Fade to Black

Our first track meet tomorrow and it looks like rain! Last year we never had rain problems, in fact it only rained the very first day of practice, none of the track meets had rain so I don't know what happens if it does rain. Oh well I guess we shall see! I need to get everything together for our day at the track and it will be chilly!

I finished my Well Traveled Bag! I hope it's done correctly because it sure looks like it's going to be different then the picture shows! Here is my version:

Before felting And After!
Mine seems to be shorter then the original so I'm not sure what went wrong, even before felting it doesn't look to be the proper dimensions! I think it's very cute anyway, now I have to wait for it to block/dry and attach a handle. I was thinking about getting a spool kintter and making up and handle from the same yarns with a cotton rope through the center for strength.

I got more yarn dyed yesterday and FINALLY got that tangled mess fixed, so without further ado here they are in their internet debut:
From left to right, Watermelon, Crunch Berry and to be named later. I tried Tropical Punch kool aid for the 1st time on Crunch Berry and it is a great red! Very pretty, even dried close to the same color. I will be playing this weekend with painting the yarn instead of soaking it so we'll see how that comes out!
Have a great weekend!!

Listening to: Flaming Youth by Kiss
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Oh what a tangled web we weave!

My sister decided to wind her long hank of "watermelon" into a smaller hank but it had gotten knocked over twice and so this is what we have to work with:
AAAAAHHHH!!!
Here's a close up:
At least the colors are pretty!

This is how I have spent most of my day! I also dyed 2 more skeins of yarn. I will post those pictures tomorrow. I now have 7 skeins done in all different colorways. I will be starting a little tote for my daughter tonight using the "Easter Egg" yarn that she helped me dye and I'll post pictures of that as well.

Listening to: Drift & Die by Puddle of Mudd
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Just another day is paradise

I lost my ATM card last night at the supermarket! GRRR I use it for groceries, gas, pretty much everything! I don't carry cash (my kids all take that) so I use my debit card for all! Now I have to wait 3 to 4 days to get my new card in the mail! I will be without shopping money for 3 to 4 days!! I'm glad my freezer has a stash of food and my gas tank is filled.

I added a couple more rows to my Well Traveled bag and am dying to test out the yarn that I dyed. I really want to see how it works up and how the patterns develops.

I snapped a picture of my sister doing her first dye job yesterday so you get to see that today.
She used black cherry, artic apple & pink lemonade. We call this colorway "Watermelon" I will be trying some mixed colors this weekend to see if I can get a nice gold and brown. I'm also going to look for and stand up wooden dryer to hang the long hanks from for faster dryer times.

I signed up at Crochet Blogs today so I'm in the queue to hopefully be added to that ring. I even figured out how to put the button up on my sidebar! Whohoo!!

Track & Field practice tonight so I can do more work on my Well Traveled bag.

Listening to: Watchin' You by Kiss
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Kool Aid how to with a ton of pictures! Tutorial

Well it's how I do it anyway. I have done 4 skeins so far this way and I have work up one of those skeins and felted it as well without color loss click here to see so I think it works well for me.

1st step is the yarn, Paton's Classic Wool:

I like this because it's easy to find and it felts beautifully.

2nd step is to wind it into a long hank:

this is so you have a better color saturation. tie loosely every 1 1/2 foot to prevent tangles.

3rd step is the yarn prep:

I soak in my large pasta pot in warm water while I get the colors & containers step up.

4th step:
sorry forgot the picture!
I have plastic shoe boxes that I fill with warm/hot water (from the faucet) about half full. Then I mix 2 packages of each color I have chosen in about a half cup of water stirring well to dissolve and then add 1 tablespoon vinegar, stir.

5th step:

Add mixed kool-aid to the plastic containers, mix well and then add the yarn. (I gently squeeze some of the water when pulling it out of the pasta pot) I lay the yarn carefully into each container trying not to tangle too much. Add more water to about 1/2 inch from top of container.

Step 6:

Wait, wait, wait! This varies I have ranged from 2 hours to over night. The water will be clear to whitish when done (exception grape & ice blue)

Step 7:

Soak for about 5 minutes in the sink in clean same temperature water with a drop of dish soap (give a little swoosh but don't agitate)

Step 8:

Remove from sink carefully squeezing excess water from from your newly dyed yarn and lay out on a towel.

Step 9:

Roll up in towel to get out excess water.

Viola! Here is the end results:
Long hank & then rehanked.

Thanks for all of your compliments on my kool aid dying adventures!

Listening to: Hands And Knees by Sammy Hagar

Happy Monday!!

