I love trying new things...

Hurrah! On Saturday I finally tried my hand at dyeing some yarn with food dye. I used this tutorial - it's absolutely made of very comprehensive awesome. What can I say except that it went off surprisingly hitchless, and I may have a new obsession on my hands...


Here be the components (well, minus the yarn, copious amounts of Glad Wrap and a few other bits and bobs). I think the food colouring was 94 cents a bottle, the vinegar about $1.20 and the gloves about the same (for 80 gazillion pairs), so I felt merrily thrifty. Yes I did.





Here is yarn merrily sitting in my vegetable steamer (or at least it's a vegetable steamer when husbandy type creature isn't defiling it with his nasty dim sims). The instructions I was going by suggested a baking dish, but I didn't really have anything suitable, so instead I just used a steamer in a saucepan of simmering water, covered the top with foil and then wodged a confectionary thermometer through a hole in the edge so I could keep tabs on the temperature. Worked very well this way.




And here is the finished yarn. Yes, this is a lousy photo (well, they all are frankly), but it was the only one that came even close to showing the colours of the end result; it came out so vibrant that I just want to eat the yarn. I think I'm going to make something to keep my hands warm now that the weather is getting nippy.



So, all in all it was terrific fun, and I still can't believe just how well it worked. I am not a person for whom things involving any level of science/competance/neatness come easily, yet this worked like a charm. Nothing went wrong (!). This doesn't happen very often.

I'm so glad that I've found a good method to do this. I love colour, and more to the point, I love weird combinations of colour. So now I can indulge my perverse senses and thoroughly blind everyone else. Sounds good to me. I can't stop concocting wicked plans in my head, and there's a big ball of unsuspecting sock yarn in my lounge room that's going to get it next...

In other news, um, well, not that much. I am, among other things, a partially reformed binge reader (a reformation due more to lack of anything grabbing me lately than any actual inclination to change my wicked ways) and a sci-fi/fantasy addict. There has not been much knitting lately because a bit over a week ago I picked up the first book in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, and then felt compelled to read for the better part of my waking hours until I finished the rest of the books. Oh my, what a series; I was in thrall, there's no other phrase for it. It's been a long time since a series picked me up by the scruff of my neck and dragged me away kicking and screaming, but this one did it. Thoroughly recommended (though I'd rather not consider right now the classes/meals I missed in the process).

Anyway, so all of the binge reading has meant that not a great deal of knitting took place. I finished the tea towel/wipey cloth I was making - not particularly exciting there. More interestingly, I finished my first Hedera sock and am pleased to announce that it fits my great big hulking man-feet perfectly. Consider me pleased. I've already taken too many blurry pictures today though, so there shall be no iffy photographic evidence of said sock-fittage until a later date. I'm sure the world can wait...

Now, off to read more (did I mention there was a follow on series...), drink my tea, and fondle my lovely dyed yarn. Mwa ha ha ha...