This is the part where I beg for gifts
So I'm getting married in two months. Yay! Fun! Big dress! I have been most excited about registering, because it's like buying things without the actual cash transaction. Of course, I'm compulsive about checking the registries. (I have my shower on Saturday and according to the registry, I will be receiving three towels and a spoonula. A spoon and spatula in one!)
The first good thing about the registry is that it's just funny to see what people buy. Our very first gift rocked my face off, it was so good. Two amazing friends got us an ice cream maker, and Justin has to dissuade me from mounting it every weekend. We haven't really gotten anything else, but I can tell people have bought things. I can see what was purchased, but I have no idea who purchased them. It's a fun guessing game. Not as much fun as What Food Will Justin's Brother Eat?, but still fun. (Just so you know, if Justin's brother was bald and a germophobe, it would be a hit show on NBC.)
My very, very favorite registry item is a Rubix Cube from Target. Justin hates the fact that I registered for this and begs me to take it off the registry every day. I refuse, because I have never in my life owned a Rubix Cube and by God, I am getting MARRIED and deserve some FUN. (An aside: I actually got a Rubix cube last week. But it's from a sales rep and has movie things like popcorn and film and, uh, asterix all over it instead of just colors. It's awesome and I love it, but that will be the work Rubix Cube. I need one for home.) My other favorite thing is a second bowl for my Kitchenaid stand mixer. If anything ever happened to the ice cream machine, it would totally be the recipient of my kitchen appliance lust.
The pink birthday socks, unveiled:
They're pretty awsome, aren't they? It's just Wendy's generic toe-up pattern using my own hand-dyed yarn. This was the very first thing I dyed at my dyeing class last year. I just love it, especially how the lighter parts are varigated. Justin is taking these home to his sister this weekend. Her birthday was in February, and she picked out the yarn while we were moving. (She tried them on last weekend, so it's not really a surprise that they're done.)
I've been steadily putting together the first set of blocks for the wedding quilt. Eight blocks down, 24 to go. Each block takes about 20 minutes, so it's very easy to just sit down before or after work and crank one out. The putting together of the whole thing will be a little more daunting.
Hi. I live at the dentist.
It was a tie between the socks (A) and the shawl (E), so I went with the socks because they were the closest project to being done. Actually, they're done. (When you people tell me to do something, I do it!) I finished them about two hours ago, and I just went to take a picture and, of course, my camera batteries are dead. So picture tomorrow.
The shawl has been started and only needed to be restarted once. I'm wondering if I should mark the repeats with stitch markers like I usually do. That can be such a hassle, though. I may see how far I can make it without them...
It is so way past my bed time. Justin was supposed to be out of town for work tonight, but he ended up not going, and I left work early for a dentist appointment, so I'm all thrown off.
Also, just in case you're trying to find me and can't, I'm most likely at the dentist's office. Next Friday will mark my FIFTH visit there in three months. Is that not the stupidest thing you've ever heard? My dentist and I have become quite close, and I find his undying love for Rachel Ray a little disconcerting. (We watched Food Network today. Last time, they couldn't find the remote and we had to watch CNN. I watched that ticker for an hour and a half and was ready to choke myself on my own temporary tooth. I am going to buy those people a new remote if I have to.)
Houston, we have a problem
I don't want to knit. What's wrong with me? I have plenty of things to knit but I just don't want to. I'm just feeling the knitting blahs.
So you get to make the decision for me!
(So I tried to do a blog poll and it totally didn't work. Let's vote in the comments. Updated upon request to show percentage already completed.)
A. Finish the birthday socks that were to be gifted in February. (60% completed, but very boring stockinette)
B. Finish Rogue. (on the hood, arms to to)
C. Finish the top-down Malbrigio cardigan. (I'm not even breast-level)
D. Finish the "You Make a Better Door than a Window" socks. (uh...20% completed?)
E. Start (and finish) a shawl for a very special someone involved in my wedding (0% completed)
F. Forget knitting - go spin or quilt.
Whatever is the top vote getter will be my project du jour, then projects will follow in descending order.
Drunk Love
Even before we were engaged, I'd planned on making a wedding quilt. I didn't know much about quilts, but I'd seen a few wedding ring quilts and decided while that's nice, I'm not that advanced. In fact, I have never actually completed a quilt. I'm very good at starting quilt tops, though, and I've quilted some bags. So if you mash that all together, there's probably a quilt in there somewhere.
Our wedding quilt is Denyse Schmidt's "Drunk Love Two-Tone," which I really think fits us perfectly. Not that we're drunks, but it describes our relationship to a T.
I started two weeks ago.
