Dazed and Confused

Our animal shelter mutt came home today. She's so sweet, but drugged out of her little doggy mind. Poor thing. At least she won't have another litter of pups. Sgt. Husband was just as cranky when he got fixed. (Even though it was 10 years before I met him, I still hear about it.)

I finished my crazy socks and had the crazy idea to overdye them green to make the colors less eye-searing. I totally forgot that one of the yarns was corn fiber. One sock is striped and the other isn't. Still, I consider this an improvement. I've got to work on more artful mismatching. Right now I still look like voices from outer space tell me what to knit. I need to take it down a notch.

I just spent 20 minutes petting Isabel. She was jealous because I was petting Fable and I had to rub her back until she quit crying. Spoiled.

Here is a link to Fable before we adopted her. She's been hit by a car. She's five years old. She's been at the shelter since October. She was the best damn dog in the whole place. Welcome home, sweetie

Pretty Awesome, Considering...

We missed David. He plays a great supporting role at Christmas. He has batteries, wire cutters--all the tools required to bring toys to life. He picks up the wrapping paper and takes out trash. He compliments the food. Christmas isn't the same without him.

Faking holiday enthusiasm is a little like faking an orgasm, except that it goes on for months. My kids deserved a bit of joy, so I bucked up. We baked Jesus a birthday cake with a Montana theme, complete with coconut snow. (Okay, I thought I was buying barnyard animals at Michaels, but we made due with what I bought.) We used this recipe and you can't taste the Vegan at all. Isabel dipped all the animals' faces in the icing so they would have Santa Claus beards.

I bought a bunch of brown Lion Brand Wool from the clearance aisle at Walmart. (Don't be jealous of my extravagant military wife lifestyle.) I wasn't crazy about the color, so I dipped it in kettles of Jacquard Vermilion. It's more of a chocolate cherry color right now, but I am not super sure what I think about it. It's still drying. Maybe I'll dip it again. Maybe I'll keep messing with it until I ruin it.


Isabel named the Tiger and Liger I knit for her Edward and Bella. My teenage stepdaughter is obsessive and contagious. I've tried to explain to her that Twilight is a book series, not a lifestyle. She thinks that Harry Potter fans are dorks, but can't see people rolling their eyes when she natters on and on about teenage vampires in Washington. How old am I that I don't get caught up in magical books anymore? Old.

I hope you had a great holiday. I got a 24" Kromski Harp loom, but it's taking forever to get here. I also got a lot of coffee love gifts. My grandmother knit a cute little scarf for me. I got a beautiful mohair stole from a friend back in KC. I seriously need to take some pictures.

My kids need to go back to school. Soon. Seriously. Please.

Dye Tips and Tricks

*If you blow your nose after dyeing and the tissue turns blue, you didn't handle the powdered dye safely.

*If you leave a crockpot full of dye on the low setting overnight, you will wake to the aroma of hot, moist burning hair. It lasts and last. It will also turn your roving into slime--hot, smelly slime. Plus I'm pretty sure it's a fire hazard, so don't tell the Housing Office.
*When the color says "hot," as in "hot fushia," it means eye-searing, nosebleed-inducing, potentially visually poisonous. You can make wool look like acrylic if you try hard enough!
*A Mr. Clean Magic Eraser will remove dye from cabinets, counters, sinks, and floors.

*Yellow dye makes your fingernails look diseased. Wear gloves.
*Acid dyes will not dye cotton, but they will stain it. Badly.
*Three days of dyeing probably gets enough chemicals in your household air to negate all of those organic vegetables.

Confusing the neighbors again

Here is my big skein.

I wound it around the trampoline. I tied the individual skeins in one color of yarn and the whole mess together as one skein with another color to keep it organized when it's time to wind. I dyed it in big buckets and rinsed it in the bathtub. I should finally get the long stripes I've been looking for!

This is my favorite color combination of all time. It's so serene.

Remember Lumberjack? He's now Lumberjill...

It worked! Isn't she lovely? I can't wait to get back to some real acid dyes, but for $1.48, I have some actual usable sock yarn. Sweet.

I'm a sewing fiend these days...I'm working on a hoodie for Christmas for my 14 year old step daughter. She's the opposite of my 4 year old, who cries when she is forced to wear jeans, but sometimes it's just more fun to sew for my oldest. She takes chances. She likes wild.

Yarn for dinner again?!?

I now have enough yarn spun and dyed to knit David a watch cap and a helmet liner. He actually requested the helmet liner for work. That's a first for him. He may actually start liking my little obsession.

I started knitting a sock with some leftover Magic Stripes. Why is it when I start linking a Lion Brand yarn they discontinue it? I hate this colorway - Lumberjack is more like Goth-icky. I'm going to overdye it.

Cheap yarn deserves cheap dye. I'm thinking the purple RIT with mellow out all of the grey, white, and red into a soft, dark violet/bruise-looking stripey thing. I'll see.