Wow! Here we are at Monday once again! I had a very productive weekend! I got 3 skiens of yarn dyed.
These are them! The one that I balled is for my daughter, she helped me with the dying and loved the pastels in that one so she asked if I could make her a little purse. My sister wants to start selling them on ebay so I don't know if the hanks will be put to personal use or put up for sale. I did start naming the color combos though so at least I can keep track of them for myself. I LOVE doing this! My kids just think I'm nuts, but my 15 yo son laughed and said if I sell it on ebay then I am one step closer to my own yarn store! lol, he knows me very well.
I got some more done on my Well Traveled Bag as well:
I got the picture to actually show the colors this time, I had hoped to get it finished and ready for felting today but my yarn dying took me away from actually crocheting. :)
I crocheted a flower with some leftover kool aid yarn from my first batch and I'm thinking about felting it and attaching it to my tote. I'm not sure about how it will felt but I'll throw it in with my next wash cycle and see what happens.

Listening to: In The Nightside of Eden by HIM
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Well, well

I guess we shall see if blogger is going to function properly today and i can get this posted today WITH a picture...

Still working on my well traveled bag...didn't get too much done because we left practice early as Miss Katlyn was felling very poorly, I hope tonight is better. I REALLY hope that it's warmer too! The day time tempature has warmed up but once the sun goes down it's chilly and my fingers have a hard time holding the yarn!
WOW!!!! I got a picture posted today!
This is from yesterday my starting off shot of "Dawn's Well Traveled Bag" I now have the bottom done and have started on the rounds for the sides. The yarn is the Hyacinth from Knit Picks, sorry the picture is so dark, I really need to take everything out of my office to photograph it!

Kind of just playing around today, business is slow and so I'm just checking out blogs and playing some games as opposed to getting some more of this bag done :( oops.

Tommorrow is Friday though so at least I'll have the weekend to get it finished up and then felt it on Monday. I went to Joaan's today (with my coupon) and got another skein of Paton's Classic Wool for some dying! I have a coupon for Michael's as well so I use that on another skein plus Joann's has a bonus coupon for Saturday & Sunday (40% off one yarn item) so I'll have to head there on Saturday as well for yet another! I should have fun this weekend! My kitchen will be a laboratory during the day!! That's all I got today!

Listening to: Runnin' Down A Dream by Tom Petty
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I want to do more!

edit: I am(blogger) having problem getting pictures up! hence the photo free post!

I really, really want to make the Carnival Shawl from Rowan's Classic Holiday #3 Book, the problem is that I don't have the book and trying to get it from inside the US seems to be difficult. There are 3 listed on ebay right now but from the UK and when I google it all of the online stores are in the UK as well. I'll just keep checking weekly until I find it and hopefully by the time I do I will have my other WIP's completed. hahahaha, yeah right! Anyway just throwin' that out there in the world.

On the actual (instead of wishful) crocheting front, I started Andrew's orange & teal blanket and I also proceeded to frog it just after the 1st round of orange! I hated the way the 2 colors looked together, not to mention the fact that while I was adding the orange I realized that those were the colors for the Miami Dolphins! Now no offense to anyone but my 18 year old stepson does NOT want that! Soooo...we called him to see what his other favorite color is (green) but he wants black. Ok now I will be doing it with black on the inside square and orange for the outside square. At least it's easy to frog and restart and I'm glad that I asked.

I did start my well traveled bag with my new yarn that came yesterday. :) I can't wait to finish & felt that!

Listening to: Step Up by Drowning Pool
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Holy Yarn Batman!

I LOVE to open to door and have a package of yarn sitting on the porch!!! I received my yarn from Knit Picks and WOW. The colors are almost exact that which show up on my computer. I am very happy with that and the fact that they were super fast in the shipment. I ordered on the 16th and it's here today! NICE! Anyway I am glad that it came because I didn't think I was going to have a picture to put up today and I hate to have a picture free post. I enjoy a good photo with my post so here it is:


Anyways...I will be started my new bag tonight since it's our one night off of track during the week, I like to just hang out and play with yarn.

I have decided that knitting may be just too dang hard for me! I try and try and I can not get it. I read the directions, I watch the directions and I still can not get it! Maybe it's not meant to be. I just don't know. I love the stitches and designed that are out there in the world but man oh man it has got to be the most frustrating thing ever! (and I thought Blogger was hard!)

Listening to: Ah! Leah! by Donnie Iris
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It's Monday & Felted

Ok I finished my little tote out of my kool aid yarn. I love the way it felted. Nice and tight.
Both sides before felting.
and after.
it shrunk 3" on width & 2" in height. I used Paton's Classic Wool. I can't wait for it to be dry.

I got no wool dying done this weekend and actually no yarn buying at all. Went to Joann's today and they had Red Heart Super Saver on sale for $1.88 so I snatched up the 3 skeins they had in Pumpkin for Andrew's blanket. I'll look at the other one closer to my house tomorrow for some more. I figured out that I should need 7 total to complete the blanket.

