I Left My Cake Out In The Rain

After the Kool-Aid dying, I tried my hand at dying with icing dyes. This is another food safe practice. i.e You can use normal kitchen utensils etc and do not have to take any special precautions. The one difference between using food colourings and Kool-Aid is that you have to add acid; Kool-Aid contains citric acid.

This was the yarn I used.



Also 100% wool like the last time but this is marked as Peruvian wool and has more loft. In other words the yarn has a slight fuzz.

I bought a box of 4 colours labeled Pastel:- soft colours for soft yarn.



I used 1/8 teaspoon of each colour, dissolved in hot water. The extra step when using food colours is soaking in acid. The tutorials I found differed in the amount of time for soaking from as little as 20 minutes to as much as overnight. I think I ended up soaking the yarn (after winding into a hank) for a couple of hours. I used a 1 to 4 solution of white vinegar and water.

I had wound the yarn into a small hank, squeezed out most of the water and added the dyes. Here is a drawing to try to show how I added the colours. Basically I had the blue and green on the long sides with the hank roughly divided into two and the pink and orange on the short sides again with the hank divided in two. Think of the division as top and bottom.



The yarn was put into a casserole dish and some water added so that the dyes would spread.



This was placed in the microwave and heated for 2 minutes at a time with 2 minute breaks in between.This needed more "zaps" than the Kool-Aid and when it seemed very hot I left it for 5 minutes before reheating. Once all the dye had been taken up I left the yarn to cool before rinsing and hanging to dry.

This is how it turned out.





Although this is not the pastel, Easter shades I was envisioning when I bought the dye. This yarn is full of different colours and more interesting than my initial plan. I have tried to show all the colours in this photo although it is hard to get a close-up.



And the finished skein.

May Round Up

I posted one pair of socks that I completed at the end of May but I also completed a pair at the beginning of the month as well as the obligatory two dishcloths.

The socks I completed were the mystery from March. The pattern is Cadence Socks by Very Busy Monkey and can be found on Ravelry. The yarn is Fleece Artist Trail Socks and was a Christmas present from hubby.I love the colour.



I am not going to post a photo of the first dishcloth of the month. I was disappointed with the pattern and there is nothing special to show. I was late starting the second pattern of the month and realised it would be easy to work in many colours. A great way to use up oddments. I worked 10 rows in each colour.



I finished my second oldest project. (Although my oldest project was started the day before.) I started it on my trip to Texas last year as I wanted something simple that would take a while. The pattern is Citron from Knitty.com. The yarn is Zauberballe by Schoppel-Wolle. it is supposed to be a sock yarn and, although it does contain 25% nylon it felt too soft for socks.

This is a photo of Citron blocking. I don't have a good photo of it being worn as that would involve another member of this house taking a photo or wearing it, neither of which will have a good result.



A few things were cast on in May. Here is a photo of an item that didn't make it very far. Once again the yarn is sock yarn. I wanted something quick and easy to use the yarn by the end of the month so I wouldn't lose points in our challenge. When I knew this pattern wasn't going to work with the yarn I decided it was better to lose points than work madly on something I wasn't going to like.



Do you like that the Boychild had to be in the photo?

Two other items cast on in May were the mystery sock, of which I have one completed; and a scarf with yarn given to me for my birthday, that is nearly finished.

I have decided for June I need to finish all my little projects. So at the end of June all that should be on my needles is the long term lace project and anything I cast on in June. That shouldn't be too hard. I finished one pair of socks at the weekend, so I am left with the previously mentioned scarf, the second of a pair of socks that I was lengthening and the second of May's mystery socks.

Because The Designer Liked Them

Usually I do a monthly round up of the socks and dishcloths I have knitted the previous month but I wanted these socks to have their own post. Two simple reasons:- I love them and the designer said they were the prettiest she'd seen.

One of the challenges for May in the Sock Knitters Group on Ravelry was texture other than ribbing. I found a pattern that was created by one of the members of the group about a year ago and knew I had just the yarn for it. Just before our self-imposed yarn famine, I bought yarn from The Sanguine Gryphone. I purchased three different types, one of which being Skinny Bugga in Adonis Butterfly colourway.

The sock pattern is Quartzonite by RoseHiver. She does not have a blog but you can find her on Ravelry.



Oh and because the designer is from Montreal I had to name these socks after Patrick Roy.

Dying in the Rain

It rained most of last week, so on Friday I tried dying yarn for the first time. Actually, it was my first attempt at dying anything.

