All Is Not Lost
Oogyhubby and I spent yesterday cooking our butts off - he smoked a turkey, and I made cranberry relish, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, and a pumpkin cream pie. And there was wine :) We had quite the feast, although it was a bit disappointing that, after several hours of preparation, we were finished eating within a matter of minutes! We'll have leftovers for weeks, and a grand soup some time in the future, so there's that.
Inbetween, I worked on the CWA, and finally got to the point where I'm 100% certain that I'm going to run out of yarn, probably for all colors. This morning I headed for the KnitPicks web site and ordered 10 of the 12 skeins I need to finish (yah, guess this kit wasn't such a bargain after all - but think of the cowls I can make with the leftovers!). What of the remaining two, you might ask? Well, Sky and Black are currently unavailable. Knowing KnitPicks, they'll be back soon. I'll soon be at a stopping point, then a longer hiatus waiting for Sky. The wedding isn't until June, so there is time. I will not panic!
Now that all gift secrets have been revealed, I can share a bit more with you about a couple of them. I had wanted my speckle dyeing to be a surprise for Neuro, but now that she is already well into a fine pair of socks with hers, I can show you what happened with my first attempt:
It's not terrible, just not gift-worthy. And probably would have been just fine if I had not included actual black dye in the mix (I have no idea what I was thinking with that, except perhaps it might add some dramatic flair?). But since the dye is sprinkled onto the yarn, the colors change about when the yarn is wound into balls:
Still dark, but kind of nice. I'll make them into socks for myself, and will let you know how they turn out. Hopefully Neuro will blog about hers at some point so we can follow her progress as well!
Speckle dyeing is accomplished through sprinkling the dye powder directly onto the prepared fiber; for the heat-reactive dyes we've been using, the fiber then gets wrapped up in plastic wrap and nuked in the microwave as per the normal process. What I learned through my first two attempts is that very little dye is needed to get the speckle effect - and that if it looks great initially, there is already too much dye. I held way back for my second attempt and even that was too much, I think (and I left out the black, LOL). I think I'll try it next with some roving. More to come!
I've got some work to do today, in terms of managing the yarn queue. I'd like to get to the first CWA stopping point, cast on for December Hat, ball up the yarn for the first cowl (it's as yet unnamed), and make plans for the beautiful gifts I got from Neuro. That way, there will be pics in the coming days as well!
There's still no wildlife news - all continues to be quiet here!
Inbetween, I worked on the CWA, and finally got to the point where I'm 100% certain that I'm going to run out of yarn, probably for all colors. This morning I headed for the KnitPicks web site and ordered 10 of the 12 skeins I need to finish (yah, guess this kit wasn't such a bargain after all - but think of the cowls I can make with the leftovers!). What of the remaining two, you might ask? Well, Sky and Black are currently unavailable. Knowing KnitPicks, they'll be back soon. I'll soon be at a stopping point, then a longer hiatus waiting for Sky. The wedding isn't until June, so there is time. I will not panic!
Now that all gift secrets have been revealed, I can share a bit more with you about a couple of them. I had wanted my speckle dyeing to be a surprise for Neuro, but now that she is already well into a fine pair of socks with hers, I can show you what happened with my first attempt:
It's not terrible, just not gift-worthy. And probably would have been just fine if I had not included actual black dye in the mix (I have no idea what I was thinking with that, except perhaps it might add some dramatic flair?). But since the dye is sprinkled onto the yarn, the colors change about when the yarn is wound into balls:
Still dark, but kind of nice. I'll make them into socks for myself, and will let you know how they turn out. Hopefully Neuro will blog about hers at some point so we can follow her progress as well!
Speckle dyeing is accomplished through sprinkling the dye powder directly onto the prepared fiber; for the heat-reactive dyes we've been using, the fiber then gets wrapped up in plastic wrap and nuked in the microwave as per the normal process. What I learned through my first two attempts is that very little dye is needed to get the speckle effect - and that if it looks great initially, there is already too much dye. I held way back for my second attempt and even that was too much, I think (and I left out the black, LOL). I think I'll try it next with some roving. More to come!
I've got some work to do today, in terms of managing the yarn queue. I'd like to get to the first CWA stopping point, cast on for December Hat, ball up the yarn for the first cowl (it's as yet unnamed), and make plans for the beautiful gifts I got from Neuro. That way, there will be pics in the coming days as well!
There's still no wildlife news - all continues to be quiet here!
Comments
I'm having trouble putting down my sock project...