Let the holidays begin (Raro safer on the yarn than drinking the stuff.

Today, my Fish count is up to 85 (accurate stock take undertaken by my in house engineer), the swatch (and frog) report, and the whole family dyes (Toby demonstrates just those six little wooden posts were really for), plus Bear has a birthday.

I've updated my blog, moved to the new version of Blogger, new template, and had to rebuid the side bar. Which gave me a space to think about what my blog should be or could be, so let me know if you like the new lists, links, tutorials, and new new section - new zealand knitters who blog. I've left comments on all the owners blogs asking permission (all except Kiwiknitter on the 'men who knit' blog, which seems to be a closed ring - and I feel really funny joining that one - not being male and all, but you have to join to see, or thats how it seems).

Swatch and frog report : Swatching, still continues even though I have not heard back from LYS reguarding the availability of enough yarn to complete a sweater for moi. I began a practice for the v-neck steek. This is the 3rd version, practices one and two were frogged. I have found on line info on steeking here and here, but not much detail about exactly how to actually do the v-neck. I think I need to cast on a 6-8 stitch steek, and have placed 3 stitches on a holder to become the anchor of the neck ribbing. My most recent trial, has me casting on the 3 stitches to replace the 3 on the hgolder, and then increasing to 8 stitches, I wonder if that should have been cast on to 8 stitches immediately.

I have also run a purl row of stitches either side of the k2 and ssk decreases. I'm looking at a using shallow wide v, so have decreased every 2nd row, and on the 'real one' would compete to the shoulder by decreasing avery 4 or 5th row after it was nearly wide enough.

School holidays for primary school children started with Easter. Two weeks off, and the kids need that, they are ready for a rest, do nothing, stay at home, some
'not have to cope with 14 plus other kids in the class room and 160 kids in the school' days.



I've got the first week at home with them, and I've got plans for these guys, the TMNT movie, that would be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to any one who has not had a boy in the family for around - oh around years. I have memories of my now 30+ brother loveing those turtles. And here at home to counter the animated story with semi violence (no one dies but lots of bodies slamming against walls), a little fibre craft.

Here we have Toby, aged 7.75yo skeining up his wool yarn, over my new custom and home made warping posts, in preparation for Food colour dying. For each kid we used two 50 gram balls of 100 % wool yarn, JohnQ designer Creative 4 ply (because it was white and the cheapest yarn we could find in pure wool).
Over night we soaked the yarn in warm water, with 175 mls of vinegar. The it was squeezed dryish, We laid the two skeins out on top of each other and on a circle of glad wrap on top of 2 old towels, and Toby painted it with Black, blue, green and red food dye in squeezy bottles. Each dye solution was made up 2 Tbsps liquid food colour to 100 mls. IN hindsight this was to much dye the bath did not exhaust, next time only 1 Tbsp per 100 mls. We used the painting technque here, the cold pour method, but then wrapped the yarn up in its plastic wrap, and zapped it in the microwave for 3 lots of 3 minutes on med-high. I pulled open some vent holes. Being impatient types we didn't wait for it to cool, but ran hot tap water over it to cool and rinse the yarn. Toby thought the colours were a little bright for him, so we overdyed one skein with black. We put water in the casserole, and then added about a 'tspn' of black food dye, added the still wet skein, and microwaved for another 5 mins on med-high. The reds went brown, the blues and greens darker and its a all in all darker more adult version.




This is the wet result, of the first skein. The outdoor drying shot shows the colours pretty true, and the difference in the overdyed and original skeins.





And hanging with them, Poppy's Pink which came from sour grape Raro. Raro is the name given to our New Zealand version of Kool-Aid. I made a huge assumption that Raro and Kool-aid are pretty much the same thing. It seems they are. I also selected 'super sour' flavours knowing the acid would aid the dye uptake. This was for Poppy, who at 4.75yo probably would not have handled the paint'n'squirt method as 'tidily' as I would have wanted.

We soaked the yarn, this time for 20 mins in warm water with about quarter of a cup of vinegar (I'm running out, and we were impatient), then sprinkled over two packed of Raro Sourz Grape flavour, stired gently and zapped for 5 mins. Sprinkling rather than mixing the powder in before the yarn was added resulted in a faint variation, but its very pretty. The liquid changed from deep artificial grape to clear and yet slighlty white cloudy. All the skeins were rinsed, wrung out gently, then wrapped in a cleanish towel and stamped on to semi dry, then hung outside on a the line.


