Lir's ugly daughter.....or Swan lake only Green-

Knitting, Spinning and family dementia

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Sock dye

Today, I spent the afternoon at Elsa's house dyeing Sock blanks from Knitpick.com
I've only dyed yarn a few times with marginal success. So, today was a real joy.
They turned out fabulous. We used Wilton cake icing colorings and Easter egg dyes in water/vineger put in squeeze bottles.
First, we lay out plastic wrap the length + an inch or so.. the size of the blank. Soaked the blanks in water for a time and squeezed them out before laying out to dye. We did all kinds of bazaar designs. I was rather sparing with the dye and tried not to waste it. Then we rolled up the plastic wrap the short way so, not to obscure our designs. Then the long way..like a jelly roll. Instead of steaming, like the knitpicks video, we Microwaved each packet for 2min and then let them cool. Gently, placed them in a sink 1/4 full of water to rinse. Almost no dye came out. Except the yellow which was easter egg tablet dye. BUT, the yellow did not rinse out totally. I squeezed the water out and when I got home layed them out on a sweater drying rack. Where they are drying now.
No pictures yet. But, heres the video with Acid dyes. Just substitute Microwaving for all that steaming..lol And, Food colorings instead of the Acid dyes. Good luck!!


Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Puppy sweater

Finally, The puppy sweater ON the puppy. Isn't she cute? Only thing I see that could be changed is making the neck smaller. But she looks happy.. don't you think?
I made this for my friend Don's dog Maya. What a sweetie.
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Sunday, September 07, 2008

My talented Hubby

We bought a glass lampshade for a lamp that belonged to my hubbies grandmother. We were horrified when we got it and it was to short to sit on the chimney properly. So we thought and thought and Bill decided to try making a wooden extension so it fit proper. Here it is on the lathe. Dozens of little pieces of wood glued to make a rough circle. Lots of dust and foot prints tracked threw the house... Here is the finished product.. Isn't it gorgeous!! Oh fyi.. the photos on the mantle are..Bill's Grandma.. Me as a 10 yr old and then at 28 ( the hippy look), behind is Bill in the Army.


Something New to me

I was sitting chatting with the ladies from my Saturday group. We get a bit loud with the laughing etc. But, I noticed we all got real quiet. Why was that?? They have background music playing most of the time. Today was mostly French probably from Debs vacation to Paris but something was playing that was different. I asked Victoria who it was so she went over to check and when she told me .. everyone in the room whipped out a pen to write the young mans name down.
Now.. Most of you don't know that I used to be a folk singer in the 60's and 70's..Haven't done much with it in years. I also have a passion for anything Celtic or folk music from the UK. So when I started researching this song I found the young man is from Scotland..you can hear his brogue in some of his music..anyway.. found an older YouTube before he cut his hair. Love my guys with long hair.. sigh Gonna embed it.. hope it works.

This is Alexi Murdoch.. the song Orange Sky