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Showing posts with label kool-aid dyeing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kool-aid dyeing. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Yarn-along: April 13th and Spring has sprung!

After what seemed like YEARS of winter weather (not snow, but ooky-mooky, icy cold days and dreary skies), we are FINALLY getting a bit of spring.  This week we're getting rain that promises to have our garden blooming fit to beat the band -- the dogwoods are blooming out, the hostas are unfurling and the Japanese maples are covered in red-green leaves.  Gorgeous even if the sky is not!

But, you've come to see what I have for this week's yarn-along, haven't you.  Here's the idea:
~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a single photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ Ginny @ small things.


This is our yarn-along!
On the needles:  a baby blanket for a dear friend (and dh's colleague) whose wife just had their 4th child ... a beautiful baby girl ... last week.  The blanket is knit in the round, so you're not getting the full effect here (as it's still on the circs), but the yarn is different shades of Dale of Norway's Falk (a washable wool version of their traditional Heilo).  With a pink center and than 3 shades of purple ... it's very appropriate for a baby born right before Easter!

The yarn skeins on the right are kool-aid dyed yarns we did yesterday in our St. Agnes Fiber Club.  The greens/blues is in fingering weight for a pair of socks for me and fingerless mitts for BamBam while the reds/purples is a worsted weight for me to make String Bean a pair of fingerless mitts, too.   

On the reading table: we finished Another Whole Nother Story and I decided we'd do a fun introductory unit to Shakespeare.   Using the classic Charles and Mary Lamb Tales from Shakespeare as our spine, we'll learn about the master's comedies and dramas.  We've started with Macbeth ... having read the Lamb synopsis, and having memorized the witches' "boil, boil, toil and trouble" speech, we're now in the process of watching a BBC version.  We're just about finished and will then turn to Merchant of Venice for something just a tad "lighter".  This is a GREAT way for the kids to learn about (and learn to love) Shakespeare before having to analyze his works to death later on.

My reading:  I'm building a new website (to be unveiled soon ... please pray for me!) so of course I've been poring over books like WordPress for Dummies (which is excellent, btw).  I'm also continuing my early morning spiritual reading/prayer time with the classic, Abandonment to Divine Providence.  Since I'm such a fiber-fanatic, and to prep for my talk this past weekend (which went wonderfully ... thanks for the prayers), I've been loving reading the pre-publication copy of The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook (review coming soon):  this is a treasure trove of clear and concise information about all animal fibers used to make yarn (weaving/knitting).  This book is eye-candy for this fiber fanatic!

Enjoy your day .... visit the other folks who participate in Ginny's yarn-along ... and let me know, too, what's on your needles and on your reading table!

BTW, the wrap I was working on last week ... 
Spring Garden wrap 
for $6.00 (MUST be able to read charts!)
 

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Yarn-along: April 6th and all is well ...

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a single photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~


... on the reading front -- the kids' read-aloud has slowed a bit since we had a few days of gorgeous weather and they wanted to be out and about but we are almost done with Another Whole Nother Story ... any suggestions for what should we read next?  

I'm about half thru No He Can't ... wow, this is the scariest book I've ever read!  Hard to imagine a, this guy was elected president, and b, that he thinks he should be given another four years .... McCullough's book is an amazing indictment of the machinations of this particular politico!

... on the knitting front all is well!  Just about finished with "Spring Garden wrap" (will post the pattern soon) done in a lovely sage-y green of cashmere/bamboo blend that knits up like a dream.  The white pieces are some short-row samples for my talk this weekend at Graves Mountain (please pray for me ... and there may be a few spaces left if you'd like to join us out in the mountains).  

I've also been playing with knitted hearts.  These two came from this great FREE design Teresa Fox did up.  These are so cool: they're knitted in one-piece, stuffed (or not), felted (or not).  The multi-color one is KP's Bare Superwash wool ... dyed in a crockpot with kool-aid!  The dyeing technique is easy, clean and gives great results (and the house smells like kool-aid for a bit!).  I didn't stuff that one, but instead left it flat.  The green-ish one on the left is Plymouth's "Poems" a silk/wool blend that I stuffed. 

I've also been playing with starting up a website (thanks to a dear friend's web expertise) and have been playing with a new logo:



What do you think of the design?  


Come join our yarn-along ... always great fun to see what others have on their needles and on their reading tables!  I get such great ideas for both ...