She Dyed by Her Own Hand or Handpainted Yarn Whatever

And yes I dyed by my own hands! I hand painted my first skein of yarn! I used the tutorial on knitty.com about hand painting wool yarn with food coloring. And now that I've done one skein with food coloring I'm totally full of myself. I've been searching online for undyed sock yarn and acid dyes. Wouldn't that be fun. I'll take pictures of my yard there really is no place for me to use those kind of chemicals. However those of you who know me or have gotten to know me through my blog will probably guess that I will end up doing it even if I have to set up traffic cones in the street in front of my house (because of my lack of front yard as well) and start dying away. I can hear the neighbors now. "There is that crazy knitting lady, you know the one who knits in the front yard while her son rides his big wheel." says neighbor one. Neighbor two pipes up, :Oh yes I saw her trying to knit while pushing her sons in the double stroller for a walk, what a freak!" "What is she doing now MAKING yarn? Doesn't she know you can buy that stuff at Wal @*#&" neighbor one exclaims. Then the Home Owner's Association Nazi would come along take a picture and I'd get a letter weeks later about how dying yarn in the middle of the street violates section 41 and 53 of our home owner's handbook. So and on to the pictures of my beautifully gaudy yarn!



nice and finished I call it Pepper Mill and if you'd ever eaten at the Pepper Mill on the Las Vegas Strip you'd know why. The assault on the ocular nerves is something of legend.



I used my kitchen chair to skein up the yarn as I have no swift and then wound the ball by hand. :)



and since I hand painted the yarn in longish sections it stripes up. Maybe I could make some rainbow bright leg warmers. :)
I'm sorry but there are no pictures of me actually hand painting the yarn I was obviously just so excited and didn't think about it.
My husband was also fascinated and was talking the whole time about making yarn and selling it, but strangely enough ever since he's seen the final result he hasn't mentioned anything about that again. In defense of the colors they are not exactly what I had envisioned but that is part of the fun, and you try and get exact colors with 4 different colors of food coloring to mix! So I'm off to plan my next hand painted masterpiece.

Knitting and Journey Under the Sea!

OK so check this out who would have known they would reprint this book? Journey Under the Sea is the second chose your own ending book ever made. I loved these books but this one drove me nuts! I "borrowed" it from my 4th grade class just to figure out how to get an ending I liked! Let me tell you I took extensive notes. I read every single pathway available you always either die or almost die, and the one time you get close to finding Atlantis you piss off a merperson and they kill you! Don't buy this book it will only anger you. This being true I still want to get the new one a sequal to Journey Under the Sea. I suppose I am just sadistic that way. :) Just had to share.

As for knitting I think I've found a progect for those 4 hanks of lion brand organic cotton in 2 different colors I'll possibly do a cabled purse.... Or a cropped sweater. Oh crap I have't decided. Never mind... Why in the world did I buy so little in 2 different colors do you ask. Well 1 I was on vacation so that right there is a good excuse. And 2 I had been wanting to get my hands on some organic cotton and had never seen it in real life and that was all they had left at the lys in Cannon Beach where I was taking part of said vacation. I was just giddy! I'll take pictures of all my rediculous yarn purchases. I swear there is no decent project in the lot, except of course the sock yarn there is always something you can make with sock yarn... SOCKS! I usualy like to add pictures to my blog but I'm lazy so here is some random picture of Cannon Beach I took on Vacation. Yes Vacation in capitalized so no comments from english teachers!

SP 11 questionaire 2

So here I go another set of questions I'm sure everyone wants to know all the lurid details of my life but all you get is stuff about my knitterly life for now. ;)

1. What is the one knitting accessory you could not live without?
My Denise knitting needle set. I know what size needles I have at all times. And my 30 or so seamstress tapes laying around the house. But the big monster frequesntly gets ahold of those and then I have no idea where they are so scratch that.

2. If you're heading on vacation, do you take knitting with you? If so, how much and what type of project?
Ok I don't leave the house without my knitting bag. I have at least 2 projects in there and then at least 2 random balls of yarn just incase I get inspired on the road. My boys always fall asleep in the car and so when I get to the supermarket I just sit in the parking lot and knit. Or when I get home I do the same thing. :) And I have at least 2 knitting books with me too. I suppose I should just keep an emergency knitting bag with a simple sock pattern in it at all times so I don't have to lug my bag around.

3. Where have you travelled to that you'd consider your favorite spot?
We recently took a trp up the PCH and I'd say I fell inlove with the Oregon coast. Cannon Beach is amazing! You can see pictures on my flickr badge.

4. What is your favorite knitting book at the moment? Do you own it?
My fav right now would be "no sheep for you" because of all the info about different fibers other than wool. I live in the desert and so it's got good info about substituting yarns for wool yarns. I like wool but winter is so short here!

5. Do you listen to podcasts? Which is your favorite(s)?
OMG lime and Violet are hillarious! They are why I tryed knitting socks in the first place! I also like stash and burn, and subscribe to a bunch more but those are the 2 I listen to religiously.

