Dye Job

I have wanted to dye yarn myself more or less ever since I started knitting.  I've seen some beautiful hand-dyed yarns.  But it seems like such an arduous process between buying acidic yarns, having to cut up plastic bags to put the dyed yarn on, needing to soak it in vinegar to make the yarn take.  Plus, I don't know where I would do all that.  I could use the sink in the basement, but it's not exactly the cleanest...

Then, I came across this on Pinterest about dyeing yarn with Kool-aid  I know it talks about dyeing to reach a gradient, but it broke the whole process down into such simple steps with such basic elements that I got so excited about trying it.  So today, while Elijah and I were out and about in DeKalb, I we stopped at Target and I picked up these

I was hoping for blue or green, but it's not a Super Target and their Kool-aid selection was actually pretty small.

When we got home, I pulled out some yarn I had in my stash and made a few small "testing hanks."

The first hank is Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, which is sold in huge skeins.  I got mine at Michael's for a project that fell through.  It's 100% wool and everything I've read about dyeing yarn says wool and natural fibers are the best, but for some reason not cotton.

The second hank is Paton's Grace Sock Yarn.  It is 100% mercerized cotton which I bought also at Michael's to be the snout, feet, and ears of the pig in Elijah's mobile.  I didn't know it was cotton until after I finished trying to dye it.

The last hank is Caron Simply Soft, 100% synthetic.  Synthetics are supposed to be almost un-dyeable.  I bought it to use to make a border collie for Elijah's room and I ended up needing a different style yarn.  I figured since it was sitting right there, I might as well try it. 

I just followed the steps in the tutorial:

Here the hanks are, absorbing the dye on the stove top.  I had them in for the full 40 minutes just to see how well the dye would take.  While the yarn is in this stage, the house smells like Kool-aid, it's awesome!  The only thing I apparently glanced over was the instruction to wash them with a mild soap or wool soap when they are done.  So, I grabbed some hand soap.  That's mild, right?

Here's the finished project, after the dyeing and washing.

This is the Fisherman's Wool.  It come out just about perfect.  The only problem was I bound the hank too tightly so there is a spot of white on each strand.  Lesson learned.

This is the Paton's Grace Sock yarn.  I actually love this color.  I washed it for a little while just to see if it would get any lighter, which it didn't seem to.

Finally, the Caron's Simply Soft.  I guess all those blogs and posts were right, it is very difficult, if not impossible to dye synthetic yarn.  Oh, well, thought I'd give it a go anyway.

The Kool-aid is apparently colorfast, so it won't bleed and it smells great.  I think I'll probably try this again some time.  Hopefully I can find more interesting Kool-aid colors. 

Down on the Farm

The nursery is finally so much put together that I'm calling it done.  And Elijah's only 4 months old.

Come on in.

A long time ago...like, back when we decided we were going to pursue adoption, I decided the nursery theme would be "farm animals."  I love the wall appliques, they were just what I wanted.  And the ducky on the hamper was actually a present to me a long time ago from a friend of Anne's.

The glider was a $25 garage sale purchase.  The reason all the nursery furniture is white is: I wanted a white bookcase that I could paint with our favorite quotes from books.  It turns out my painting skills kind of suck, but I love it anyway.  The two quotes you can see are "Cry God for Harry, England, and St. George" from Shakespeare's Henry V, and "And the tree was happy," from The Giving Tree.  There are also lines from Tale of Two Cities, Richard II, Hamlet, I Robot, The Story of Ferdinand, Peter Pan, Julius the Baby of the World, Jane Eyre, The Christmas Carol, The Princess Bride, Sharpe's Fury, Agnes Grey, Through the Looking Glass, and The Gunslinger.

For reasons I don't fully understand, when we brought Elijah home, I became a crafting machine.  I blame Pinterest.  I couldn't find a cute reasonably priced farm mobile, so I thought...I can knit, I'll just make the mobile.  The pig, chicken, and sheep are cute.  The cow looks like a giant weasel.  When he's done with needing a mobile, I'm going to keep the first three as toys in his room, the cow's going in the trash.