We also have a new toy, well Bear does, he had a birthday yesterday, which is pretty cool. He had an angioplasty in 2000, Toby was just one, and so 7 years of no heart problems is very very good news. I clearly remember Toby who had promised to be very still and calm, actively bouncing on the hospital bed in his exitement to hug his dad, as we and the nurses rushed to grab him, all worried he would knock a tube or that valve they put into the artery in the thigh .

The new toy is a wireless weather guage, which gives outdoors temperature, humidiy, and other details such as cloud cover, rain, snow, freezing or such. So instead of walking a whole 7 meters from dining room to outside (or looking out the window) he gets a full meterlogical picture at a glance. That 61 is % humidity, it alternates display with Celcius and humidity. This was perfect present for Bear, he stops every trip down our front hall to tap the barometer, inherited from his mum and dad, and loves to announce 'its falling' or 'its rising'. He has spent much of today finding the perfect pozzie for the outside transmitter, and working out which channel it needs to be set on. I'm so pleased with it and his response, and it was even priced well under 3 digits!

we got 2 (count 'em-1, 2) mittens, & the Frog report

My food colour dye make them up as I go mittens are now finished, to the left very happy Poppy, full detailed report latter in blog, but first the Fish Update, followed by the Frog report.

Fish count is now 83, but ... I'm really not sure about the accuracy , another stock take is required. Its about now that I confess that even though my job requires good math understanding, all my jobs ever have required good math - I have a serious numbers issue. I 'loose' count. I can count the fish, and 5 minutes latter wonder if the total was 78 or 81, or 83? I can't remember if I added in that 4 over there or not. Personally I think they move around when I'm not looking, just to confuse me, I have noted some one else's fish do the very same thing. Some times I can count the number of stitches on a needle 4 times in 4 minutes and still not know how many stitches I have. Strangely I have not learned to write it down, not yet. But at only just 40, I have plenty of time to develop new and essential skills, right? Anyway I now think of the fish as 'better than a frog pond', after reading Valeries comment on tani's blog.

Last night I did a little set out of the fish on the sofa, the 4 which are stitched plus estimated coverage for a fish blanket 10 fish by 10. Well looks like it would cover a baby seat, the kind that go in cars, maybe even a newborn tucked in a buggy. Sardines is right - what was I thinking?
I'm nearly out of my 'left over sock yarn supply'. And half the fish are from specially purchased yarn. I 'needed' to do that, it was essential to link together the variegated and varied sock yarns. My current Plan is to knit 100 fish, then a boarder of alternating black and white fish, making it 12 fish by 12 fish, so 144 fish in total.
Can I do this before August? I don't know?
Why august? This is a possible baby gift, and babies come when they come, earlier sometimes! They most absolutely don't wait for me to finish knitting. There are two babies on the horizon of my life, both due to arrive mid year. My other option for these babes is the traditional EZ baby surprise jacket, and that is looking good - but its all garter stitch and I do so feel the need for a challenge.



Mittens, now I have 2, or rather Poppy has 2. These have been washed and blocked and held their colour, Boring technical details now...Please look away if this is of no interest,
Knit on 2.5mm dpns,
Gauge turned out to be 9 stitches per inch (36 stitches per 4"/10 cm),
finished length is 7.5 inches, (or 19 cm). Finished width is 14 cm, cuff is 3 cm of 2x2 rib on 2mm, then 1 cm plain on the 2.5mm needles, and cast off with I-cord.

New section : The Frog Report, as I do frog each and every week. and generally in the proportion of Knit Knit Frog.
The first cast off on the mittens was much to narrow, so I finished the second mitten differently. Putting an extra row in the i-cord every 5th row, which made for a nice amount of flair, but not when worn. this necessitated the first mitten being Frogged back to the ribbing and re-knit.

Critical evaluation of resulting mittens, I do like this method of casting on and shaping the tip. I don't really like the invisable thumb, and feel mittens need a increased gusset below the thumb. I do like the thumb being grafted closed, much neater than drawing up the stitches with yarn. I want to play more with dying baby yarn so I can make more fine yarn fair isle mittens.

Today, we have students presenting, but I am hoping to get to town to seek yarn before the shops close. I have a hankering to knit me a sweater in fair isle, fine fair isle, not heavy, not bulky, fine and light. I know I can get a merino that knits up at 9 stitches to the inch, in 'soft' colours. But merino pills, it fluffs, I want fine, and I want soft, but I also want something that stays looking good. I can get Rowan soft, and a cashmere merino mix - but the cost. Any way off to look, but not holding my breath. I plan to get swatching yarn, and maybe some of the rowan for a hat, that way I can test if it pills. I do have a bohus in my stash, or rather my stash is the bohus kit (rose collar to be knit as a cardigan), and last night at knit group we discussed knitting the bohus flat or in the round and steeking the front. Whatever I do i will lower the neckline, not so high, which will work better over tee shirts. So maybe I just commit to the bohus and knit ... I can always frog - can't I? I might use my left over yarn from blue shimmer to practice a steek ......

