This and That

 

Another Marvelous Movita Cake

 

 

Experimenting with a new camera

 

 

A work in progress

 

 

A hilarious card from my sister

 

 

A Heritage Tomato - that actually smells like a tomato!

 

 

My Puppy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just Ducky

 

Duck Eggs

 

Nora attends the Leitash dog obedience course every Sunday. She is in the second level of the program now and we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Besides training dogs (and he has even trained them to appear in films!), Bob Ottenbrite operates a free range farm in South Rawdon. When he has enough fresh, free range eggs, he brings them to class and I buy them whenever possible. Today, he had duck eggs! We have never had duck eggs so I thought it would be interesting to eat and bake with them in the coming week.

 

Lucy's Striped and Ruffled Bolero

 

I had enough white Ultra Pima cotton leftover from Apolline's little sweater to make something else if I could lay my hands on a second ball of cotton. In the back of the yarn drawer, I found a six year old ball of now discontinued Sirdar Breeze. It was one of the first yarns I bought when I learned that Lucy was on her way into the world. That news motivated me to go back to knitting!

 

I would not do the pattern again in stripes. I slipped the first stitch of every round, and between that and the color changes, the seams were very difficult to sew together nicely. I struggled endlessly to get a nice, finished look.

Also, the pattern called for a lace border to be knit separately and sewn into place. I did not want to do that, given the difficulties I was already having with the regular seams, so I picked up the stitches around the edges and made the same ruffled border as I did for Apolline.

 

The little bolero is very short and meant to be worn as an accent piece with a tshirt or sundress.

 

Pattern: Boleros 1308 Sirdar

Yarn: Cascade Ultra Pima (white - 3728) and Sirdar Breeze DK (pink)

Needles: Circular - 4.5 mm. and 3.75 mm.

 

 

Cascade Ultra Pima - 3748

 

Heather, at Have A Yarn, ordered in some Ultra Pima for me in the same color as the Bouton D'Or yarn I used to make a little Sweet Peasy cardigan for Lucy. I am sure it is too small for her now and ready for Little Sister to take over. This weekend, I cast on a second gold Peasy in a larger size with this lovely yarn.

 

 

 

Today Is Dear Sophie's Birthday

Winding Up

 

Scarf? Baby Sweater? Shawl?

 

 

Swatching: 25 stitches/10 cm.

 

 

 

 

 

Playing The Blues

                   

Natural, Undyed 100% Wool

I have long had a yen to try my hand at dyeing yarn. I don't like the idea of using chemicals with designated pots and containers and utensils so the process of dyeing with food coloring impressed me as being clean, easy, and worth a try.

There are many websites with detailed instructions on yarn dyeing but Instructables appealed to me most as I liked the idea of using the microwave.

 

Prepping The Wool

I had natural, undyed Henry's Attic Kona (100% merino wool) that I had purchased at Gaspereau Valley Fibres a couple of years ago. It came on a large skein and I wound it at the time, using a yarn swift. Today, I had to reverse the process to get it back into skein form again! I tied it loosely in four places, using small pieces from the skein to do so.

Then I set it in the casserole dish and filled the dish with a combination of three parts water to one part vinegar. I let it sit on the counter for the rest of the day.

Before supper, I drained the vinegar water, set the yarn in an empty bowl, and filled the casserole dish again with plain water. I added 1/4 teaspoon of Wilton's Cornflower Blue icing color and one drop of Club House liquid yellow color.

 

This Is What It Looked Like

 

I put it in the microwave and zapped it for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Then, without opening the microwave door, I let it set for 5 minutes. Then repeated the process. The dyeing is complete when the water is clear. Well, my casserole dish is on the large side and there was a lot of wool on the skein (186 grams) so I repeated the process twice more until I was satisfied that the yarn had absorbed the color well and the water was perfectly clear.

 

Voila! Pretty Blue Yarn!

 

The website instructions stress that it is important to let the wool cool down naturally and slowly so I left it in the water in the covered casserole dish until late in the evening. Then I drained the dish, gently squeezed the excess water out of the wool, and draped the skein over a plastic hanger and hung it over the shower nozzle  so it could drip and dry in the bathtub overnight.

However:

 

 

Variegated

 

When fully dry, the yarn was very pretty, but it was decidedly variegated. I had hoped for solid or, at least, a semi-solid blue. There were still short drifts of natural colored yarn along the skein. I think this may have been because the dish was too small for the hank of yarn so the fiber did not have a chance to spread out and pick up the color evenly. And unless I wound some and tried a sample right away, there was no way of telling if a piece would knit up stripey or splotchy, just plain pretty, or just plain weird.

 

This morning, I thought long and hard, and decided to redye it. Knowing that a lot of the blue could get much darker, I preferred to chance it as opposed to leaving so many undyed natural colored portions.

 

This time, because I did not have a larger dish for the microwave, I went to pieknits' blog, and followed the instructions for dyeing yarn on the stove top. My stock pot is much larger than the casserole dish so the yarn would be able to spread out more.

 

Interestingly, and hard to get my head around at first, is the fact that the amount of water does not affect the depth of color. It is the ratio of dye to yarn quantity! I just felt I need more water for circulation.

 

I used the same cornflower blue with a drop of yellow formula. This time, the yarn was placed in tepid water and the dye was added after being premixed in a cup of hot water. It is brought up to 160 degrees F.and allowed to simmer for 10 minutes. Then the temperature was raised to 180 degrees F. and it simmered for 30 minutes. After cooling to room temperature, I drained it, and rinsed with room temperature water and hung it to dry.

 

I actually think my first attempt resulted in a slightly prettier, softer toned yarn but this one is closer to the semi-solid I was looking for. Gone are the plain white sections and the entire skein is varying depths of blue. Even though I often knit with them and enjoy them, sometimes I get tired of variegated yarns with flecks or stripes of different colors. I am in a solid or semi solid phase!

 And I had lots of time between stages to put together a spinach manicotti for supper!

 

 

 

 

Waiting For Lucy's Birthday Cake

 

How far away is France????

 

Nora is confused. She is waiting for Lucy to come visit with her birthday cake. At first she thought France was far, far away but when we were out walking the other day, we saw this sign a few streets over:

 

 

It clearly states that Paris is only 93 miles away while St. Margarets Bay is a whopping 2,985 miles in the other direction! So maybe Lucy will drop in after all!

 

Hooray! It's Lucy's Sixth Birthday!



 

Happy Birthday, Lucy Darling!

 

 

 

 

Plain and Simple

I had a couple of lovely messages on Ravelry from knitterone, concerning my latest pair of red socks, and her kind words helped put something in perspective.

While I find it necessary to continue to try new techniques and new kinds of patterns in order to learn and grow, sometimes the most satisfaction comes from knitting plain and simple.

 

Pattern: Simple K6P2 ribbing with a K2P2 cuff

Yarn: SweetGeorgia Yarns BFL Sock

Color: China Doll

Needles: Circular - 2.25 mm

 

 

 

Pattern: Simple K3P1 Ribbing

Yarn: Cascade Heritage Solids

Color: Camel (5610)

Needles: Circular - 2.25 mm