The rocking sheep came from a garage sale as a birthday present from my in-laws, who also bought the bookcase for my birthday.  I love it, seriously, a rocking sheep.  The shelves are filled with farm animal stuffed animals.  The top shelf has something which is actually directly from Pinterest, it is the alphabet framed with the 'E' in blue, and the bottom says "is for Elijah."  I love it.  Above the window to the left is his name in painted letters, but I couldn't get it in the picture.  The wall to the right are 3 closets, the middle one has his dresser in it.

And that's Elijah's room.  Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Creativity

A while ago I said I had been knitting a lot lately, which is true.  For example, I made this:

It's my first attempt at a mitten-glove.  I have to say, it didn't turn out quite the way I wanted.  I was hoping to make it with individual spaces for fingers, but each time I tried that I ended up with holes all over the place.  Instead there is just a line under the mitten cap where the fingers peak out the top of the glove.  Oh, well, maybe I'll get it right next time.

I saw this hat pattern on Ravelry.com a while ago and decided it was the most adorable thing ever:

It's a tiny aviator-style hat!  Later I sewed a lime green felt button on it, but those pictures didn't turn out as well.  Seriously, how cute is this!  And it only took a day!  Now I want to make like 12 of these. 

This really just looks like a fancy scarf, but on the lady who designed it made it as a turban.  As you can see, my turban-wrapping skills need work, but I think it's neat.  Plus there's a matching mitten pattern that I think is really pretty and I hope to make one day.

My creative juices haven't been dedicated entirely to knitting lately.  I also designed this:

Okay, just the flowers.  They are fake flowers I found at Michaels, and I know it's not the most elegant arrangement, but it actually turned out pretty close to what I was hoping for.  I love the leaves at the back. As a side note, I know the table looks really bare.  I need a cute fall table runner.  I think that'll be my next project.

So, yeah, this is what I've been up to with my free time lately.

Sweater

I was shocked.  I slipped the sweater down of my head and...it fit.  Not perfectly, not without pulling a bit at the bottom, but well enough that I won't feel silly if I wear it out in public.

There are some things I would change, but for the first time, I have actually knitted a sweater I can wear.  I made clothing.  The sleeves and the sweater body are both just about the right length.  How great is that?!

This was my first real work with button holes and I don't think the ones I made are entirely stable, but that's how we learn.  And yes, I realize red buttons on a light green sweater look a little silly, but I just wanted to get it finished.

It looks much better than I anticipated.  And I finished just in time for fall.

Medical Roulette

I love it when the insurance company feels like it needs to remind me how old I am. 

It's endearing when they decide because I have grown up, they get to play games with my medical care. 

The older I get the harder it is to believe the insurance company views my care as other than a way for them to try their luck.  There is a fairly well documented history of letters and recommendations that clearly state that I need to be seen by pediatric cardiologists.  This is what the whole problem stems from.  I have found that in lay terms "pediatric" really means "when you're 18 you're out." 

So I usually have to fight very hard to be seen by the right people.  And for the most part, a well-written letter from an adult cardiologist saying they cannot treat me has done the trick relatively well.

Until now...

I am attempting to see my doctor for a check up and I have been told that there is an adult cardiologist who "believes she can help me."  There are quite a few Ango-Saxon four letter words that I have already said about this which bear repeating, but not here.

I would really like to believe that this is the answer to my prayers.  After all, seeing a pediatric doctor at the age of 26 is slightly humiliating.  I have always wished there was some kind of "transitional" cardiology.  This particular doctor I have to go see has a couple patients who have congenital defects similar to mine, which is why she thinks she can treat me.   But for 26 years I have been told I need to stick with pediatrics and because I have been willing to fight for it, I have received excellent care.  It is kind of hard to suddenly turn my back on all that.

In other news, look what I did!

I messed up the bottom and it is too small to pull down over my shoulders, but I'm proud of it anyway.  It looks perfect, even if it isn't and that is really all I wanted for my first one.

Mission Knittin'

You should see the basket sitting on the end table next to our couch.  It is filled with half-used balls of yarn.  And then there is another basket in the cabinets in our bedroom that is also mostly full of half-used balls of yarn.  Seriously, they are everywhere.  I have usually have no idea what to do with them.

I eliminated quite a few when I made a scrap blanket, but it's not very big and we use it to line Hyperion's travel carrier.  I've started a second that I think we'll use in Hecate's carrier, but there has to be a better way to use fragment yarn.