I dyed and went to heaven,

Fish count is still the same, but more fish next week.... and there are a growing number of fish knit bloggers. The BK incident seemed to strike a chord with other parents, and I have had so many nice comments on the reworked blue cabled cardie. I also had a heads up that part of my blog set up made for a loooong slooow wait for images to load, so have changed some settings and hope to go back to some of the earlier posts in the next few month to make them 'faster'. Bear with me while i learn how to do this better please.

Sometimes it takes a while to get around to the things that interest a body. Dying for example, around two years ago I noticed a topic section on Knitters review forum on using Kool-Aid to dye yarn, I was intrigued and had a quick browse or 'lurk' but didn't take any action. After that I learned about sock knitting, discovered EZ, knitting in the round, wooden knitting needles, fine knitting technique books, using my credit card to buy knitting supplies like sock yarn and Addi turbos on line. I worked my way from knitting English to combination to various forms of continental. I was busy, and lots was learned.

Some time in the last month two things happened, I started to get yarn envy, the green eyed feeling when I saw the fabulous yarn seemingly available to my international knit companions. Every trip to my LYS seemed seemed to end in disappointment, the fine yarns I coveted to knit on the small needles I prefer came in a very limited range of 'baby colours'. My sons Montessori teacher approached me about her students finding resources to weave, knit, or stitch. The school holidays loom, and I have taken a week off to be an at home parent, we will watch tv, bake, play at the park, visit grandad, but I wanted to find a project. I remembered Kool-aid dyes.



So a little on line research, and I found knitty articles by Julie Theaker and Kristi Porter. I loved the idea of painting the yarn, and found out that as well as boiling, crock pot cooking, steaming and baking, you can microwave yarn. I used a 50 g ball of Pattons baby yarn, skeined up, tied with cotton, and soaked , for two nights (it was to be overnight - but life is busy) in 3/4 cup white vinegar and warm water. I mixed up 4 squeezy bottles of strong dye, rose pink (powder), blue, reddish yellow, and purple. I squeezed out the soaked skein, laid the table with two old towels, made my circle of plastic wrap, donned glubs. In our house all our children seem to have difficulty with saying gloves, so here such are known as glubs.

I squirted, I massaged, I transferred to soggy pile to a casserole, and zapped it on high for 2 mins, it was luke warm. I zapped for another 2 minutes. I considered the steam and boil and bake methods, they all cooked the yarn for 40 minutes ... so I zapped for 5 minutes on med high. The plastic went a bit crunchy - but the yarn was steaming.

I rinsed the yarn in warm water, until the water ran clear, which was almost immediately. I wrapped the skein in a towel and stomped it. The skein hung up in a warm spot to dry and was wound off into a ball. The yarn is brilliantly intensely coloured, rich, dark, strong, which I just can not capture on camera, I have tried to deepen the colours using photo shop, but they are still not as deep as in real life.

How did the colours go? Well the rose is deep deep blue red, the purple is deep, the red yellow strong, and all of these are even. But the blue, its mottly, not in a bad way but not an even take up of dye. It ranges from light blue, to teal, to olive, to green, to deeper blue. I have sinced learned that blues are difficult, and wondered if my vinegar load was to much? But it is attractive, and I am tempted to dye just using blue and see if the uptake is as varried.

So what to knit with my fab new yarn? I needed a project that would take less than 50g's . I decided on mittens for the smallest member of the household. The yarns ball band called for 3.25 mm, but I know I like a firmer gauge than most patterns and yarns recommend, so pulled out 2.5 mm's. I pulled out Anna Zilboorgs Magnificent Mittens from the book case stash. I'v had this book for ages, and regularly take it to bed to read before sleeping, but have not attempted any yet. I used the cast on method, and followed instructions. As for size, I drew around Poppy's paw/hand and knit to shape/width as I went. I put in a row of temporary knitting where the thumb should be, and knitted to a length below her wrist. I freed up the stitches where the thumb should be, picked them up, and knit the thumb. Two decrease rows and grafted 6 stitches across the top.


I am a little worried about the limited yarn I have, so have stopped mitten one before the wrist cuff, and knit up mitten two, I divided the remaining yarn into two equal length balls, and will knit the ribing until I run out. The wrist rib is on 2mm needles, and K2P2. Next post I will publish details, guage, and size, 'cos at the moment I don't know that info, this is a knit and fit as you go project.