I have read several things about the process of dying yarn using kool-aid and since I am a clutz I figured this would be a good way for me to try my hand at dying. So when I placed an order with Knit Picks I decided to order a skein of their Bare Merino Laceweight Yarn to play around with, figuring that with 880 yards and only $5.99 I wasn’t out too much if I didn’t like it. I want to make my sister this sweater for her baby, but I haven’t found a yarn I like the colors of, that is machine washable (Knit Picks has the right weight yarn in Bare as a superwash) and that I can afford so I thought I would try this.
It was pretty easy to do and I tried 4 colors getting 1 that I will use for this project and then 1 other that I think would look great in a shawl or stole for myself. In the picture above you can tell where I had the yarn tied together as I tied too tight, that is something I will have to figure out. The colors (flavors) used were Black Cherry, Cherry, Strawberry and Watermelon Cherry (a flavor I had never seen before). I love the Black Cherry for myself especially since I know that I could have gotten an even darker color as I did not fully exhaust the dye for any of the colors. The Watermelon Cherry is the perfect color for the baby sweater. I wanted a softer pink and it turned out a soft, coraly-pink which is perfect for the baby. The close up of the Watermelon Cherry is below.
The only other problem I had was trying to figure out how to dry the yarn easily. May I present Melissa’s Improvised Drying Rack (see picture below). I used tubes from work (they were in the boxes of poinsettas to prevent them from landing on the flowers if someone did not stack the boxes correctly), some sticky dots (scrapbooking supply), and some soda 12 packs. (Please ignore the mess in the background – we were celebrating my mom’s birthday).
Now I just have to place another Knit Picks order since I did not order the Bare yarn I needed since I was not sure about the process. I also want to place an order with them so that I can get the Options needle set. In the order I just received I had ordered the size needle I am using for the Sunset Seraphim and a cable so that I could try them out without investing too much. I love them so much that I want the whole set and my mom likes them as well. She has found a book of baby blanket patterns she loves, but they use size 13 & 15 circular needles and the ones she bought she hates. Since she saw the Options and found out they come in the bigger sizes she has decided that she wants a set of the 32″ cables and the 13 & 15 needles, as she has decided that the blankets in this book will become her staple baby gift.
Well, I did very well last week on my goal to post at least 3 times a week, but this week I failed due to becoming very sick. Everyone at work has had the crud and I had been fighting it since Christmas. This week I finally was unable to fight it off any longer and become so sick that all I did was go to work and sleep. I know I should not have gone to work, but when you are part-time there are no sick days and I really needed the money so that I can pay to get some teeth pulled. I have all 4 wisdom teeth trying to come in and 2 of them are giving me major trouble so hopefully I can get enough between the next 2 paychecks to get them done. I was hoping to put it off until I got my taxes back as due to my earning I should get all of my federal taxes back – I will most likely not get anything back from both Virginia & Alabama, but I guess my body had other plans. Well it is late so I need to log off. Hopefully this coming week will be better for me updating and I might have some good job news.
