10.22.06
Koolaid dye
This weekend I dyed 2 skeins of yarn from knitpicks using the knitty koolaid tutorial and chart as a guide. Here’s a picture of one dyed skein of merino wool:
To color it, I used two packets of lemonade koolaid, and one packet each of cherry and orange koolaid. Our whole house still smells like koolaid and I’m afraid I’m never going to wash the fruit punch smell off my hands. Even our kitty, Luna, who loves yarn refused to touch it. You can see her tentatively sniffing it in the picture above, but the fruitiness was just too much for her to bear.
I attempted to wind the yarn into center pull balls by hand. I contemplated buying a yarn ball winder, but I didn’t think they were worth the $40 price tag. But after spending h-o-u-r-s this weekend winding yarn into tangled, sloppy balls and then unwinding and unknotting them, I see the value of a yarn ball winder. I’ve ordered one from knitpicks.com and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.
After I finally get the yarn wound into a ball, I’m going to attempt to knit some toe-up socks with the dyed yarn using these sites as references:
toe-up KAL
universal toe-up socks
anastasia socks
chain cast on tutorial
short row heel tutorial
picot edge variations
10.21.06
Completed: needle case
I finally got sick of losing stitch markers and darning needles, so I made this handy needle case to hold all of my knitting paraphernalia. I also got this really nifty drawstring bag from REI to hold small projects in progress. Perfect for knitting on the bus!
10.11.06
WIP: ugly socks
Here’s my socktoberfest sock thus far:
The pattern is from lion brand yarn, and I am not particularly impressed with it. I used it to make my first pair of socks, which were knit with slightly thicker yarn and turned out ok. But I hate hate HATE making heel flaps. I thought it would be easier on my second pair of socks, but it wasn’t. Also, with this thinner yarn, the heel is not looking right. Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong?
My next pair of socks is going to be toe-up, possibly with size US 2 instead of US 3 needles.
10.03.06
Seeds!
This gardening season isn’t even finished yet, and I’m already planning next year’s garden. Here’s the list of seeds I just ordered from park seed:
1875 Qty 1 Sedum Hardy Blend Ships now 0.95
2599 Qty 1 Snapdragon Rocket Whit Ships now 2.50
4731 Qty 1 Viola Bilbo Baggins Ships now 2.75
0900 Qty 1 Gourd Luffa Ships now 2.25
1140 Qty 1 Lavender Hidcote Blue Ships now 1.85
1118 Qty 1 Lavender Rosea Ships now 4.15
1136 Qty 1 Lavender Lady Ships now 2.05
1138 Qty 1 Lavender English Ships now 1.85
2832 Qty 1 Baby Toes Cactus Ships now 0.75
I’m planning to make a lavender garden in my front yard, although the exact site is TBD. I’m going to intersperse some black violas and white snapdragons with the lavender. At least that’s the plan. Another plan is to dig up the mint I planted this year and put it in pots before it takes over the entire front yard. (I know mint is classified as invasive, but so is catnip and lemon balm, and I’ve never had any problem with them. The mint, however, really IS invasive.)
Here are the things Iwould like to order from seedsavers (obviously I have some narrowing-down to do):
Veggies
- gourd mixture *
- birdhouse gourd *
- borettana yellow onion
- apolla arugala
- amish dear tongue lettuce
- bronze arrowhead lettuce
- brittish wonder pea *
- america spinach
- round mauve eggplant
- Listada de Gandia Eggplant *
- Parade Cucumber *
- Snow’s fancy pickling cucumber *
- Double Yield Cucumber *
- Scarlet Nantes Carrot
- St. Valery Carrot
- Purple Podded Pole Bean *
- empress bean
- burpee stringless bean
- ideal market bean *
- climbing french bean *
- Royalty Purple Pod Bean
- black valentine bean
- golden midget watermelon *
- moon and stars watermelon *
- brandywine tomato
- lemon drop pepper
Herbs
- lamb’s ear
- stevia
Flowers
- sensation mixture cosmos
- california poppy
- double moss roses
- immortelle
- butterflyweed
- music box sunflower
- red marietta marigold
- tigers eye marigold
- starfire signet marigold
- music box sunflower
- fuji dawn viola
- aztec sunflower
Start indoors
Direct seed
* climbing
Here are the things I’d like to order from burpee:
- asarina (snap dragon vine)
- lacy frills lavender
- kohlrabi
WIP: quilt
This last weekend I met with my husband’s family to work on a quilt for his sister. Here’s a picture of the fabric before we started:
Here’s the quilt with the 8 large columns sewn together, after only 1.5 days of working:
It’s going to be king-sized, about 104 inches square. I love it!
