood and outlook and I’m so happy to have both supportive local and online friends. You all rock!

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