Have i got a great husband or what?

So hubby got me a birthday gift ... he got me a yarn yardage meter for when I dye my own yarn or have to split yarn into two balls. AND he got me jacquard dyes to boot! wow.

but the best part was ... UPS screwed up again, twice.

first the said they couldn't deliver ... reason? the other end of our block had a landscape truck in front of it -- we do NOT live on a dead end road, no reason they couldn't come in our way ... oh wait, that would be too easy.

But they promised my husband they were going to redeliver it ...

so he waited until 6pm and still no package - they dont usually deliver past 6pm, at least that is the latest I've ever gotten a package from them. so he called them up to see if the package was still coming.

turns out the driver delivered it to THE WRONG ADDRESS and had to be called back to get it and they had it in the UPS office ... if my husband wanted to go get it!!!

So yes, hubby went and got the gift - and when he got there, they searched for 20 minutes just to find ... it was sitting there right by the front desk all along.

so we ate supper late, really late ... but I got my gift. he is calling the vendor tomorrow to see if he can get some of the shipping charge back since he had to go pick it up - we will see what happens, after all it wasn't their fault it was UPS's .... again.

but I'm happy. Both have been sitting in my KP wish list for over a year and now I have them.

Yeah, me.

so I redyed the blue/brown yarn ... which wasn't really brown at all .... well this time I gave it a good cooking in pure strong coffee with just a dash of vinegar to set the color. rinsed it until the water ran clear ... I really like the color, its almost as ark as my daughter's hair.

From Hogwarts Sock Swap 5

The center ball is the original main color and the original brown was about 2 shades darker, but when it worked up it just wasn't enough of a difference and the yarn was lost in the pattern - this will work out much better.

now I just need to redo those stitches I had to pull out to do the redye and then I can book out these socks.

hubby is out of town most of next week -- I suffer from insomnia, especially when he's out of town, so I will have plenty of time to tick them off.

they should look sooooooo cutee!!!!

dye job gone awry

well not really ... I like what I got, but it was exactly what I was hoping for.

they should make some lovely socks -- it will have a wonderful one of a knd pattern to it.

I label these skeins "Close But No Cigar" color ways ... because while the skeins were colored the same way, at the same time, same dye-lots - they marled differently ... but they should make a beautiful effect once knitted up!

Okay so here's what I did .... I did a test swatch and kept careful records of ratios of colors (so I could make the batch bigger), colorant:water ratios, "cooking" times.

This particular dye lot used 11 parts blue to 2 parts purple Paas dye, to 2 cups water for 1/2 oz yarn, cooked for a total of 12 minutes. then cooled to room temp and rinsed then hung to dry.

here is how it was supposed to look:

This is what I got instead:

here is a comparison of what I got ... left to right (brightness is off):

1) the color I wanted (deep navy)
2) the rainbow batch used to see who colors would blend
3) the color I got (deep navy dyed over just blue)

as you can see -- they are all very nice (and youngest daughter has already claimed the rainbow mini skein for a sock)

as you can see - its considerably brighter than I wanted but it should still give me a good effect even if it isn't the exact one I wanted.

these were pure yellow paas overdyed onto onion skin dyed yarn ... the paas was microwaved and the onion skin was cooked in a crock pot for a whole day (I really needed more onions skins than I had to make it deeper ... but you use what you've got)

As you can see the color runs from a subtle onion to brighter yellow - it should flash wonderfully giving it a metallic look!

I've been told that it could be that the yarn has simply taken all it can of the dye and it can't take anymore ... I don't know .... I haven't heard of such a thing but I suppose its possible.

Colorways

Okay - so I was reading the Yarn Harlot's blog when she mentioned a yarn company's site ... one that i recognized by a book I have that they must have put out when they went national ... nice patterns in worsted weight, which seem to be too thick at first - at least I thought so until I made the pair for my last swap partner ... they are actually quite nice.

Anyhow the company is Philosopher's Wool and I was looking at their Colorways page to see which colors they have to offer .... when I was actually amazed that they color with Kool-Aid.

now I've done it myself, they make lovely colors .... I just never thought a professional yarn company would do it. Nice to know, but theirs looks marled & splotchy.

“Improvisational Potions” Class

I bought some Bare yarn from KnitPicks.com last year to experiment with Potions for Knitting, but I didn't have everything I thought I needed to do it -- warm sunny days, place to hang it outside, time, swift ... well for my birthday this year 'hubby' bought me a wooden swift to make winding yarn a breeze. So when we packed for vacation I made sure I remembered the Kool-Aid, the yarn, and my monster Swift!! (I got the biggest I could find so I wouldn't have to upgrade later).

Okay I didn't have any vinegar on vacation … I know, I know … how hard would it have been to go to the store? And if the little local store were rebuilt after the fire last year making it a total loss (thank goodness it didn't hit the gas tanks) I probably would have – I love little local stores – but I decided to do a bit of experimenting.

So I used the regular Kool-aid instructions I got from KnitPicks.com (they have a pdf here) but instead I added 2 T of Kosher salt to the soak water, 1 – 1½ tsp salt to the dye, and didn't let it cool completely before rinsing (only to the point where I could handle it) … I also didn't wash the superwash wool first …

I soaked the yarn for about 3-4 hours before use but because I only had a single container to cook it all in I kept the hanks not being dyed in the water until it was their turn.

So how did it turn out?

Here are the colors: single packet unless noted.

1. Lemonade (3 packets)
2. Orange
3. Pink Lemonade (2 packets)
4. Strawberry
5. Berry Blue
6. Grape
7. Black Cherry
8. Cherry
9. Lemonade (2 packets) & enough Berry Blue to make green
10. Soaring Strawberry Lemonade (1 packet) & rest of Berry Blue

Number 10 is a lovely Mauve and number 9 is what my son calls 'Froot Loops Green', I think it is more of an Aqua myself.

The Strawberry (#4) I thought was going to be a bright Pink and it turned into a wonderful Strawberry Red … not as red as the Cherry but a nice comfy red. The Blackberry (#7) is a deep red … not as deep as I thought it would be though, I was expecting it to be almost a maroon but it is just a deep red.

Most of the yarn is marled/splotchy colored but it would be okay… it should give some wonderful shading.

I kept the hanks very small so I could get a good sampling – I'm not sure what I can do with such small hanks, but it will be interesting to try it out and see.

Now they say that Super-washed wool isn't supposed to felt…but mine seemed to felt up a bit … maybe it's just the characteristics of wool in general to stick to itself – I've never dyed my own yarn before so I don't know.

This could be great fun to play with.

Cauldrons a bubbling~~

I have been doing Potions Class all day with the little ones today just testing out what Kool-Aid can do ... but alas we didn't have any vinegar at the cabin so we are experimenting with Kosher Salt instead on superwash wool.

Don't let them fool you - superwash WILL felt if you are super careful. I will have to see how durable it is though.

I can't stay on for long though because I'm on hubby's cell via dial-up --- hoping the bill isn't too outrageious ... but its really nice of him to let me do this.

Got to go.