Misadventures in Dyeing

A while back a bunch of us in knitting group decided to try dyeing sock blanks. KnitPicks started selling socks blanks a while back, and one of us bought one to see how it was put together. Eventually a bunch of us ended up buying hanks of their bare sock yarn, and one of our members knitted up blanks on her knitting machine.

We got together to dye the blanks on October 19. We used condiment bottles to apply the dye, which worked pretty well. Since some people wanted their colors to bleed into each other, we did not add vinegar to the dye stock. I did not really want my colors to bleed and someone said something about maybe spraying the blank with vinegar before applying the dye, so I gave it a try. I did my first blank in green and gray stripes. Once I finished applying the dye, I sprayed it with more vinegar. The green part turned out okay, but the gray is a bit darker than I intended. I over-saturated the yarn too.


Jaime took this picture--thanks Jaime!

The next blank I wanted to do black and turquoise stripes. I tried to be very careful and use the dye very sparingly, but it bled all over the place, and the blank was largely black. I also managed to over-saturate this one too. I kept rinsing turquoise out of it for quite some time. The next time I do this, I definitely want vinegar added to the dye.


There are actually turquoise stripes in the black blank, but it is not terribly obvious from that picture.


Some people wanted to knit directly from the blanks, but others of us wanted to wind ours. So the next knitting group after our dye session, a few of us brought our ball-winders. Since the blanks are double knit, two us wound at the same time--except when I was filming Jaime winding both. I wanted to try soaking the black blank some more, so I did not wind mine that night. I later unraveled the blanks, wound them into balls by hand, then used the ball-winder to make pull skeins.

Twisted

On November 1, I stopped in at Settlers Farm in Wamego on the way to Manhattan. I bought two hanks of Put Your Best Sock Forward-one in a blue colorway and one in a gray. I mostly do plain old stockinette socks, but I decided I wanted to try a more complicated pattern for socks. I had originally opted to try Eunny Jang's Bayerische Socks. I love the pattern but it just did not show up well with this yarn.

I had recently found Caoua Coffe's Lohengrin Pattern on Ravelry, and I decided to try it instead. I cast on for two socks on Friday and knit some at the pub. I am not sure how many hours I have put into them so far, but I am really liking them. The pattern is much more visible than it had been on the Bayerische Socks.




I still plan to do the Bayerische Sock pattern, but I think I need to use a yarn with a tighter ply

A Rant

Okay, clearly I have not been paying enough attention. I went to a Legislative Update program put on by the Kansas Bar Association today, and heard that there was a proposition on the ballot of Johnson County to elect judges (right now the judges are appointed by the Governor). One of the attorneys from Wichita said that if the attorneys in Johnson County had better be prepared to be deluged with requests for campaign contributions if it passed.

I do not recall hearing about this before, and I am a rather disturbed, even though I do not live or work in that county. About half the state of Kansas elects judges, and there was proposed legislation a couple of years ago to have them all elected, including the justices of the Kansas Court of Appeals and Kansas Supreme Court. It did not go anywhere, much to my relief.

I know that some people think electing judges is a good thing, and they are entitled to their opinions. The county I live and work in does not elect judges, but I have dealt with elected judges in other counties. Some of the elected judges are very good at their jobs. Others are not, but the same can be true of appointed judges as well.

I do not favor electing judges, but if we are going to do it, well then the Board of Bar Examiners need to add some subjects to the Bar Exam.

The Yarn Harlot

WE MADE THE BLOG!!!

A few of us from Topeka went to Kansas City last night to see the Yarn Harlot. It was awesome! Stepheny bought coffee from PT's and Jaime brought Tallgrass. It occurred to me today that we should have brought her some Kansas wine. All I had for her was a Ravelry button, which she already had one, but she did not have it with her.

As we suspected, Lynn made the blog, because of the story surrounding her first pair of socks.

Stephanie was shocked by the photographic evidence Lynn provided. She actually took a picture of Lynn holding the photograph.

Karen and Melissa also made the blog.

If you look really close at the top picture, you can see some of us from Topeka :)

The Yarn Harlot's post about Kansas City is at
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2008/10/14/from_the_kansas_city_airport.html

Stephanie, if you are ever in Topeka, Kansas on a Friday night, come join us at Francis O'Dooleys, where we can knit, drink, and listen to Rich Stevenson, the Irish Rebel.

Reversible Cabled Scarf

Back in March, I took the Reversible Cables class offered by Needlework University, and in the second session of the class we got the pattern for the Dazzle Your Friends Scarf designed by the instructor. I played around with the pattern for a while, but I did not actually start the scarf until August. Life has kept me rather busy, so I have been working on it on and off.



I am using Dark Horse Fantasy Yarn in Renaissance Green. I had originally found one skein of this yarn and color at Laura May's Cottage in Lindsborg, Kansas last year. I liked how it felt, so I bought it thinking I could do a hat or something. Well, when Settlers Farm in Wamego opened up earlier this year, a few of us went there and then went on to Wildflower in Manhattan, where I found more of the same color. Not only was it the same color, but it was the same dye lot! I bought five more.

Cabled Afghan

Now that I have my camera back, and have the USB cord to upload the pictures to my camera, here is a picture of the finished afghan.


As I mentioned in a previous post, I planned to enter this in the Kansas City Irish Fest's knitting contest. The contest theme was cables. My friend Stepheny and I drove to the fest Sunday (it was a busy weekend), and I entered the afghan. There were only three entries in the non-wearable item category, so I was guaranteed to win something. There were two other afghans, one was knit, and the other was crocheted (crochet was accepted as long as the item was cabled).


Yes, that is a 1st place ribbon :) I won a $50 gift certificate to Yarn Shop and More (already spent). I did not win grand prize, but that's okay. It is my understanding that it was a matter of points.

Also worth noting, I knit quite a bit of this in the Irish pub I go to. Speaking of which, it is almost time for Rich to start playing, so I had better sign off.

Here there be dragons!

My friend Tim had his 50th Birthday Bash last Saturday, and as I promised, I did a dragon themed cake. The cake is devil's food with vanilla frosting. The base color is a light blue and then I used some black spray color one one edge of the cake to look like mountains.


I had baked the cake the day before, leveled it, and crumb-coated with icing. The icing crusted up nicely overnight, but the additional coat did not want to cooperate. I think it must have just been too humid out. Note to self--get dehumidifier. So anyway, I had tried doing the pattern transfer twice, but the icing was still not set up enough, so I stuck the cake in the fridge and went and did something else for a while. The frosting set up, and I was running out of time, so instead of piping gel, I used black gel, flipped it over on to the cake. It worked so well that all I had to do was fill in the spaces.

I had originally wanted to do something along the lines of Celtic knot work along the the sides, but my pattern book of borders is packed up somewhere, so I opted for the saying, "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."





Tim loved the cake. Here he is, slaying a dragon.