Kids + Summer + Kool Aid =

YARN!  Here at Casa Driggs we have been having some fun with Kool Aid and wool.  I really enjoy dying, but not enough to buy a separate set of pots for it (check the labels of commercial dyes some time -- even the "green" ones are pretty toxic!).  So the solution is food grade wool dyeing.  Other advantage?  It won't hurt my kids if they decide to sample the dye pot.  This is our most recent creation:

That's 200 g of wool, dyed with five packets of sugar free Kool Aid (three orange, on cherry, one lemonade).  It really is great fun for everyone!  With that in mind, I have some tips:

• A general rule of thumb for a saturated color is one packet of Kool Aid per ounce of yarn or fiber.
• If you are kettle dying, make sure to heat until the dye bath is CLEAR -- if you're hand painting and microwaving/steaming, the run off when you're done should be clear too.
• If you're dyeing with kids, it's extra fun to play changing colors -- when you mix the packets together, and then again as you're watching the dye bath go to clear.  This is especially fun with purple, as red dye strikes at a lower temperature than blue, so your purple water will turn blue before it goes clear.

Summer is for LACE!

This pattern was such a long time in the making, and I'm SO pleased with it!  Knit in All for Love of Yarn Sumptuosity Lace, this stole is feather light, but with the warmth of alpaca and silk.  Pattern includes instructions for either a knit or crochet edging.  Available on Ravelry for $6.00.

Happy WWKIP day!

Or is is knit in public week?  Either way, I KIP'ed at the Estes Park Wool Market on Saturday!  It was loads of fun and excitement.  The kids got to try out a floor loom (and now Elspeth wants one):

I very nearly called the judging for the grand champion white fleece (my pick got reserve).  And I did NOT buy any fleeces.  This is an accomplishment because I already have two or three of those giant sterlite bins full of washed fleeces awaiting carding and spinning, plus most of a baby alpaca fleece (THE WHOLE THING) that I am slowly, slowly carding out.  But mmmmm, were there some nice fleeces there.  So I've made a deal with myself... if I can process two fleeces before next year, I can buy one.  Think it'll work?

Thoughts on shaping

So I've been mighty quiet around here lately, and it's the direct result of a pattern I'm working on (and, frankly, procrastinating working on).  The issue with it?  Shaping.  Everybody I've ever met says that it's easier to make a tailored garment in pieces, because the shaping is easier.  I question this.  It's no more difficult to make lines of increases or decreases in the round than it is flat.  What IS harder is designing shaping in the round.  My current project, I'm still working on the yoke... I have to make the armholes deep enough and the shoulders wide enough (but not too wide) at the same time, all without deforming the neckline.  Plus I want this one to be fitted.  Exciting!

Of course, when you're making something from a pattern, the designer has already figured that out for you.  What everybody else is worried about is things like waist shaping, which really isn't hard.  The key is to start your decreases two to three inches before you want the narrowest part, and decrease evenly, then increase at the same rate.  Ta-dah!  Waist shaping.  No harder in the round than in pieces, and in my opinion, better, because you can try the darn thing on as you go and make sure you decreased the right amount.

Now if only I could get to that point on this sweater.  Stupid yoke.

So, I was knitting this sock...

A lovely sock.  A blue sock.  A sock for ME.  The thing with designing is that it really cuts into my selfish crafting time, so this was special.  It was nearly done when suddenly I realized I had an appointment in ten minutes.  No problem -- I tucked it away in it's bag, put it on the bed, and off I went.

I realized that something was slightly off when the bag was under my desk and not on the bed when I got home, but didn't think too much about it... I often put my project bags under my desk, maybe I just mis-remembered where I put it.  After dinner when I went to work on it again, though, I realized I had a problem.  The needles were gone.

Not just "pulled out of the stitches" gone.  "I can't find them anywhere" gone.  Initial inspection reveals one nearby on the floor.  Now I'm starting to panic.  I dig around under the desk and find what I'd feared -- a broken DPN.  Careful questioning however reveals that that one has been broken for some time.  Elspeth gets a chat (again) about not touching mommy's knitting stuff without permission.  This is the point where I basically gave up.  I could not find these needles ANYWHERE.

Which of course means my husband found them an hour later.  In the bath tub.  Why were they in the bath tub?  I don't even care.  I got my needles back, and the sock was saved.

Ah, handspun...

How many yards do I have?  Heaven only knows.

So I love spinning.  I mean, seriously, I'm one of those crazy spinners that buys raw, unwashed fleece and processes it myself, by hand.  What I have a problem with is what on earth do I do with the resultant yarn.  A lot of it is in small skeins (hey, I get distracted easily), and it's difficult to know exactly how many yards of the stuff I have.  Thus, most of my handspun has been relegated to sitting in my stash.  But, I've been thinking about it, and have some ideas to use the lovely stuff.

• Scarves and shawls.  If it looks like you're going to run out of yarn, you can just make them smaller.
• Hats.  Don't take much yardage.
• For my high quantity handspun, start with a sweater vest in mind rather than a sweater.  If there's still yarn when you've got the body sewn up, do your sleeves two at a time.

So yeah, handspun!  Hopefully I'll be able to stash down a little bit with this strategy.

Ok, so it's not so bad once all the cutting's done

Look at that.  A quilt top.  I feel bad about my last post now, as once I had it laid out and pinned together, it really wasn't so bad (the cutting was done months ago).  Here's my other now finished sewing UFO:

See?  Can sew.  But would still rather play with yarn than fabric.  It's much more forgiving.