Monday, March 21, 2011

Happy Spring!

On Saturday, my furnace decided to stop working. A few hundred dollars and a new gas valve later, it's working again. At least I didn't have to replace the whole thing. I'm sure that's not too far in the future, though. In the meantime, Emma had to go to extreme measures to keep warm for a few hours.


"I'll suffer this, because he's warm."

After that excitement, I had the urge to dye some yarn. No, the two things really have nothing to do with each other. I dug some yarn out of my stash, along with the Easter egg dyes and went to work. The first attempt was a giant FAIL. It was acrylic yarn and wouldn't take any dye.


Notice the little pieces in front are the same color as the "finished" product.

The second try was more successful.


That's not the exact yarn I started with on the right, but it's about the same color.

I mixed a whole bunch of egg dye colors, originally going for brown. I didn't like the result, so I grabbed some Kool-Aid out of the cupboard and added it in to try for something more red. Some of the yarn didn't get the Kool-Aid and stayed the brownish of the original. This picture shows the variation in the colors. I think I like it, but I'm still deciding.


What do you think?

I've been working on a stealth project for a swap on Ravelry, but since I haven't sent it, I'm not going to post it just yet.

I can post a picture of the Koigu socks I've been working on, though.


The legs are a bit longer than normal. Hope I don't run out of yarn.

They're almost done. I'm hoping to finish them by the end of the month, when I plan to start a new pair of mystery socks for a knit-along. Then there will be a shawl knit along starting April 15.

Since yesterday was the first day of spring, some of us got together to start new spring projects. The only guideline was that the pattern should have "spring" in the name. Mine doesn't look like much, because I initially had issues reading the pattern and had to tink back a bit. I have to do an inch of this ribbing before I start the main pattern.


Spring Fern Socks in KnitPicks Stroll sock yarn, in the Springtime Tonal colorway.

I got the kitties a present today.


"Hey Max, come check this out!"

I'd been thinking of getting something like this for a while, and this one was on sale at PetsMart. I think they like it.


"Mmmm, comfy. Thanks, Mama!"