When I first got the book, Socks Socks Socks I was interested in the pair which had been made with yarn dyed in Kool_Aid. I kept this in the (very) back of my mind as something to try one day. My interest was rekindled when a local place was offering a class and when the class didn't pan out I decided to go ahead and try on my own. After all there are plenty of tutorials on the web.

I had purchased Kool-Aid when I saw it on sale, one packet of each flavour. But I needed yarn.



Now I was ready to go.

First the yarn had to be wound from a ball into a hank. This wasn't difficult with a chair and a willing helper.





After tying the yarn in a few places with cotton crochet thread, I soaked it in soapy water and rinsed and thought what colour(s) I wanted the yarn to become. Although it was my first attempt, I didn't want one colour, so I dived right in and went for three - Strawberry, Strawberry Kiwi and Grape.



I didn't use much water with the drink mix and I had squeezed most of the water out of the yarn so when I poured the mix onto the yarn it looked like this.



So after putting it in the microwave safe dish I added water which made the Kool-Aid spread through the yarn. The yarn was zapped in the microwave for two minutes with a two minute break in between. I think I did this three times and the water was clear.



Remember I'm doing this because the weather is horrible? I had to hang the hank in my bathroom to dry but I did put it outside on Saturday to finish off and to blow away some of the grape smell.



On Monday I rewound it into a bigger hank and skeined.




This wasn't my only adventure with dying. I also dyed some other wool with Wilton's icing colours. I loved the results of that which I will show another day.

Spring in Calgary

As it has been raining since Monday, a little reminder is needed that it really is spring here in the Rockies.

Although the calendar says spring started on 20 March, here it wanders in sometime around May, maybe the end of April in a good year. Thus bulbs flower later than most other places in the northern hemisphere. The crocuses in the front are first; they don't last very long and I didn't take any photos. Then it seems as if the grape hyacinths in the front and the tulips in the back are coming up at the same time and the rhubarb and raspberries are starting to leaf.





The birds have been collecting the dried material not yet cleared from my garden to build their nests. We are a step away from Fish Creek Provincial Park which is home to many birds especially raptors. I don't have a photo of the peregrine falcon sitting on my back fence holding on to its prey caught in flight but I do have a photo of the next generation of mousers.

This is not the first year that owls have nested in a tree next to one of the paths so it is very easy to spot the babies. Here they are in all their fluffiness.

Off The Needles In April

Each month I aim to work the two mystery dishcloths from the Yahoo group and one sock from the Ravelry group challenge. Things didn't go so well in April. I have already posted the cowl and the blanket completed in April.

As I had a deadline for the baby blanket, I decided not to make the dishcloth for the beginning of April. After all the point is to use up the stash not to make all the dishcloths. (Which is why I have the stash - from making all the dishcloths in 2009.) As I finished the blanket before the end of April, I made the mid-April pattern. This was another pattern using two colours of yarn so I was able to use partial balls.



Although I don't think it shows the two colours as well as the second dishcloth in January it is still a good pattern to use up ends.

I am a bit reluctant to mention socks. I didn't cast on a new pair in April. I was still working on the mystery socks from March and I decided not to add to my list of unfinished projects. The photo of these will have to wait until I post photos of projects completed in May.

Talking about unfinished projects, I seem to have way too many on the go again but they all have a time and a place for when they are worked on, so I am not casting on without thought and I am not procrastinating the finishing of projects. Well, maybe apart from the beaded cast off of a shawl which will take me the rest of my life.

Election, Lacrosse and More Hockey

Last Monday there was a Federal Election in Canada. The election resulted from a vote of no confidence by all the opposition parties in the current government, which at that time was a Conservative minority.

I would really have liked to have known Michael Ignatieff's thought process behind leading this move as polls showed that there would be minimal difference in the way people voted and there was very strong public opinion against an election. Whatever his thoughts, he achieved the one thing he was looking for - change. It just isn't the change he wanted. We now have a Conservative majority government, the New Democrats are the Official Opposition Party and both the Liberal party and the Bloc Québécois lost a significant number of seats. The Liberal party went from 77 seats to 34 seats and the Bloc went from 47 seats to 4. The leaders of both these parties lost their seats. As an independent observer (I can not vote in Canada) I would say that the general population and the inhabitants of the province of Quebec did not like these leaders or their policies or both and resoundingly told them so. Although to listen to friends originally from Ontario you would not think this was the case. They were speaking as if the people really wanted Ignatieff and it was just the Albertan Conservatives that stopped it. (What about the rest of the country who voted NDP as well as Conservative?) It is also interesting listening to my Albertan friends who are fed up with being accused of blindly voting Conservative.

