In which I make pretty things!

It has been a long time since I puttered about with a dye pot, but since it’s half-term this Monday and Tuesday, I figured I could splurge and take one afternoon and evening completely off from marking. I had the remnants of a dried out food coloring paste from the kitchen that I wanted to play with, so I soaked some yarn and a bit of alpaca roving in water and vinegar while I mixed up the food coloring with some more water and vinegar.

I soaked one skein of yarn properly for over an hour, and the other one I didn’t soak as long as I wanted it to take up the dye unevenly. The less soaked yarn went straight into the pot to kettle dye, and the more soaked yarn I wound around a stick of bamboo which I put over the top of the pot. I wanted to try my hand at a gradient dye job, so about every five minutes I would go in and turn the stick to let a little more yarn into the dye bath.

The alpaca roving I had was stuffed in an old nylon, also thoroughly soaked, and I just let that cook away in the hot dye. Overall, I am quite pleased with the results! Too bad that was the last of that food coloring… I tried to make sure to heat it for long enough for the dye to set properly, and when I rinsed the yarn very little washed out.

Now I have the yarn I want for the project that I have been desperately wanting to cast on…

And cast on I feel I can since I finished two things this week!

On Halloween night Beth and I really pulled out all the party stops…or something like it! I was a pirate for the evening,

and we made lattes, ate Nibbs, and watched Ghostbusters while knitting. Do we know how to party or what? Neither of us had seen that particular part of pop culture before…can’t say that it was life changing, but for what it was, it was fun!

In knitting news I finally finished the everlasting mittens! I had enough green to do the thumbs in the checkered pattern, so I ripped out the first one and fixed it. Not bad; I’d do that pattern again, but not for awhile…

I also finished a little hat with cat ears for a friend’s new baby—adorbs! I might have to make a few more of these… I opted out of embroidering the cat face on the hat; I think that puts it over the top. I have another one that I tried that involves fun fur…picture to follow.

I'm hoping to do a bit of spinning over half-term, but we'll have to see how things go. Signing off for now!

Parting shot: Java is too adorbs sometimes for her own good...