Koolaid Dyeing: A lesson learned!

Okay, so I had my first Koolaid dyeing experience. What fun!! I decided to dye the yarn orange, purple, and lime green (with orange, grape, and lemon-lime Koolaid). I had lovely soft 3-ply Purewool in natural, and skeined it up (it had been wound). My first mistake was skeining it too small; I should've made the loop much bigger, so the yarn wasn't right on top of itself come dyeing time. But I digress...

I soaked the yarn (water & vinegar), drained it, and started. By the time I was done, my hands were a mish-mash of orange, green, and brown (apparently what you get when you mix the first two colors with grape, LOL), and my yarn was somewhat like I had wanted. The colors ran a bit more than I'd've liked, and I was aiming originally at natural spots in between the colors, but this'll do. It knits up neat, at any rate!! Andy, my 4 year old, says he likes the colors, but not the smell. :)

Yarn Bliss!!

Okay, so this knitting thing is really starting to grow on me. Despite the fact that I had to frog an almost-complete soaker that was knit flat (because I ended up not having enough yarn), and that too much knitting makes my hands go numb, it is incredibly addictive. I find myself dreaming about yarn; I take it in the car when I have to pick up my oldest son. And now, according to my 4 year old son, everything is knitting. We were reading Fox in Socks last night, and got to the part where Sue is sewing Slow Joe Crow's clothes (and vice versa), and he looks at the needles they're using and says, "Look, mom, they're knitting the clothes!" Even when I'm crocheting instead, to him, I'm always knitting.

Upon our trip day before yesterday to our local yarn store, http://www.mainstreetyarns.com, my oldest was totally incredulous that we were there yet again. He says, "What are we doing here AGAIN? Are you like a member or something?" I giggled all the way into the store! It is a cool place; who wouldn't want to be a member of a yarn store, I ask you?

So yesterday, I had a tangled mess of yarn. Zenstring yarn, to be exact (Living Light colorway). I was sick about it, but FINALLY got it untangled. Then in the mail, I got a new skein of yarn; Fangorn Forest from Dyeing to Fly. Oh, my goodness...it is so beautiful!! And it's on 3-ply merino, so it's super-butter-soft. I had to abandon everything else, ball it up by hand (I have no ball winder, boo hiss), and cast on for a pair of shorties last night. I couldn't resist!! Look above at this yummy stuff...

My first blog post...

Okay, so I'm jumping on the blog bandwagon! I'll probably be mostly talking about the boys (I have three) and crafting, as those things are what encompass my days. Stay tuned...