Anyway for me as there has been a minority Conservative government running the country since we have lived here, I am very interested to see if I will notice any difference.

Now for another controversial subject - sport. Last time I posted I said that Calgary's lacrosse team had won their semi-final game. Last night we went to the division final where Calgary Roughnecks met Washington Stealth. Unfortunately, it was not the wanted result for the Roughnecks and they went down 10-8 in a game that was not one of their best. Let's hope that this was not the last tine we see the Roughnecks play. The team is currently up for sale as the owner cannot afford to continue to pump money into it.

Oh, and there's still hockey.

Snow, Royal Wedding,Yarn and Lacrosse - With Some Hockey Thrown In

The title sums up the end of last week.

It snowed last week, not a big deal really after all it was still April but it snowed at the time a friend and I had planed to meet for ice cream. We still went as kids were involved otherwise we'd have gone for coffee.

I have to mention the Royal Wedding as it was the event of the decade or even the century depending on whose hyperbole you listened to. Whether you are a Royalist, Abolitionist or somewhere in between I am sure everyone wishes the couple well.

A new yarn store has opened in Calgary; it is called The Loop and is located in a former embroidery shop in Kensington. A group of us went on opening day - Saturday. They had a very nice selection and it wasn't too crowded when we arrived although another big group turned up as we were considering our final choices. The electronic era was definitely in evidence as patrons were looking at yarn and then using their I-Phone to check Ravelry. I saw a vibrant coloured yarn and bought some for a skirt. Looking at the yarn in the shop I thought the colour would be too much in one item and plan to buy another colour to go with it. (They didn't have anything suitable in the store.) But having looked on line at the other colours available in the same yarn, I'm thinking that I will go with just the one colour.

So if a new yarn store wasn't excitement enough, Saturday evening hubby and I went to the NLL Western Division Semi-Final. Calgary were playing Colorado. Although Calgary won, we could have coped if it had been the other way round.

And the NHL playoffs are going on or on-going depending on your point of view.

Knitting in March

Here we are at the end of April and I am updating you with what went on in March. So how did I do with dishcloths and socks?

I made a pair of socks just not a matching pair and I made both the dishcloths from the Yahoo group.

This is the one from the beginning of the month. I am very pleased that I finished up a ball of Peaches and Creme that had I had used for Halloween dishcloths.



And this is the one from the middle of the month. I gave this to a friend who had just finished their new kitchen.



I finished the second sock of a pair started in February. This started as a mystery in December but I was sensible enough to know that I would not have time to make them then so I saved the clues. The pattern is by Stephanie van der Linden and the yarn is Estelle by Arequipa. Yarn purchased last year just because.



I like the way the heel was worked on this sock. The heel was formed by increases to form a pocket for the heel. There was no picking up of heel stitches and only a few rows of short row shaping for the heel turn. A very neat and easy way to make a heel. I had come across this style of heel when I made this sock but I have not found generic instructions for calculating this heel.

Also I made a pair of mittens for a friend and gave them to her while the weather was still cold. They have a little pocket on the top of each mitten for tissues or poop (clean) bags. I found a little packet of tissues in Michaels with her initial on which fit nicely in the pocket.



The other sock I made was the mystery sock for March. I completed one sock and then decided to concentrate on the baby blanket but I am aiming for the end of this month to have a pair.

Stash Challenge

So the other day I wrote about knitting from the stash as in my stash.

At the end of last year, a member of our knitting group challenged us to knit only from our stash. From there, people made suggestions for incentives and it has turned into a full blown challenge with points awarded for completed items and bonuses for not buying yarn. At the beginning of this month we had a fondue party to celebrate our achievements with prizes for the person with the most points and some acrylic for the person with the least points. Myrna kindly made some project bags for the prizes.

I hope everyone who participated did so just for the fun of the challenge but a couple said it made them more focused to finish projects.

I didn't do too badly for points although most of my projects were one pointers. Would I have bought yarn without this challenge? I don't know. I'm glad I'm using the stash but soon I am going to need a break from socks.

Oh and the original person who started the challenge? She fell off the wagon and was last seen under a pile of fibre.

