What I Dyed Yesterday

I had so much fun dyeing with food colors yesterday. I used a skein of Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool, which I divided into 3 skeins of about 155 yards each, reserving the rest for mini skeins.

The first reminded me of a nebula and since I'm a "Cancer," I'm calling it Crab Nebula. I used Wilton'sWilton’s icing color in Royal Blue and Aster Mauve, Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid, and a mystery green that was a mixture of Kool-Aid and food color drops.



This one was done with Magenta Wilton’s gel and Wilton’s icing color on Royal Blue and Aster Mauve.



The third, Lily Pond, used Wilton’s Buttercup Yellow and Royal Blue, and green food color drops. I originally intended to overdye the twisted skein with a darker green but I really like the way the blue broke and gave me hints of purple and pink so I’m leaving it as is.



I'm heading out to the Handweavers Guild of America Convergence shortly so no time to dye more yarn today.

Birthday Yarn!

My mom and I celebrated (or tried to ignore) birthdays last week and on Saturday we headed to Abuelita's.  Mom got me this beautiful Madelinetosh Merino Light as a birthday gift. 

This one is Cousteau.  I absolutely adore this color way and would have gotten two of these if there'd been another skein:

This is the Moss color way.  The green is actually a more subdued olive (closer to the top photo).  Madelinetosh yarns have such beautiful colors.  I just want them all!

Fun with Kool-Aid

I decided to do a bit of Kool-Aid dyeing today.  This is some Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool.  I used Black Cherry Kool-Aid with a couple of drops of blue food coloring for the main bit and a mix of Cherry, Grape and Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade for the purple.  After nuking that for a bit I poured some pink lemonade to tone down the orange in the Black Cherry.

Here's some that I did yesterday.  The red/purple is some Paton's Kroy Sock yarn that I've had in my stash for a while.  I did a similar blend as for the Fishermen's wool, although the first dye bath didn't saturate the yarn fully so I had to re-dye it.  Unfortunately, my ties weren't secure so when I went to pick up the hank it fell apart and I had a nasty pile of yarn barf.  About an hour and a half later I had it reskeined and ready to dye again.  I'm really happy with how it came out.

This is some Stitch Nation Full o' Sheep.  I used Pina Pineapple and Lemonade for the yellow, Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade for the aqua and the green was a 2:1 mix of Lemon-Lime and Orange.  I'm torn between leaving this as is or over dyeing it to get a bit more saturation.  Think I'll live with it for a week and then decide what to do.

TARDIS Love

I've been wanting to cast on Kate Atherly's Bigger on the Inside shawl since it was published on Knitty recently; it went to the top of my queue immediately.  So, although I really shouldn't be spending money on yarn right now, I treated myself to some Stroll from Knit Picks, which arrived today.  Yay!  The color way is Sapphire Heather.  It's a bit more teal than true blue, but I think it'll work anyway.  I like the depth of color the heathering lends to the yarn.

Now I just have to finish my damn Color Affection shawl.  It's a simple pattern but for some reason I have had nothing but trouble with it.  I actually had to frog it once because it was puckering in the three color section.  It seems that no matter how loose I make the edges it still wants to pucker a bit.  Hopefully it aggressive blocking with take care of it.  There are only 2.5 three color repeats to complete and then I'm on to the final section.  Can't wait to be done so I can move on.

Score!

Picked up some yarn yesterday for $2 a skein at Abuelita's sidewalk sale.

I got 3 skeins of Fiesta Yarns La Luz.  It's 100% silk, which I've not worked with before.  I had second thoughts after getting home with this one because I failed to note the "dry clean only" instructions on the band before buying it, but I think it might make a nice shawl.  I also bought 7 skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light and 6 skeins of Classic Elite Inca Marl.  

While I was there, I checked to see if they had any Malabrigo Lace in stock because I want to make a couple of Jeweled Cowls as gifts.  I hoped to find some red - and lo and behold they had Ravelry Red in stock!  I also got a skein in the Paris Night colorway.  I apologize for the bad photos but my camera sucks.

My mom, ever the sneaky one, also bought my some gorgeous Prairie by Madelinetosh.  840 yards of lacy goodness.  The colorway is called Grellow, which describes it perfectly.

I don't know whether I'll use it on its own or with my other skein of Prairie in Byzantine.

Think I'll have to go on a yarn diet for a while.

What to Do?

I've had this yarn for a couple of years now, having bought 13 skeins on sale for $1 each.  Such a deal, right?  Except when you can't decide what to make with it.

I'm leaning towards the Juliana wrap cardigan, available on the Berroco website, but do I want to be swathed in such a vast expanse of bright pink?