Blue Jean Kool Aid
A week or so ago, I was wearing my fingerless gloves in my office and a friend and colleague expressed an interest in a pair of her own. Since she requested that they match blue jeans - which she wears almost exclusively - and I didn’t have any suitable blue yarn to hand, I decided to try my hand at getting the color I wanted with Kool Aid.
I had most of a skein of Jagger yarn left over from the largesse stocking project from about a year ago and decided that was about the right weight and would likely take up the dye well:
(As usual, all pictures are clickable thumbnails)
I skeined the yarn with my niddy-noddy and started it soaking in some hot water and got a pot starting to boil on the stove. I wanted to pre-mix the color rather than just dump the packets into the boiling water and hope it worked, so I started with 4 packets of Berry Blue in a pint glass of hot water. And quickly decided that it was a bit too.. vibrant. So I added in a couple packets of Grape to darken it up a bit. I dipped a snippet of of spare yarn in it to make sure it was about the right color, but forgot to pre-soak the snippet, so it didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. But I determined that I was generally in the right ballpark.
Once the water in the pot boiled, I turned off the heat, added the dye mix to the water and then dunked the pre-soaked skein.
After about 45 minutes, the dye appears to be exhausted..
.. though somewhat spotty. A quick rinse confirmed that the dye had not been taken up evenly.
Since blue jeans are often various shades of blue, however, I decided it was fine and would pr’bly look really neat once knit up. I hung it up to dry overnight..
..and voila! In the morning I had yarn that is perfect for the recipient!
Radio silence.
Hrm. Yup. Been awhile. Stuff’s been going on, including some knitting and spinning.
On the knitting, I finished the DNA scarf:
No, it’s not really that long, but I wasn’t sure just the two end pictures caught it all. Not that it matters given how hard it is to see anyway, but c’est la vie. *shrug* These pictures were taken while I blocked it on the back of my mom’s couch the night before giving it to the recipient.
Specs:
Pattern - DNA Scarf
Author - June Oshiro, known in blogland as Two Sheep
Yarn - KnitPicks Swish DK in Coal
Needles - KnitPicks Options US size 4 16-inch circular (though I also dallied for awhile with a second circular)
Points of Departure - This scarf was knit for a friend in partial exchange for some sewing she did for Jack. Therefore many of the choices about it (color, etc.) are hers, and at her request it is not a fisherman’s scarf as I understand that creature to be (e.g., with a section of ribbing across the neck) but instead it is “reversible”. To achieve the reversible-ness, this is really two scarfs knit in the round and joined at the edges. I’ve tried to come up with a better way to describe that, but I can’t really, so if you can’t figure out what I did, drop a comment and I’ll try to come up with something better (though likely more verbose).
I liked this scarf - and the double-thickness gave it some substantial heft, which the recipient also liked (and has no doubt come in handy this week with the -20 weather in Wisconsin) - but I’m not sure I’ll ever make another. Mostly because I’m not myself geeky in that way and most of the folks I typically make gifts for aren’t either. *shrug* I will attempt to get an action shot of it at some point with the recipient that shows the reversible nature better.
On the spinning, I finished spinning the cashgora I got with Cate & Sara in St. Louis (or was that Kansas City? I always mess those two up..):
The rose/mauve bits are really understated in the singles, but I like that every now and again they just appear. I’ll eventually ply the singles, once I figure out if I want to try to 3-ply it to maintain the color runs or just let them fall where they may. While I decide, I’m working on spinning up the little ball of Clun Forest that I dyed with cochineal with my friend Carol:
It’s really quite lovely to spin and I’m very pleased with how it’s turning out. I have no idea what to do with it - there’s not very much of it there - but I’m contemplating writing up the documentation for the dyeing and spinning and entering it into an A&S (Arts & Sciences) display at an upcoming SCA event. We’ll see if I get around to that, though.
I also did some more Kool Aid dyeing earlier this week, but I think that may have to wait for another day..