Another Baby Blanket

Almost getting ahead of myself here. Photos of an item I finished on Thursday - a baby blanket.

A girl I used to work with (neither of us work at the same place anymore) is pregnant and I decided to knit her a blanket. She is not due until July so I thought I had plenty of time except her shower was on Saturday. Yikes I need to get cracking I had less than a month to come up with something. I had an idea of what I was going to make so with this short timescale I just went with my original idea and didn't spend time agonizing over patterns and yarn.

I had 4 1/2 balls of baby 4-ply yarn left over from this blanket and I had bought coloured yarn with an idea for a crocheted blanket which I never made. So I chose to make this blanket. Alternating the colours with the white. As I was short of time, I followed the instructions for the smaller size, then worked 4 rows of each colour, finishing with one row of lilac and then the cast off. I achieved all this, except the cast off by Wednesday. I had time but I didn't want to have to mess around with different cast offs to find a stretchy one. I opted for a picot cast off with three stitches in between each picot, cast off with a Russian cast off. This made for an interesting edge that was not at all tight.

Here's an arty picture of the blanket in progress.



I was in the lounge of a hotel when I took this and cannot remember the settings I used but it shows the colours correctly.

Here is the blanket just off the needles.



And for anyone who thinks you can't block acrylic here is the blanket after a quick block.



I wish I had had more time for a proper blocking (did I hear you say blocking wires?). I pinned it out and then sprayed it with water, covered with towels as cat protectors and left it over night. Ready to drop off on Friday morning.

Using Up The Stash

On reading this post from the end of 2009, it appears that my stash is under control and being used. Things went a bit haywire in 2010. I bought yarn while on holiday, bought more yarn on a local yarn crawl with friends and bought more yarn in an end of year sale. And I have been given yarn.

I would like to set a target of when the yarn has to be used by. For example all the yarn bought on the yarn crawl has to be used by 1st day of summer. I know such a target isn't going to work so I shall set myself a general target of only knitting from the stash. This will present difficulties when/if I want to knit something and I don't have the right yarn in my stash. By that I mean yarn of the correct weight. Although I was very pleased that I was able to use yarn from the stash for the baby blanket I am currently making.

To show how good I am, on Friday we went to Canmore and I didn't even look up the address of the yarn store there.

A Hat For Me

After posting about the hat I made for hubby, I realise that I had not posted pictures of the hat I had made for myself. Especially as I made it at the end of last year.




The pattern is Quincy by Jared Flood who is known in the blogging world as Brooklyn Tweed. The yarn is Azapa by Araucania which I purchased in September during our local yarn crawl. I bought the yarn for a specific scarf pattern. But after trying twice with different size needles, decided that the yarn and pattern were not going to work together.

This photo is a better representation of the colour.



I had just under 50 grams of yarn left. Too much to throw away and too little to use but I found a pattern for a very simple neck warmer and knitted until I ran out of yarn.

My Cowl is Versatile

I really liked the yarn I used for my husband's hat; it was so soft. I used approximately 25 grams of the white and it seemed a shame to not use the left overs for something else. I have been trying not to add to my stash by using every little bit of yarn but have rather failed with this endeavour with all the socks I have been knitting as I have been putting all the yarn (new and left overs) in the stash.

I decided to make myself a cowl. I had always considered cowls a nuisance and therefore a pointless garment. Putting them on over your head, taking them off, putting them on again was a recipe for messing up hair and getting lipstick on everything. Or so it seemed, as I had never actually worn a cowl.

But then I realised that a cowl will take a place of a scarf when you go out but won't be removing your coat - going for a walk or a quick shop for example. But going out for coffee you wear a scarf so that you can take it off.

I found a pattern available only on Ravelry so I cannot not link to it here. An easy knit with some lace interest.



And now for the versatility. It can be worn as a standard cowl; if I have my hair in a pony tail and can't wear a hat I can pull it up over my ears; and, best of all, I can wear it upside down on my head and be Queen for the day!

Today I Was The Statue

I mentioned that one of our cats has an idiopathic chylothorax. She had done very well for 2 to 3 months and then the fluid built up again and there were a couple of visits to the vet. After the last visit, the vet suggested some additional supplements and some different food. The food worked well as I think she was happy to have a change. The supplements not so well.

I am already breaking open the capsules of rutin, mixing with hot water and administering by syringe. So I crush the vitamin tablet and add to this mix but I also have to give her a special oil. I tried some. It's tasteless and odourless. Great I can add it to her food. Well it's not odorless to my cat. I added 1/8 teaspoon to her wet food - she didn't touch it. I waited a few days, added 1/8 teaspoon to the bottom of her bowl of dry food - she didn't touch it.