First, I had to get the pattern enlarged by 400%. Since Denyse Schmidt is all crazy-freehand, the pattern pieces are neither square nor symetrical. My friends at Kinko's gave me this:
(The book is included for scale. I had it wire-bound while I was there, which was one of the best $8 I've ever spent [I got the really nice spiral stuff]).
Then I tackled the fabric. The top is two, uh, tones. About six yards of each. Take my advice and don't try to iron it all at once. It was a disaster.
(Doesn't this picture remind you of
this picture of me?)
Our colors are orange (Justin) and hot pink (me). The back will be pinks scrapped together, I think. Large, large scraps. Scraps the size of the quilt.
I spent six hours on Saturday getting the fabric ready to cut into the pattern pieces, and an hour or so each day since then has seen some cutting.
This is called the "Ready, Set, Sew" position.
Shuffle a few pieces and:
Time to sew. I've never made a log cabin before, and while it's all the rage in knitblogland these days, I have no desire to knit row after never-ending row of garter stitch. Sewing log cabins is much, much faster. I could get into that.
So, yeah, I get married at the end of September. 35 blocks to go.
No news is bad news
Distressing facts:
1. Our work internet is slower than Justin putting on his shoes before going to the gym. For the uninitiated, that is painfully, unacceptably slow.
2. All of my teeth hurt all the time now. Constant, aching pain, followed by horrible reactions to cold. I can't even eat fruit.
3. My right wrist has taken permanent leave of absence from any and all crafting. There has been no spinning for more than four days and very little knitting.
4. It is currently 80 kabillion degrees here.
5. In a move of solidarity with my wrist, my body has started rejecting food on a semi-regular basis.
So, things! No good! Bad! I don't know if some of this is being caused by the heat, our impending nuptuals or our trip to Chicago this weekend (I'm not a very good traveler, especially when I'm not feeling well. I have anxiety attacks about anxiety attacks.). I feel like I could spin into orbit any minute. But don't cry for me, Argentina. I slept 14 out of 24 hours yesterday.
Spoils of War - third in a series
Thanks for sticking with me through this whole "how to dye" thing. I hope it helps other people, because lord knows I needed help and could never find any concrete information online. So here it is! Concrete! Kind of.
Here's how the fiber turned out:
Not as much red as I had hoped, but it's really starting to grow on me. I think it's one of those dye projects that looks kind of dicey at first, but will fabulous when it's finally spun. It's called "Ember."
At the same time, I dyed this one:
This is "Magically Delicious." I just want to smoosh my face into it. I had an idea of what I wanted and went for it. I am especially proud of the shading. I used lime green and purple in longish strips, then added thin stripes of dark green at the edges of the light green. It spread very well during the steaming.
Also, I think it really helps to let the fiber sit for awhile before you steam it. Ember did not have that luxury, as I was way too impatient, but Magically Delicious did, and I think the quality of the colors really shows.
Next weekend: quilting.
We interrupt this tutorial for something actually thought-provoking. Maybe.
I was just on
The Harlot's blog, commenting on the post where she asks which three knitters, alive or dead, you would invite to dinner. My three were:
1. Felicia of Sweet Georgia, because she has such a gift for color. I would just like to be near her to suck up knowledge by osmosis or something.
2. Mrs. Weasley, from Harry Potter. I love Mrs. Weasley. I want to BE Mrs. Weasley.
3. My mom's mom. She died before I was born. She knit quite a few afghans for my parents, and there was one (dark green, mint green and white chevrons) that I claimed as my own when I was little. It just...
smells different.You know what I mean?
It smells different. It's different than all the other blankets. When I remember, it smells like golden retriever. Like calm and happiness and rainy days on that old, nubbly couch. I remember using it when my baby blanket was taken away, after I got several teeth pulled and played rented Nintendo while I recovered. The blanket is still at my parents' house, but I have just resolved to steal it.
Another blanket with a distinct smell is the first afghan my Great Aunt Marg made me. It's crocheted, and she made it on the diagonal,
yet it ended up rectangular. My mother and I have tried for years to figure out how she did that. It's all kinds of different colors mashed up together. My favorite color is the lime green near one corner, and when I sleep with that blanket, I always, ALWAYS sleep with the lime green part near my face. It, too, smells different. In fact, it's that color that smells different. And it's softer than the rest.
Has anyone else out there noticed this?
How to Dye Wool and Not Have it End Up (Super) Ugly, Part II
6. Dye stocks! Let's make some!
Now, I didn't know this part until pretty recently. Like, three weeks ago. So I was dyeing all willy-nilly, putting powder in bottles and mixing it up like a complete jackass. I use
Dyeing to Knit as my reference to end all references. I don't want to give away any of the book's secrets, but I think it's safe to tell you how I make dyestock.
