So, my friends, I've been busy. Too busy to post. Gave up buying yarn for Lent. (Crazy, I know) Also, I signed up for Sockapalooza. Again, crazy I know. I had no yarn suitable for my pal. I tried to buy some yarn off etsy, but it didn't seem right for her. Sooooo, I got my hands on some Knitpicks Dye-Your-Own and decided to try my hand at dying again. Shock of all shocks, I actually took pictures! I even cleaned the counter for the event!
Step 1: Gather supplies. For today's foray into dying we have a plastic mixing bowl, Knitpicks Dye-Your-Own (two skeins in case I utterly screw up the first), regular and neon food coloring, three glasses, and my giant jug of white vinegar. Please note how clean my counter is, Mom.
Step 2: Soak the skein in some tepid water. Looks like watery sketti, no?
Step 3: Mix the dyes. I have picked red, purple, and green for this run. Not sure what I'm hoping to get other than non-pastel. The pal isn't into pastels.
Step 4: Divide the skein up. I'm not even gonna comment on what this looks like. I want longish color repeats, but not really striping.
Step 5: Time for a dip. I'm afraid of muddying up the colors, so I put the glasses in the bowl, then a section of the yarn in each glass. I add more food coloring cause I'm worried about getting pastels. I covered the whole thing in plastic wrap, then zap it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. I added food coloring and rezapped several times, then finally went to bed while the stuff cooled.
Step 6: Drag yourself out of bed the next morning, turn on the coffee pot, and drag the yarn out of it's dyebath. Ingore strange looks from husband. (Shouldn't he be used to this kind of stuff by now?) Rinse yarn in cool water, take it out to balcony to dry. Congratulate yourself on not screwing up and goad yourself to hurry up, find a pattern, and get to knitting. You have less than two weeks left!
Let's start off our tour with a mermaid the Short One and I created in the largest sand box I have ever seen! Yes, she was destroyed seconds after this picture was snapped by what had to be a kid's size 8 tennis shoe to the tail.
After our mermaid was destroyed, S.O. decided to try her hand at a much smaller castle. All hail the sand castle mold!
Next we took a ride in a gondola over the Midway. She was all happy and enjoying the ride till I told her to look down.
A slightly blurry pic of the Midway courtesy of hubby's cell phone. But I digress. You came for knitting content, no? Well, I entered three things in the fair. Without further ado, here's how it turned out!
Here's a baby set I threw together at the last moment. Yes, the ugly yellow thing. Red ribbon!
Not knitted, but crocheted, my little star baby blankie also got a red ribbon. On to my shawl.
Sigh. Another red ribbon, but placed next to best in show. There's always next year, right?