Going home now.

Listening to: Fantasy Girl by .38 Special
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Happy St. Patrick's Day

I have nothing very exciting to say today but I wanted everyone to see how my nephew dressed himself for St Patty's Day! You gotta love a kid with style! He went upstairs & found green clothing items...this is the result!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Let's see what the weekend holds for my yarn adventures!
Listening to: Mas Tequila by Sammy Hagar
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Crabby Thursday

Well I guess there are just days when my inner crab comes on out! I am very cranky today for no particular reason and I know I'm crabby and I can not stop being crabby. Oh well I guess it will suck for those around me tonight! That being said on with the blogging!

Work is incredibly slow today so I been cruising around on a bunch of different blogs just hanging and checking the pictures out. WOW I am living on the edge today I tell you! I did order some yarn from KnitPicks for this Dawn's Well traveled Bag and I can't wait. I couldn't believe how cheap the yarn is!

I started a 2006 project journal for all the fun stuff that I work on and get completed. Now I will have a record other then this blog!

Since my daughter has track 3 nights a week and since it's still quite cold when the sun goes down AND since I don't have a hat that covers my ears, I made this up last night:
I used some leftover Homespun that I had laying around and whipped it up last night while watching some TV. :) I do love a quick project!

Listening to: Ain't Talking About Love by Van Halen
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Wednesday Madness

Here we are at the mid week point...

I finished the tote for my sister.
here it is on Monday half done, this is the yarn that I posted on March 8th. I ended up only using 1 1/3 skeins for the whole thing. I guess I will have to whip up something bigger with the rest of the yarn. Anyway the yarn felted absolutely beautifully. Here is the finished product:
(the cd is to show size) I have it drying with a plastic bag & container inside of it so that it stays open.

I think that I am addicted to wool! It could become a problem! :) I really enjoy felting, I'm working up my kool aid yarn right now in the same pattern so I will post those pictures in the next day or 2.

I am going to try knitting with the Poof yarn that my Mom picked out earlier in the month for a skinny scarf and so we shall see how that works out. I figure it should be ok to knit up something simple? I guess I'll keep you posted on that.

My daughter and I are going to try a couple differnet methods of dying this weekend. She has decided she wants to help me. I'm going to get one (or many) easter egg dying kits with the tablets and try that as well.

Listening to: How Can I Refuse by Heart
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edit: I got the pattern for the tote here: http://www.cenla.net/jackie/?p=138

Today is laundry day.

Now the problem with laundry day is that I have to put it all away once it's done! I hate hanging the clothes up and getting them to the rooms that they belong in and the drawers they belong in! I can wash clothes all day and even the folding is fine but for some reason the putting away sucks! Oh well rant done!

I have 100% completed my Mom's "scarf". I think the size that it turned out (14" by 7' plus fringe) is more of a stole but I guess it doesn't matter what it's called as long as it's done! I finished the fringe last night. Here are the pictures. It is folded in half.

I almost have the little tote done for my Sister as well. All I have to do is stitch it together and then felt it! I can't wait.

Tonight is my night with nothing outside of the house to do so I will be putting above mentioned laundry away and getting things straightened up around the house plus spend some time with the boys.

Listening to: 2 X 4 by Metallica
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Kool aid rules!

Ok I had to do it, everyone else talks about it and so I had to try it for myself. I dyed my own yarn with kool aid!
here are the colors that I tried. Now I have not done this before so I really didn't "know" what I was doing. I read about several different methods and then ended up doing my own thing.
I used Paton's Classic Wool in Aran and rolled two equal balls and then decided that I wanted 3 colors so pulled from both balls and made a 3rd. I mixed 2 packages of each cooler in water and then put the balls in the bowls. I did add a bit of vinegar to each batch to help set the colors (my daughter thought it was Easter already).
Here's the finished version. Now this was my first time and I learned a couple of things. First I will not dye the yarn in balls because that just means the middle of the ball doesn't get as much color...duh knew that! I was going to change but decided to heck with it because since this was my 1st time I could do things wrong and learn, and second I would like that colors to be intermitted? (is that the word I'm thinking of?) with each other and not just one and then the next and so on. So I will experiment again and post thos results. I do like how the colors turned out though and can't wait to use the yarn, it was a bit tricky working with wet wool and trying to keep it from getting tangled up...good times!

I'll post pictures of the new tote I started on Friday tomorrow.

Listening to: You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC
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Here's to Friday...Cheers!

Man this week has been crazy, I am so glad that's it's over. We are having computer issues at work so everything that is normally automated is now not so I have to do everything by hand that I don't usually even look at...fun stuff I tell you. At least it's fast but it's also tedious. Oh well enough about that, I have a job that I like (most of the time) so I really can't complain about it too much.

