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...

Possibly still alive - haven't checked in a while...

Yes, I'm still knitting away. Unfortunately, haven't had as much time for it lately. Much like I haven't had much time for anything... like sleeping, writing, studying, and even eating... At least the desire is still there - I want to knit! - and I'm managing to get little snatches done here and there. It would be easier if I was willing to knit at the shop, but that's not something I want to do. It's probably a bit of a silly double standard to have; I'm happy to let my knitting kick around in my grotty unit (it doesn't do to think about how long it has been since I've vacuumed), but I won't take it to the shop just in case it gets dirty. I just figure that while it might be dusty here, at least there aren't as many greasy things around....

Anyway, I resolved this issue by starting a shop specific project: more tea-towel/bench wipey cloths, with that Cleckheaton Fiddle di Dee yarn that's been hanging around... They don't exactly blow my mind with excitement, but it's a lifesaver to have at work - when customers have gotten stroppy for no good reason, when the phone finally stops ringing for the first time in ages, when all the other staff are out on delivery, I can pick it up, hammer out a few rows and feel a lot better. Knitting = sanity remains in place. I suspect that this is a good thing.

This is what hangs around our living room: knitting and Warhammer 40k manuals. Unit of supreme nerdiness stikes again! Also, kindly note the amusingly pink needles - they're some of the batch inherited from one of my grandmothers (not sure which one), at least 20 years old, probably more. Amusing. Heaven knows pink objects are somewhat thin on the ground in this household.

Anyway, in other knitting news, the Basalt tank is probably about fifteen minutes off being finished, but I'm procrastinating because I know it's not going to fit, and this is discouraging. In happier news, the alpaca cardigan I've been making is coming along nicely, and should be finished within a week if I can keep up the rate I've been working on it. Pleasing.

Also, since Melbourne has been in the throes of its usual weird weather the last week and a bit, I've rediscovered the joy that is bed socks. The night have been bloody cold, and I've had a couple of pairs of hand knitted socks kicking around that came out a little on the large side because I was still getting the hang of socks and dpns when they were made. So, I put two and two together, and now I have the toastiest feet that ever toasted and have slept like a log every night since. I especially love my stripey ones. Just the sight of them makes me happy:

Something that may or may not have come up in this blog is that not only do I like to knit and write (both not all that proficiently at times), but I'm also, well, a little bit (okay, a lot) odd. Kind of eccentric, would be the nice way of saying it. Anyway, the other day I'd just washed the socks in question and was trying to finish the drying process off in the small smattering of midday sunshine that the fickle gods of Melbourne weather were kind enough to bestow on us. It was only until a person walked by on the footpath and looked at me oddly that I realised that I was singing a song to the socks (a song all about socks and how great they were). Hmmm... Probably not healthy.

Anyway, maybe next time there'll be finished objects. We can only hope. At least I'll try very hard not to be dead next time I post. Make no promises though...