And I think I've found it.  I love making things for my family and myself.  The look of appreciation on my sister's face at Christmas when she opened the hat and wristers I made for her was pretty great.  But there is a whole other group of people I think I should be making things for. 

All of these partial-skeins can be put to good use and I encourage anyone who feels the same to join me.  I am going to attempt to use my yarn fragments to make hats for newborn babies at hospitals.  Or for children and mothers and give them to domestic violence shelters.  Or mittens and gloves (as soon as I learn to make fingers) and hats for homeless shelters.  There are several large groups of people who could  do with good warm mittens or hats or whatever.  And now that I've started mastering using color, they can also be something nice to look at, something to be proud of. 

I'm thinking of starting a blog to chronicle the progress of this new mission....

Creative Successes...or not

I decided to skip the customary "Christmas post" this year.  However, I am going to say we had a lovely Christmas and we hope you did too.  One of the best Christmas gifts I got was a whole ton of yarn.  It's true.  My mom set a big red bag down in front of me and it was filled with all different kinds of yarn and the needles I had asked for.  Then Elizabeth got me two skeins each of two really pretty yarns that I had pointed out to her before.  Seriously, I got a ton of yarn.  Therefore, I have been knitting a lot lately.  I found the cutest pattern for a hat that's a daffodil.  Adorable.  And one of the yarns in the bag my mom gave me was a pretty bright yellow, so...

I know that's not the best background for this picture. This hat was also my very first experience with two-color knitting at the same time.  It was kind of intense, but I think it came out well and made me want to really understand colorwork knitting.  This yellow yarn was a very large skein, so I made a pair of my favorite booties to go along with it.

As you can see, I had a little trouble at the front of the one on the right, but apart from that, I think they look awesome.  I also practised a little bit with knitting stripes.

Much better than I anticipated for my first try.  And just for fun, I used some of Elizbeth's yarn to make mittens for myself.  I love them.

But not all my creative Christmas presents had to do with knitting.  My mother-in-law bought me an adorable sewing box and stocked it with many of the essentials, which I did not have.  It was an incredibly thoughtful gift.  For some reason, though.  I cannot make my sewing machine work for me.  I was attempting to make curtains for Nathan's office and I could not get the machine to make real stitches.  I tried everything I could think of and things that were suggested by others.  Then, somehow, the tip of the needle in the sewing machine broke off.  I don't understand how that happened.  I hope sometime in the near future to get the machine figured out.  I have high hopes of making myself some cute summer skirts and sundresses.

Milestone

I don't often brag...but this is just too exciting to let slip by without saying something.  I have successfully (mostly) knitted a sock.

This is part of the reason I took up knitting in the first place.  My first attempt was a few months ago and I gave up in the middle of it, but this time I persevered and, after the heel turning, most of it was smooth sailing.  Yes, the toe is messed up and I had to consult my Knitting for Dummies to figure out how to correctly kitchener stitch.  But, I think I've got it now.

 By the way, yes, the sock is two different shades of blue.  I ran out of one color when I was mostly done and ran to the store and grabbed what they had just so I could finish.

What's new...

...practically nothing, which is why I haven't updated the blog in so long.

I still haven't found a job yet, but I'm about to widen my search to encompass the Eastern Seaboard, since there seem to be many more reporting jobs out that way.

I recently took a skills test for positions at Northern Illinois University and didn't do nearly as well as I was hoping, but I have another test soon and will probably end up retaking the first one in a few weeks.

I received a rejection e-mail from an agent who was looking at my book and said she had been intrigued so far. I guess it turns out, not so much.

Saturday I went to a really fun birthday party, which consisted of sitting around at Barnes and Noble, flipping through magazines, eating and chatting with friends. It was great. When I got home, I broke my toe.

But I've also learned how to cable knit, and I'm making my way through the entire John Wayne film collection at a fairly good clip these days, which is probably a bad sign.

I have a doctor's appointment to get a physical so I can substitute teach tomorrow, so hopefully that goes well.

A Triumph

I have actually, successfully knitted a scarf. It's a small feat, and I didn't even get around to putting fringe or tassles on it, but I don't know how. I was just happy I could knit a scarf and have it come out looking as nice as this one did.

This is Anne, my middle sister, modeling it. It is half white and half green because those were the two colors I bought and I was not quite adventurous enough to knit stripes.