Kool Aid fever has hit my household. It all started when I reviewed the book Yarns To Dye For (which I loved) for my web site (www.knitting.allinfoabout.com/book_reviews/yarnstodyefor.html for the full review). The kid and I both fell in love with all of the pictured hand-dyed yarn, but I was worried about health hazards from checmical dyes, so a friend suggested we try Kool-Aid. Next trauma was trying to find good colored flavors during the first snowstorm of the year, but we managed to find a lot of lemonade and orange, and a little bit of fruit punch and grape, so we went to town. Results are above – drying in the shower.
It actually wasn’t nearly as messy as I thought it would be, and it dried pretty quickly. We did a whole 440 yard skein of KnitPicks sock yarn in all four colors, then cut a skein of worsted weight in half and did half plain yellow, and half three color variegated.
All dried up and ready to knit or weave. The kid wants a knitted earflap hat out of the worsteds, pattern in the YTDF book. Some of the sock yarn will be socks for her, and whetever is left she wants to warp her loom with. She cannot wait to weave with stuff she dyed herself, but just like her mother, she has holiday gifts to finish off first.
Speaking of holiday gifts, biggest big sister’s glamorous scarf is finished. Boy it was annoying to knit, so I hope she likes it. She should like the colors though, plus it has eyelash which she likes, PLUS it has some gold sparkles even though they didn’t turn up in the photograph, so I have high hopes that she will be happy.
She is a pretty great gift recipient anyway – pretty well pleased with the thought no matter what you give her. Either that or she is a truly fine faker…hmmmmm
Worked on a fashion photo shoot yesterday and thankfully it was slow. I nearly finished washcloth number 5, then realized 4 rows from the end that I didn’t have my DPNS with me (I start them on circs and then change when it gets down to 34 stitches). Had to wait until I got home to do the last little bit, then I immediately cast on number 6 so I wouldn’t have a chance to stop knitting them. I am SO bored with washcloths, even though I love how they turn out. Have to find some great soaps this week to go with them, I already found gorgeous lillte gift bags for them at the Christmas Tree Shop for a whopping 39 cents each. Presentation is everything…
After the kid went to bed I worked a little bit on her surprise skirt for Christmas, but talk about boring – black chenille garter stitch on size 13 needles! Thankfully I only have a few more inches to go, and sewing it up should be very quick. And done is good.
I asked Santa for a bunch of knitting books for Christmas, so hopefully I will have a wealth of more interesting patterns to choose from after 1/1. And I just saw the preview flyer for the Spring 2006 Interweave Press knitting books and I have to say, they have some really great stuff coming out in the new year. Cannot wait to get my hands on two of them specifically!
Back to try and get some actual work done.