Color is cool

Bare yarn soaking to get out air bubbles

Jaquard acid dyes, add with vinegar to water, throw in yarn,

Microwave until yarn takes up all dye or it looks good to you

Hang to dry!

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I have good reason. Someone at work decided to go batshit crazy and deliver a shit storm upon me, so I've been busy and not feeling like engaging in anything social.

I digress.

I got some bare yarn and decided to play with colors. Tonight I got it out! The yarn is superwash sock weight merino from KnitPicks.com along with the Jacquard acid dye. I got a few other colors, just trying out this one tonight. Also have some food color to see what happens.

I'll post pics of the dried yarn when it's dry!

The Fiddlehead mittens are coming along nicely. I finished the first one, on to the 2nd.

Color me obsessed

The picture is crappy, but that is the start of my Fiddlehead mittens from the class I am taking, and even though this 2 color thing makes me want to vomit a bit with the difficulty of trying to hold yarn in both hands at a time, I'm loving it. Just started working on the thumb gusset, and I have to say that working from a chart makes it way easier to say "one more row" especially when you see the neato pattern you are making WITH COLORS!

I do feel a bit like I'm learning to knit all over again. Darcy is teaching us to use the colors with one in each hand at the same time, and I am not all that coordinated to begin with, so this is quite a bit more of a challenge for me than the others in the group. I left the class yesterday with a knot in my stomach and my teeth hurting from clenching them because I was concentrating so hard on what I was doing with my fingers. Today was better, I didn't want to stomp on the mitt in the snow, so we'll see if this is a trend toward the better.

If it is, I'm loving the crap out of it. Lookout Visa, knitting just got more expensive.

Stash Diving

I am taking a class to make the above mittens. Nice huh? It's fancy colorwork that I need someone to show me how to do. So I did some stash diving to find some yarn for the mittens. I really didn't think this would be a problem. I have STASH. I own way beyond the necessary amount of yarn needed for a lifetime of knitting. I THOUGHT I had a lot of Cascade 220, but turns out the Cascade I have isn't the right weight. I know that I have other yarn. Turns out....

This is all I came up with. Out of all of the freaking yarn I have, this is what I have that is appropriate for the pattern.

For those of you without a stash, or non-knitters, Stash Diving is when you rummage thru your yarn to come up with what you are looking for. It can be for a pattern, because you are bored, because you KNOW you have that one skein somewhere that would be perfect for blah....

I have now learned there are more pitfalls than necessary when stash diving. First, I ran across a lot of yarn I forgot I have and I now have 17 more projects that need to be done now because I have the perfect yarn for it. I have also realized the enormity of my habit. I have a lot of fucking yarn. This leads to...I don't have enough room for all of my yarn. If only we could take out that wall... shit...that's the bathroom. I think we need that room.

The worst of it though? Through all of those revelations I realized (I am positive and will bet $24 that I am not the only one that has done this) that I have to actually go out and buy more yarn for this project.

Yarn from Hawaii

Crystal Palace Mini Mochi

Plymouth Yarns Mushishi

I did manage to do some yarn shopping in Hawaii. Before we left, I looked up what store might be close on Ravelry, and found Yarn and Friends right there. No problemo! I wrote down the address, and went to Hawaii, thinking, no big deal. How hard can it be to find a yarn shop?

Well, turns out it was a bit of a day long adventure. We left in the morning, with my little address in hand, to do some sightseeing. The trolley would take us right by the street the yarn shop was on! Yay! Just get off on one of the stops and find it!

Well, turns out Mom isn't as "just walk and see" as I am, and (rightly so) insisted I call and get directions after 1/2 day of trolley and not being close. After I get directions, the trolley guy says we can get on a bus after his stop and ride down there, but heck, it's only 5 blocks right? Hawaii blocks are waaaayyy longer. It's ok though, because we get off the trolley, and the bus we could've taken ends up being pulled over by about 8 police cars and they get on trying to get 1 person off. Tell me I can't escape mental health even on vacation!

We did find the yarn store, little closet of a store, not a lot of yarn, and it turns out those Hawaiian knitters sure like their novelty yarn! Fun fur, boucle, etc, not a lot of regular yarny goodness. I did manage to pick up a few though, thank goodness. I did have to sit thru an instruction by the owner of the store on her particular pattern (a shrug-I'm not into shrugs) that she insisted I take with. Gosh, I sure do hope by now I know ribbing. She was nice though.

Turns out the yarn is great. Just have no idea what to use it for. (Definitely not a shrug)

Who stole the sun?

We sat here for a few hours on our last day.

The stall where I bought my knock-off Coach bag for super cheap. They don't do the knock-offs the illegal way. They have no illegal labels on the bags, so it's all legal for them. But the vendors are doing horrible business right now, no one is really buying anything, and there aren't enough tourists, so they are discounting even more than they usually would thru bargaining. Needless to say I got an even cheaper deal on a cheap deal.

Look close, Santa and Mrs in the yard. With palm trees. And a Xmas tree done up.

Some stalls in China Town. We only took the trolley thru, (trolleys were everywhere and an awesome deal for tourist riding) because they were recently infested with rats. This was disappointing because we had wanted to go thru, but we were afraid to be stuck with no where to eat at because of the rats, so we just drove thru.

Worlds largest Hawaiian shirt. Really.

Me and Obama!

One of many sunsets. Sunsets only last about 5 min, so be quick!

The street outside our hotel. The hotel was fantastic, the Hawaii Prince, I highly recommend. A lot of business people, and because it was a 2 block walk to the beach, not a lot of kids. Some other hotels were literally swarming with kids, so this was good for us.

WTF! It's soooo cold here! Why do I live in MN?

Just a few pics of the trip to tide you all over until I get my mojo back from the trip. The flight back was complete hell. We spent 9 hours in the airport for a delayed flight, then another 8 hours on the plane home. I almost hurt a small child for kicking my seat relentlessly, which I don't think I would have felt too badly about.

Found

I found the phone charger. Now if I could just remember to keep the phone charged, we're in business.

I leave for Hawaii on Saturday. YAY! I have nothing packed, but I do "think" I know what knitting I'm bringing. Probably my entrelac and something else. Not sure what the "else" is. But I'm sure I'll find something other than the huge Monster afghan I'm still working on. Every time I get out the afghan, Eric says, "that's BIG". Yep. And we're only 1/2 thru baby. Not sure this sucker is going to be given to anyone.

Eric says he bought my present weeks ago. Well, then why the hell isn't it wrapped and under the tree so I can shake it and guess? I freely admit I am completely obnoxious when it comes to Christmas. I don't believe in any of the churchy stuff, but I love giving and getting presents. So much it makes me stupid. I have to open all of my presents on Xmas eve, and then I look for more on Xmas day like when I was a kid and on Xmas day my mom put the "Santa" gifts under the tree. Every year since I left home I've felt like I should still get "Santa" presents under the tree on Xmas day.

Now I feel old.

Phone charger?

Has anyone seen a phone charger? It will be the second one lost to Dexter. I had it yesterday, unplugged to plug something else in. Now it's gone. GONE I TELL YOU!
Stupid cat. Or smart cat. Whichever