In a jar, add two tablespoons boiling water to one teaspoon of dye powder. NOTE: The dye powder is the toxic part of this whole situation. Don't breathe it in, don't leave your jars uncapped. The sooner you get the powder into liquid form, the better.
Stir until combined. (If you use hot water, you'll be okay until you get to the darker colors. Violet must have boiling water, or else it comes out lumpy.) Then add one cup of warm water, followed by one tablespoon of citric acid. Stir again.
That's it!
7. Figure out how you want to dye your fiber. You can do immersion dyeing (in a pot) or handpaint. I like both, but this tutorial is for handpainting.
8. Do you want to mix colors of dye? Now's the time. Do so in another jar.
9. Grab your funnel and squirt bottle. I put in around six tablespoons of dyestock for every cup of warm water I add to the squirt bottle. That gives me pretty vibrant colors. Use less for lighter colors, more for dark.
10. Put some plastic wrap down on your dyeing surface. I generally use three long pieces. Then lay out your fiber.
11. Make sure you have on your rubber gloves - acid dyes stain everything (and the acid isn't so great on open wounds, should you have any).
12. I start with my lightest color of dye, because it's the easiest to cover up later should I need to.
Here's where it's up to your personal preference. Too little dye = light colors, while too much dye = sloppy mess that turns everything brown. I saturate the fiber, let it soak in while I do other colors, then come back and make sure I haven't missed anything.
13. Color #2.
14. Color #3.
You'll notice that I still have white fiber showing. That's completely okay. When you steam the fiber, the dye will spread, which also gives you nice tonal variations.
After all of my dye is on the fiber, I press down on it with my rubber gloved-hands, one color at a time. Then I let it sit for a bit, maybe a half hour or so.
15. When I come back, I roll it up in its plastic wrap, lengthwise.
Roll that bad boy up into a coil.
16. Time for steam. I use my large stockpot filled with a few inches of water and place a colander inside. The coil goes inside that, covered by the stock pot lid. There are probably more civilized ways to do this, but we are a simple people.
(Yes, it's in the kitchen. No eating utensils were harmed during the dyeing of this fiber.)
Steam your yarn for approximately 30 minutes, flipping it over halfway through. Your coil should be puffy and the colors will be very, very visible through the plastic.
17. Unwrap your coil carefully. You can let it cool for a bit, but I can never wait. I gently unwrap it/rip off the plastic wrap and then let it sit in the sink sans water for a good cool-down.
18. Once it is completely cooled, fill the sink with lukewarm water and a bit of soap. I use Synthropol in this step because it keeps the colors from bleeding together, but before that I used regular (non-grease fighting) dish soap.
19. Let your fiber soak for at least 15 minutes. Over-soaking won't hurt a thing. You'll probably notice some color in your water, which is not unusual for this method. I generally give it a second soak, this time without the soap.
20. Then into the washing machine it goes! I use the washer to spin out my fiber and yarn, making sure no water enters the machine at any time. When I'm doing fiber, I put it in a lingerie bag (which, frankly, doesn't get much use for anything else around here). Hang to finish drying.
Tomorrow - the finished product!
How to Dye Wool. (Hi! I know what I'm doing!)
* Before beginning any dyeing, please remember that I am in no way authorized to teach anyone how to mix colors and I once dyed my entire white kitchen counter red. But it was an apartment and I don't live there anymore.
1. You will need something to dye. I dye wool. Wool is fun and it can take high temperatures, so I don't really concern myself when the water boils. You can dye yarn or fiber that hasn't made it that far yet.
2. You will need dyes. I use acid dyes. I've tried a few different brands, and I can say that I really hate Gaywool dyes and Jacquard dyes are nice, but expensive. Now I get my dye at
ProChem. I buy the washfast, lightfast acid dyes.
3. You will also need acid to activate the dyes and make them stay on the wool. Vinegar works very well, but it's also smelly when you cook it. I use citric acid, available by the pound (pretty cheap, too) from ProChem. Trust me, it's worth it.
4. The last thing you need are dyeing utensils, namely things you will never use again for any other purpose, especially eating. I have a big stock pot from Big Lots, a few pairs of rubber gloves, old jars (from salsa, pickles, etc.), a crock pot, measuring spoons, a funnel and some plastic spoons. Plastic wrap is also a must.
You will also need a dyeing space:
Mine is particularly...basementy. Notice I have a washtub and a big slab of wood on which to dye. A washtub is not necessary, but if you have a white kitchen sink, friend, you will be in trouble. (The dye does nothing to stainless steel or whatever shiny kitchen sinks are made of.)
I have a lot of soap.