I finished the crocheting on my Mom's scarf and now I just need to get the fringe done. I'm going to put some black fun fur on there with the yarn used as well to give it a nice finished look and a little bit of fanciness. I'll post pictures on Monday when it's complete.

On another note Sparkles is doing very well.
Katlyn is very happy about that.
here she is as I'm working on my Mom's scarf.

We are having a cold spell this weekend so I'll be working with my newest yarn making a small tote for my sister. She bought us each a Kilping backpack and Kipling pouch for hooks and stuff.
<--mine's red <--& chartreuse
It has pockets on both sides and in the front and the zippered one shown. It holds quite a lot of yarn and the pockets are great for my keys on track nights and for my knitting needles in case I get the urge to try knitting. The little pouch is like a pencil case that holds all of my hooks and scissors and stitch markers. Very Cool.

Listening to: Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson
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Tote Dilemma

Well here it is mid week and I haven't done too much except fondle my yarns and dream of the items to make with it. I want to make a tote for my projects but I can't find any patterns that I like. I want to felt it though so that will be a challenge to come up with the pattern and the proper sizing before felting.

I have my Mom's scarf half done and I will start on the other half tonight at track. At least it works up super fast then I can get started designing the tote of my dreams. Oh wait I have Andrews blanket to start as well! Drat it all...too many ideas and not enough hands!

Still working on the buttons for my links. I don't know why the sidebar is so hard to work out. I'm stumped. I'm going to have to take a computer class to work on my blog!

I got some new yarn today in the mail, my sister bought if off of ebay for me. 8 skeins of beautiful handpainted New Zealand wool! I can't wait to play with this!


Well I guess that's it for today.

Listening to: Brass Monkey by The Beastie Boys
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New Movie Day

Today is new DVD release day. Harry Potter 4 comes out! yipee! Can't wait to see it again, it was my favorite of all the books so far (we'll see after the 7th book comes out) Anyway track was cancelled last night due to the rain and my daughter's hamster Eddie died after 6 days of owning him. Much trauma for an 11 year old girl, I'll tell you! So we have to go out in the rain anyway to take Eddie back to the pet shop. We get a new hamster (Sparkles) and she is quite active and happy so we have our fingers crossed that all is well in hamster land this time!

Didn't get any crocheting done last night since we had hamster drama and then went out to dinner after that!

I did get "Blogging for Dummies" so I'm hoping to get a little bit fancier with my blog. I'm trying to learn how to put buttons and more links on the sidebar right now, so maybe the book can help!

I will end with a picture of Eddie for you all.
RIP Eddie

Listening to: Tonight It's You by Cheap Trick
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A fabulous yarn weekend!

Ok I got great yarn this weekend, got 1/2 of my Mom's scarf done and finished Jon's blanket! I am very pleased! Here are photos of the yarn:














There's a close up of the Noro because it was on my wish list and I'm very excited to have it! The Poof at the top is for another scarf for my Mom, she saw the yarn and got it for me to make her a skinny scarf with. I got the orange & blue ones because it was just so soft and pretty! The Noro will become a felted bag for me...I can't wait to make that!

Here's Jon's completed blanket:


All done and ready for shipping!

I also got a size Q wooden afghan hook so that will be fun to play with as well.

My sister wants to learn knitting, so I think we will be venturing off in that direction pretty soon too. Busy, busy!


Listening to: I Won't Forget You by Poison
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Happy Friday one & all!

Here we are waiting for the 4 o'clock whistle to blow!

Started my Mom's scarf because Jon's blanket is too big to cart to work with me! It's cold today so I'll have that to keep me toasty later while I get it together!

Andrew is 18 today! Wow! These boys just keep getting older! I can't believe all the boys are teenagers!

I do believe I will hit some yarn shops this weekend. I REALLY want to get some Noro and I think the place around the corner from me carries it.

Here is some yarn that my sister gave me from her stash, she's tired of making scarves!

I on the other hand NEVER tire of scarves so I will have another! I can not get my daughter to wear them even when I let her chose the yarn & designs! She swears she's never cold! I am always cold so I always have a scarf when I leave the house.

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Listening to: Natural Born Killers by Brides of Destruction
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In Like a Lion...

Well now it's a new month and coming upon birthday season for the family! My stepson turns 18, my nephew 4, my son 14 plus Easter is in ther as well. oh man...better get my hook flying!

ok I now have 16 squares joined and should be able to get the rest finished up tonight. That means by the weekend I can get this beast edged and packed for shipping! Yeehaw!

I got the new book by Debbie Stoller (The Happy Hooker) and can't wait to start making some clothes! There are great patterns in there and very fun.

I'll leave you a lovely yarn picture for today.


Listening to: You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth by Meatloaf
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