Dyeing for Some Sanity

It's been a tough couple of months for the KarKnitz household.  I won't bore you with the details, but one of the recent hits we've taken is the loss of my beloved laptop.  I booted it up one morning and saw the telltale signs of a dying graphics card.  My poor little Macbook is done.  Finito.  No funds to replace it and none on the horizon.  I'm heartbroken.  The one positive thing is that the Spousal Unit was able to save most of the data - what a guy!   Of course this means that I now have limited computer access, but what's a girl to do.

So, I'm dyeing a bit of yarn because delving into a bit of fiber related fun helps distract me from the fact that we're circling the drain right now.

I have lots of ideas for colorways in my head, but am feeling a bit overwhelmed right now and unsure of my ability to execute those ideas.  I really need to find a way to get myself over it.  All that being said, I'm pleased with my last couple of adventures with the dye pot.  These were done with food colors on Serenity Sock from Premier Yarns.  I love that I'm reminded of Firefly whenever I use this yarn!

This was kettle dyed.  I call it Gaugin's Sunset:

This was done using the hot pour method.  It's a colorway I've done before; I call it Lily Pond:

I have two more kettle dyed skeins cooling on the stove now, which I'll post when they're dry if I'm happy with the results.

Last Weekend's Dyeing Project

I had a skein of Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool that I divided into three smaller hanks so I could play with some icing color.

I intended to do a gradient dye with this one, but my blue broke on one end, giving me a spot of pink/purple (damn you, Red #3).  When my husband saw the skein, he said, "It would look cool if you could get some more of those purple bits on it."  So, I twisted the skein to preserve some of the lighter areas of blue and immersed the skein in a new dye bath. 

The next two skeins I did in the crock pot and poured color on.  I think I may run the last one through another dye bath to deepen the color a bit.

HGA Convergence

Yesterday was the last day of the Handweavers Guild of America Convergence at the Long Beach Convention Center and we made it there in time for the last two hours of the conference.  There were some interesting garments on view in the exhibition hall, but no photography was allowed in there so I have none to share.

We did have plenty of time to stroll through the marketplace, where there were all sorts of fiber related items available, from looms and spinning wheels to roving and yarn.  Apologies for the blurry photo, but I had to include a shot of these beautiful colorways:

Hello, Malabrigo!

I even got a couple of gorgeous skeins of Malabrigo Rios.  The colorway is Piedras.  Thanks to my lovely mom for the second skein.  I absolutely love Malabrigo yarns.  Their colors are so rich and have such depth.  This is my first batch of Rios; I look forward to working with it.

After the Convergence we headed over to Shoreline Village in search of refreshment.

Wine, beer, and appetizers at Parkers' Lighthouse -- a perfect way to end the afternoon!

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.

More Fun with Food Color

I took a day off work so I decided to play with yarn and food coloring.  Currently, there is a skein of yarn in my crock pot and another soaking in a bath of Eucalan before I hang it to dry.  Pictures of those later.

First, I experimented with a couple of micro skeins.  Each is only about 10-15 yards.  I used a combination of Wilton's icing colors and gels and Kool-Aid on these.  Both were painted then steamed.  The blue-green was painted with Buttercup Yellow and Royal Blue Wilton's and Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid, steamed and cooled.  Then I twisted the skein, dipped it in a jar of mystery green,  and steamed it.

I'm not too sure how I feel about the yellow-pink-purple one.  I've decided to call it Tears of a Clown because I think it looks like Circus Circus exploded.

After drying and re-skeining my color experiments I'm very happy with the blue-green, which I'm calling Mossy.  The Tears of a Clown is growing on me.

Swatching

Yes, I am one of those legions of knitters who hates swatching.  However, I do realize that sometimes it is necessary, butIwannastartknittingrightawaydammit!

I've been wanting to knit Carina Spencer's Catkin but didn't have yarn that suited the project.  Although the madelinetosh Prairie in my stash looks nice together, I think it might be too fine even if doubled.  My wonderful, generous mom came to the rescue when she got me some beautiful Tosh Merino Light for my birthday.  I absolutely love the colors: Cousteau and Moss.  It's one of the yarns suggested for the project so I knitted up a swatch to see how the colors work together.

Yes, I think this will do just fine...

Museum Day

I've always loved museums; it's an appreciation that was instilled in me by my parents.  They used to take my brother and me to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from the time we were very young  so I've always had an emotional connection to the place.

LACMA recently did a summer promotion where if you bought a ticket before June 30 you can visit the museum as often as you like for 3 months.  My dear friend and favorite  museum buddy treated me to a ticket for my birthday so we met up on Sunday to hang out and to check out the much-anticipated and often derided Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer.  I think it is a delightful addition to the LACMA campus.  They have really transformed the space outside the galleries into a perfect free gathering spot in the middle Miracle Mile.  Levitated Mass also, to my mind, works as a great companion piece to Richard Serra's Band, on view in the Broad building.  Both bring the feeling of the natural world into an urban space.  The Serra installation evokes rocky canyons, its steel walls, covered in a patina of rust,  rise up like canyon walls have the look and feel of rock formations.

The highlight of the day was finally experiencing Chris Burden's Metropolis II.  It's like the play set you fantasized about when you were a kid.  Like the ultimate Hot Wheels track with trains, buildings made of Lego, Lincoln Logs and every other material imaginable.  I loved that the crowd gathered around in anticipation of the control boxes being turned on, and, when the first train started to move, people started cheering and clapping - the adults enjoying it as much as the kids.

I loved this building with its arched windows and little window boxes.

How would you like to be the person standing in the midst of these tracks making sure everything is running smoothly?