RSA*
Trekking XXL and Kaffe Fassett Regia sock yarns (As usual, all pictures are clickable thumbnails)
8 ounces of really soft and lovely merino roving
The same roving as above (the other picture is more color accurate) with the 2 pounds of Ashland Bay merino roving in Peacock that I got from Mary-Kay when she was moving a couple years ago. I’m thinking about possibly spinning some singles with each and plying them together, but I’m not decided yet.
Sorry all the pictures are a bit blurry, but the colors are pretty true so you get the idea.
Tomorrow I’ll pr’bly post an updated picture of the DNA scarf; it’s about 3.5 feet long now and I’m on the second to last skein of yarn I have for it, so it’s getting close!
* Recent Stash Acquisitions!
D’oh!
I *almost* did something really boneheaded. Almost.
I’m in Lawrence, KS at the moment on a bit of a consulting gig. I thought briefly before I left about checking out the town to see if there were any good yarn shops, but then figured I’d be pretty wrapped up in meetings most of the time anyway and wouldn’t get a chance to track any down so it would just be an exercise in frustration.
And then we finished our meetings yesterday by 3:30. Which left us all with a more or less free late afternoon (which I spent resting and getting rid of a headache) and morning before we had to leave for the airport. And I still didn’t check.
I am saved only because I got out to the lobby last night a few minutes before the rest of the group I was heading to dinner with and picked up and flipped through a tourist magazine where I found, a bit to my surprise and much to my delight, an ad for the famous Yarn Barn! And better still, it’s only three blocks from our hotel!
Of course, I had to venture out that way this morning and it was, as I’ve been promised and warned, Mecca. I don’t have my camera with me, so you’ll have to wait a bit to see pictures of what I got, but for those of you with big stashes or active imaginations, I got a couple skeins of the new Kaffe Fassett Regia sock yarn, a skein of Trekking XXL, and a reallyreallyreally gorgeous 8 ounces of merino roving. *squee!*
And to think I almost missed it (again)!
SLC sites?
So, I’ll be heading out to Salt Lake City next week to do some consulting (this is a new thing for me, and I’m admittedly a bit nervous and a bit excited and a bit .. yeah) and I’ve been asked by my host if there’s any particular site seeing I want to do while I’m there (I arrive mid-afternoon Sunday and will be there through early Thursday morning - early meaning my flight out is at 6 a.m.). And.. well.. I have no idea. So, does anyone have anything to recommend that is a must-see in Salt Lake City? I’ve never been and have no idea if I’ll ever be again. (And yes, while I have skiied in my past, I’m not sure there will be time this trip to do it, though I’ve already been told just how amazing it is.)
In other news, I’ve made another repeat or so of progress on the DNA scarf and passed what I’ve determined to be the midpoint (which is noticeable only in that all the cables now cross the other way; the recipient was not interested in the foot or so of ribbing in the middle so the cable pattern will go the whole length of the scarf) and I’m another inch or so (15 rows?) farther along on Catalina. I doubt I’ll get updated photos before I leave (I’m going to Kansas City before going to SLC, for a different consulting gig of a sort of different nature that I’m not as nervous about; I fly out Wednesday for that one and return Friday evening) and there will hopefully be more progress by the next time I have a chance to take pictures, so you’ll have to wait. 
Catalina
Just a quick update on Catalina.. I’m through the first repeat, with the handspun silk from Eilidh:
(Clickable thumbnails, as usual.)
The blue blanket wasn’t the best choice for a background, but it was convenient. The next repeat is a shade or two lighter, but it’s not quite as noticeable in person as it appears in these pictures. I’ll do a repeat in this yarn, then another in a still lighter aqua, then two repeats (which will be the center) in white before reversing and ending up again with the other skein of Eilidh’s handspun.
I have a few upcoming plane trips, so it’s possible that this will progress fairly rapidly. I want to get the DNA scarf completed by January 19, though, so maybe not. *shrug*
