Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Sun Dyed Yarn, Fair Spinning, Knitting with Friends, Fleece Washing...

O.K. The Pickle Jar sat on the counter taunting me to do something with it. Finally 4 packs of Kool Aid was added, 2 strawberry lemonade and 2 plain lemonade. Then about an inch of vinegar and water and mixed the whole thing with a vigorous shake. The final item, a lovely skein of superwash/nylon sock yarn, was put in and the cover closed tightly again. Out to the yard to ferment/cook it went. After 2 days and an occasional check to see how it was doing, I emptied the jar. I knew superwash would take the color differently than fiber or regular wool. Here's the results. I'm calling it "Unripe Watermelon" because it reminds me of the part right near the rind after the white.

my kool aid sundyed yarn unripe watermelon 2 my kool aid sundyed yarn unripe watermelon 1

I brought it to knit night last Tuesday at Sue's shop and to craft night at Panera on Wednesday. It also traveled to the Foster Old Home Days with me on Friday and Saturday. Now, it's so tired from riding around, I'm letting it sit and rest in the house.

Speaking of Foster, I had a great time spinning on the Sonata in the Spinners' Tent. I managed to Navajo ply my third bobbin of Corriedale and it's getting better. There's a discussion on Ravelry that it should be called chain plyed not Navajo. I don't know. I'm just learning the technique and can call it whatever is preferred. I also managed to start spinning some of my DkKnits fiber. It's coming so fine and thin, making me very happy.

There's been a few more people joining the Wednesday night group at Panera. We have a wonderful group and always have a great time. Some people haven't been in a while and they are missed.

The current knitting projects are still the Butterfly Socks and the Swallowtail Shawl. I had trouble wrapping my head around picking up stitches with the provisional cast on. I got the chain and those stitches fine. The problem was undoing the chain and picking up there. I decided to do the optional regular cast on and will sit down and learn the provisional later. I'm on repeat 10 of the 14 bud repeats. So far it's an easy pattern, but I know the lily of the valley part is the real challenge. Another Traveling Scarf arrived yesterday, and I'm going to work on that tonight at a local concert near the water.

Today is fleece washing day. Right now, I've washed the Santa Cruz fleece in the buckets in the back yard. The 2 mesh bags are currently in the washer for the rinse cycle. I don't like to do the wash in the machine because of all the grease/lanolin going down the pipes. I did 3 washes because this was a very high grease fleece. It will get at least 2 more rinses, possibly 3 before it's put on screens to dry. Right now, it's snow white and feels so soft, even though it's very wet. Time to go drain the washer..........

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice job on the kool-aid dyeing. I really like the way it turned out - it's a great color.