I need to get this stuff inside her. As I am already syringing her 2 to 3 times a day. I decided to add a little of the oil to the mix. I suctioned up the multi-supplement mixture pushed the bottom of the syringe, syringe pointing straight up..... and woosh the plunger moved very quickly and I was wearing the green mix.

Clothing Needed in Calgary

I have mentioned that I periodically check the knitting and crochet books in the local library. Late last year I checked out Guy Knits: The Best of Knitter's Magazine. It included patterns for hats, sweaters, sleeveless pullovers and even an afghan. Some of the patterns were very male suitable and some were of the "a man would never wear that" category.

There was a hat pattern that I thought would be suitable for hubby and in a mad moment I decided I would knit it for him for Christmas. I had to buy yarn and work on it when he wasn't around. Three different colours were needed for the hat. It was difficult to find 3 male friendly colours in a yarn I thought soft enough to wear on the head. I purchased 3 balls of yarn and started the hat but soon came to the realization that
1. I was not going to finish by Christmas and
2. the yarn colours were not working in the pattern.
I abandoned the project.

I still wanted to make the hat so when the yarn store had their after Christmas sale it was a chance to buy suitable yarn. I ended up with 2 colours in an Australian merino and a third colour in a different yarn not quite as soft.

The white and grey yarns are Pear Tree Supersoft 10 ply and the red yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca.

As the original project was to be a surprise I kept this version a secret too. The difficulty being that everytime it was really cold, hubby would work from home preventing me from finishing a hat that he could really use. Anyway it was finally completed and worn as it was still very cold. The hat is reversible therefore double thickness and very warm.



This is a picture of the complete hat.



This is the first version of the hat and you can see that the colours blend together and hide the pattern.

February Knitting

Two pairs of socks and two dishcloths in January. Was I able to continue in February? No and yes. Although I posted two pairs of socks for January, the January mystery pair was not finished until 19 February. I started a sock on 1 February to fit the theme but had to admit that not only was it too big but the yarn didn't show the pattern. I put aside all thoughts of socks in February until I finished January's mystery. February's socks were subsequently started on 19 February and I have finished one sock.

I fared better with the dishcloths making both the patterns.

The one for the beginning of February is smaller which I find better for dishcloths. If I had known this, I could have used left over yarn but that is all part of the mystery. I sent this one to my Mum.

 

Here is the one for the middle of February. By the number of cast on stitches I realised it was going to be bigger so used a new (in the stash) ball of cotton. This was a good thing as it took 40 grams of yarn. Although this could have been worked in two or three colours.

January’s Socks

Of course I am still knitting socks and following the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry. Every odd numbered month there is a mystery sock, so for these months I am aiming to make two pairs of socks – the mystery and another pair to fit the challenge.

The challenge for January was: Technique: Mosaic - Slipped Stitches/Socks for a Cause; Designer: Janel Laidman; Mystery Sock designed by Nicole Masson (stefanina)

The mystery sock is always based on the technique for the month so it would be a mosaic or slipped stitch pattern. I purchased yarn in Gina Brown's post-Boxing Day sale especially for this challenge. The yarn was Cadenza by Estelle; 80% Merino and 20% silk. Here is a picture of the two colours before being wound into balls.

When I purchased the yarn I didn`t notice how it was dyed. I don`t know the correct terminology but basically the yarns changes from dark to light in various parts of the skein. When you see the picture of the completed sock you will see that it doesn`t matter for the pink but I don`t like it for the red as it looks like the yarn is faded rather than deliberately dyed this way.

 Here are the finished socks



And here is a close up of the mosaic pattern.



 

For the other pair of socks for January, I made Socks for a Cause. The idea for this was to buy a pattern where funds were donated to a charity. I had pink yarn and I had a breast cancer awareness pattern but the pattern was free so I chose another pattern Pearl`s Diamonds Socks where all proceeds go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The socks are OK; not the best I have made. The gauge for these socks is 7 stitches and although the yarn label showed a gauge of 28 to 32 stitches, these would look better at a tighter gauge. The yarn is Fine by Spud & Chloë which I bought on the yarn crawl last September. And, obviously because it appears that I had my own sock theme going for the month, this yarn is also 80% wool, 20% silk.