On to the dyeing table. For awhile, I used my kitchen. It worked. I had to be really careful, and I'm not a careful person. Luckily,
Bon Ami will remove ANY AND ALL dye stains you have. I would bet my life on it. It is $0.79 and if you don't have it in your part of the country, I will send it to you.
When we moved to the new house, I didn't want to jack up the kitchen (not in front of Justin, at least), so to the basement I went. My dye table wasn't built, so I used a piece of cardboard on the floor. Whatever works.
Here's my new table:
My dad designed it and Justin built it. I think it's all 2x4s and an old door. It's perfect.
5. (Step five and really all we've done is buy things. Good for us!) Prepare your fiber. Get a bucket of water - I use cold - and put in a little Synthropol (if you don't have Synthropol, that's fine - water works just fine on its own). Let it sit there for at least 20 minutes.
6. This is a good time to mix your dye stocks. We're going to have to do that tomorrow, because I have labels to put on wedding invitations.
Can't spin, will dye
It's been such a delightful weekend. I've washed a lot of fabric, baked, dyed and even went to the drive-in. (I love the drive-in. It's the only place we go to see movies in the summer. Last night was
Pirates of the Carribean and
Nacho Libre.)
Remember a few weeks ago when I used my new dyeing table to dye this?
It recently became this:
The name has changed from "I Love a Parade" to "Miss Amy."
See? A little one for Miss Amy and a big one for her
mom. It's so soft and bouncy.
Heartened by the way it spun up, I decided to tackle The Big Important Dyeing Project. (And my wrist hurts, of course, so there's no spinning this weekend and very, very little knitting.)
I've been wanting to dye something in our wedding colors, but I'm not a very good mixer. Our colors are hot pink and orange (actually picked out by Justin on the day we got engaged, inspired by a dress I was wearing), and I think it would be awesome to have a little remembrance of it in the stash. I came up with this:
It's called "September 30," which is the day we're getting married. I bought this roving (merino) from
Adrian and I just love it. It really deflates when it's wet, but as soon as it starts to dry it puffs right back up. The only thing I did to it for that picture was spin it into a coil. No teasing, no fluffing, nothing.
That was so successful that I have a coil cooling in the washtub and one steaming on the stove right now. It's nice to have other things to do when your wrist decides to take a leave of absence.
Coming later this week: How to dye wool, taught by a person who makes it up as she goes along.
Photographic proof that it's gonna be legal. Just not now.
Let me tell you a little about the Iowa marriage system. You need to get your marriage license at least three days in advance of your wedding. You actually get to take the piece of paper with you, but you can't get married until three business days later.
Justin and I don't have that much vacation, so there was no way that we could get said license right before we got married. Hence our trip to Iowa this past weekend. Just because we were in the neighborhood and felt like dumping $200 from our checking account, we also applied for passports. (And, really? Getting a passport is MUCH more detailed than getting a marriage license.)
Of course, my mom took pictures.
Most of these pictures are of our backs. This makes me feel better because my face doesn't do so well in pictures.
Please notice the AWESOME wedding decorations.
My dad was our witness. I don't know why, but he wasn't too thrilled about it. He kept asking how old we were.
The Star Witness is left handed.
We're totally getting married.
Slow down, Speed Racer
The time has come, I think, for a little introspection, a little introversion and a little petting of the yarn and enjoying of the silence.
I've been the driver of the Complain Train for the past few weeks, and not only am I irritating everyone else, I'm really driving myself crazy. Things rattling around my brain include and are not limited to: the wedding, money, self-image and creative endeavors. Also, work. As in, what am I going to DO with my life? Where does my happiness lie? Will it pay for my root canal? Why do I have nightmares every night? What the hell is wrong with my hair?
Today I resolved to do what I want. If I don't want to go out, I'm not going out. If I don't want to cook, I'm not going to cook. If I don't want to wear clothes that match, I'm not going to wear clothes that match. (How that differs from any other day, who knows.)
I think I set too many expectations for myself, and those little expectations build up into big brick walls and I can't climb over because I left the ladder outside. And you know what happens when you build big brick walls around someone? They die. (Trust me, it's the only way to kill a Sim. Abby taught me that.)
So it's off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Prozac and Sproingy Yarn.
The hills of Iowa
We are in Iowa. Oh, god, Iowa, I love you. My parents were out with the gang when we got home last night, so we fed Penny (who cried and cried when she saw me - that's my girl), ate some pizza and then sat on the patio and enjoyed my mom's beautiful garden as dusk fell. Penny and Justin had a meeting of the minds, and I'm not really sure who won.
Justin has already left to meet up with his family in the Chicago-area for the day. My parents and I are going shopping and hopefully we'll be able to take P to the quarry for a swim. I bought her a new water toy, and it hasn't left her side since I gave it to her last night.
It is so good to be home.