6. If you could only knit with 1 color for the rest of your life, what color would that be?
Oh that is hard... Blue or hot pink... ok ok blue, or maybe chocalte brown? no blue deffinatly blue... I think...

7. If you were far into a project and then noticed a mistake near the beginning what would you do?
Depends on the mistake but I'd most likely just keep going. But is it was really really noticeable and would drive me crazy every time I saw it I would frog it. I knit my nephew a sweater to come home from the hospital in and I messed up only one stitch and just kept going but now every time I see it I want to rip it out and reknit the whole thing even though he's a year and a half old now.

8. Where is the most unsual spot you've ever knit?
Actualy just today I was at the bank with both the boys in the stroller and was knitting away on my newest self created pattern while waiting in line. But the worst place I have ever knit was in the car while driving. Oh yes I have done it. I guess it comes from being part of the generation who text messages searches our ipods for new songs and puts on makeup at the same time. But I came to my senses quickly and only knit at traffic lights for the rest of the ride home. But in my deffense I had just left my lys (wich sucks but that is beside the point) and I was dieing to cast on.

ok so I guess you do now know a few of my dirty little secrets. On with life.

Coffee, Kids, and Knitting Blogs

I am not a morning person and the earlier I get up the more synical I get. Rarely do I have the chance to get an entire cup of coffee down before it goes cold. My perfect morning to center myself is a pot of steaming hot coffee, and a sit down infront of Outlook to read my emails and my favorite blogs. But first I have to run around filling demands for juice screams for changed diapers spills from dumped bowls of cheerios and of course the ramdom squeel from the little monster that may or may not be the result of some manhandling from the big monster. And that's if we make it through breakfast without the worst dog in the whole world stealing someone's eggs or toy. So this is what my son looked like when he first got up yesterday. Mommy came downstairs got him his milk turned on Blue's Clues and he relaxed while my day tore on fast as ever and my coffee went cold.


And don't let this little monster fool you he was screaming at me right before I snapped the shot.


See there on the table is my coffee in a thermos brand insulated cup and it's cold! See righ now I am hearing the little twitter of "May I please have some milk please mom" in an oh so polite voice while the big monster pounds his cup on the baby gate to the kitchen. The pounding kind of ruins the cherub like voice with the oh so polite pleases. Off I go to fetch some milk.

The Knittting Guild of America?

Ok I've heard about this here and there, and then Darkinn Knits from the Las Vegas Knitters group started doing it and I thought wow these must be some really talented people. Now this post is not in any way a correction of that original assumption. I still belive these knitters to be amazingly talented. That being said I thought there was no way in hell that someone like me a self taught no sweater yet knitted person like me could be so accomplished as to complete a test to prove I am a Master knitter! But check out the TKGA website! I am certain that everything they ask you to do I could do without much help at all! Interesting! Except how to properly block something. Lets get real here I live in the desert I have done very little wool knitting I have made it through entire winters without wearing anything heavier than a light cotton sweater. But I digress...
I suppose I am a more knowledgeable knitter than I thought. I should have figured that out when I started getting frustrated at all my knitting books for not having anything new or exciting in the way of technique. I hear about different cast ons and cast offs and I can find examples of them online but when do I use them what about finishing techniques?
I am the kind of person that once I have knitted something I have to find something harder to knit the next time. Right now I am working on The Zag Sock from Lucia'sZig & Zag Sockulator. And let me tell you it is so cute but the directions for the Lifted increase before and the lifted increase after were not very easy to follow so the sock is turning out allright but I would say that the increases may be a little wonky. I tryed them a few ways and I think I have it right now. I'll post pictures soon. The Zig & Zag sockulator gives you a personalized pattern for a pair of socks like the jaywalker socks. I wanted to do jaywalker but I of course did not want to do the math to get one big enoughfor my feet so even though I am fully capable of full on algebraic equations I once again left the work up to Lucia. Thank you Lucia! You Rock!

All Aboard the Dishcloth Bandwagon!!

So here I go jumping onto the bandwagon and I must say it's nice up here. All comfy with cotton yarn and the click click of knitting needles. Yes of all the bandwagons I've been on this is surely my favorite! Here are my dishcloths. I got a hold of the Mason Dixon book at the library and knitted the 2 dishcloth patterns in there and let me say is it sure is fun to knit something up that you can use every day and only took you a couple hours from start to last weaved in end. And that is with frequent breaks of getting the big monster juice and the little monster's diaper changes and breast feedings. The other cloths are just swatches of stitch patterns from the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary I got for my birthday. I love looking through that book it's so inspiring.



On another note I've got a proposition for anyone who is reading. Post a comment about your favorite item to knit or your favorite item you want to knit as a summer project as well as your favorite yarn to knit with in the summer and for warm weather projects. I'm looking for some inspiration. Each person who posts will get a very nice email from me. :) I know not much incentive but hey it's better than nothing. ;)