Just dyed in your arms tonight

My fingers are burnt and everything smells like Kool-aid, but my yarn is beautiful!

On the advice of Justin, I tried dyeing the handspun from my girlfriend's mom - well, one skein, if I botched it horribly I didn't want to ruin all of it. There was no botching, it turned out beautifully. But don't ask me, ask the yarn:

First I soaked the yarn for an hour with a little bit of dish soap, panicking every time I touched it that I was felting it.



Then I prepared the solution - evil scientist laugh is still coming along. Two old glass jars, three packages of Kool-aid each (grape and lemon-lime), and a splash of vinegar to help the dye set. Then I divided them half and half and put them both in the microwave.



To try and dye the middle section, I pulled it back and forth between the two jar every cycle. Microwave for two minutes, let it rest for three or four minutes, shift the yarn (using tongs, geez this was hot!)



When the water was almost clear (you can see the purple jar got blueish), I dropped the yarn in the basket of the salad spinner and rinsed it out. I thought it would be running like crazy, but the water ran clear from the first drop. I took it for a spin to get the last bit of water out and hung it to dry in the basement. I would have put it out on the back deck to get some sun, if it hadn't been pouring rain all day.



It dried overnight, and smells so strongly of Kool-aid. Not really like any specific flavour of Kool-aid, but just that general juicey smell that reminds me of summer camp. Remember the giant jugs of unidentified drink that never had quite enough flavouring or sugar in it to be identified? Yeah, that stuff.

So (drumroll please) the final result is gorgeous and funky and I love it. I just hope that the spinner loves it too, and doesn't think I'm adulterating her baby!






I am so happy with the result, definitely trying it again on the second skein. See if I can find some different colours of Kool-aid - it's so hard to find just the regular old packets of it any more! My choices were grape, lemon-lime, and cherry.

I think I've discovered a new yarn market niche - scratch'n'sniff.

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Announcement.

Tomorrow I make socks.

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Read to succeed

Drumroll please! There are only three, count 'em, three rows left on the Shetland Triangle. Then lace and I take a little break from this love affair we've been having and I think I'm going to make a Calorimetry. Or socks. Or Capitan Hat. I've gotten a bit of knitting done today, but I've been lounging about with a migraine and my house is poorly lit. Thus, no knitting with a migraine. I did, however, start reading The Friday Night Knitting Club. I bought it months ago, and my mother read my copy already, but I'm just now getting around to it. It is such unabashed chicklit that I feel like I need to go watch Love Actually immediately after finishing.

I'm enjoying it though. Unfortunately the plotline about the PhD candidate whose sweetie lives across the country and calls her "wifey" is cutting a little close right now and I've been sniffling for the last three chapters. There isn't as much actual knitting in it as I'd imagine. I can hear Professor Pretentious, my creative writing teacher, tearing it apart already in my head. I should write a knitting-related novel. After my curling-related novel and my vampires-in-Antigonish-related novel.

Speaking of novels, The Friday Night Knitting Club marks the start of my attack on the summer reading pile. I've got about five weeks and twenty-seven books to get through. Totally doable in my younger days, but I think I've hit my speedreading peak. The list this year is suitably eclectic, I like to think. While this baby is blocking, I'll have time to get cracking.

The list, in no particular order:

Third Time Lucky - Claire Cross
Time's Chariot - Ben Jeapes
The Black Thorne's Rose - Susan King
The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
Tempest in Time - Eugenia Riley
The Mutant Prime - Karen Haber
Mystery on the Isle of Skye - Phyllis A. Whitney
Sandwriter - Monica Hughes (okay, I've already read this one but I'm reading it again)
A Knight in Shining Armour - Jude Deveraux
Handcuffs - Bethany Griffen
Break No Bones - Kathy Reichs
Crystal Gorge (Book Three of the Dreamers) - David and Leigh Eddings
The Younger Gods (Book Four of the Dreamers) - David and Leigh Eddings
Druid's Sword - Sara Douglass
So You Want to Be a Wizard - Diane Duane
Deep Wizardry - Diane Duane
Bog Child - Siobhan Dowd
Barnaby Grimes: Curse of the Night Wolf - Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Best Lesbian Erotica 2008
Rumpole a la Carte - John Mortimer
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove - Christopher Moore
Island of the Sequined Love Nun - Christopher Moore
Practical Demonkeeping - Christopher Moore
The Valley of Horses - Jean M. Auel
The Mammoth Hunters - Jean M. Auel
The Plains of Passage - Jean M. Auel
The Shelters of Stone - Jean M. Auel

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Not-Dead Fred

Reports of my death by hideous accident involving two DPNs, a tub of cocoa butter, and three live chickens were . . . well, entirely made up. By me. Right now.



My girlfriend was here for two weeks. Thus, in lieu of knitting and internet there were copious makeouts and cuddles. We got out to Linda's stitch'n'bitch, though. The girlfriend crochets like a fiend, pictures of the adorable Cain and Glitch to come. I still have to knit them both weetiny coats to complete the look. And find Cain's hat. And to make something that isn't lace.

No FOs. No new WIPs. Barely any old WIPs. I feel lame and sad. But not at all, because cuddles! And yarn. The girlfriend's mom sent along two skeins of her handspun, which is waiting to be fondled, dyed, and fondled a little more. Cuddles!

Yes, I'm still floating, why do you ask?

I do, however, now have new blocking squares! Yay for the dollar store. I may need more. We will find out shortly.

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