Kool - Aid dyed yarn drying on my balcony:

Well, I haven't gotten any knitting done lately...too much real life going on. (yuck) Tonight I had some time while watching TV (Manor House on PBS) so I started winding my Kool-Aid dyed yarn into balls so I can start a project. Actually winding them is a project, since the yarn got kind of tangly as I was dying/rinsing/drying/rinsing/rinsing. (and the orange stills smells like oranges.) I am trying to wind them into center pull balls without the help of any device, mechanical or otherwise. There are good instructions on how to do that here:Once Upon A Pattern - How to Make a Pull Skein The first two came out just fine, but when I finished the third ball I couldn't pull the center string out for anything. I'm not sure right now if it is worth undoing to try again, or if I'll just unroll the thing from the outside as I work. I have however decided I really want a ball winder!

I finished another dishcloth last night. It is done in the Chinese Waves patten from Maggie's Rags. It was a lot of fun , especially since the base is garter stitch, and you don't need a border to keep it from curling up. I really like the way that looks - I'm going to find/make more dishcloth patterns like it. Also, today I finished the top of one dresser scarf sock! It looks a little big, but I am only of by .5 stitches in my gauge, and it is cotton, so it will shrink. I am just concerned now that I will not have enough yarn to finish, but it should be ok right? I am going to try to finish the foot of the sock this week, but need to find my complete set of size 5 dpns, since the top was worked flat on two.

Well, the new site is finally up and running. Yay! There are still a lot of bugs to work out, and a lot of not-yet-connected links, but everything should be cool soon.

I finished the armwarmers today. They are just a little big (guess I didn't do a great job recalcuating the gauge), but will be perfect for typing once it is cold again.

I spent most of friday night and part of saturday dyeing yarn. It didn't turn out too bad for my first time. Watch this site for pictures - coming soon!

I got really close to finishing the second arm warmer tonight. I'm almost at the thumb/button hole. Hopefully I'll be able to finish tomorrow, as well as finish the top of the dresser scarf sock and start on the foot. My goal for the weekend is to finish the whole sock. (plus the armwarmer. And possibly start on the second sock.)

On a totally separate note, I have to start buying equipment for a summer geology field methods/mapping class, so I can't buy any yarn for a while = ( oh well... I guess I can survive on what I've got! If anyone knows of a good store/website to buy outdoor gear at (with good prices!) let me know.

and, Just For Fun, here are the easter eggs we colored last weekend:

Well... I'm not moving my new site anytime toooo soon. I'm writing the code myself and having some serious issues with the cascading style sheets. I thought everything was cool, until I saw the page open on a moniter with a higher resolution. yikes. So, check back here a little while longer! As for knitting content: I haven't worked on the socks for a little while, but I did complete a half of a set of armwarmers (eg: 1 armwarmer) and am about halfway through the other. I am using Lion Brand's Jiffy in a nice purply color. I'm basically using the Voodoo pattern from Knitty, but was feeling sort of brainless when I started and worked the first one flat and seamed it instead of using dpns. (Had to rip out my first seam and do it again... and I still don't like it!) I am doing the second one flat also; I figure it'll at least give me practice sewing up seams. Here's a pic of the first one, half done:

Hey everyone... this blog is going to be moving to a new address, along with some new stuff I'm putting up. If you have it bookmarked or linked, please change the address to www.yarndreams.com If you come here one day in the future and there is nothing... now you know why.

My parents are staying with me for the weekend. We tried to go to a spring practice game for the Iowa Hawkeyes, but got severly drenched. (well...the weatherman did say a chance of rain.) After drying off a little we got some food, went to Hobby Lobby (they bought me some yarn! yay!), and dyed easter eggs. That was lots of fun, I'll put a picture up soon :-)

Cool day today. I went to ESPN's football College Gameday taping at the University of Iowa. Its going to be on sports center sometime.. not sure when. Plus, I got to skip a class to be there, with only minor feelings of guilt. (good excuse and all...) Also, I got the 8th out of 11 repeat done on the dssocks. Hopefully I can finish that and start on the foot tomorrow. Still can't decide if I should finish one whole sock before I start the other, or if I should do both tops and then both bottoms.

I am making progress on the fixation dresser scarf socks:

I'm halfway done with the top of the first sock. I think I knit slower with this yarn, mostly since I stop every row and play with the stretchiness of the fabric : )
Here is some yarn I received yesterday from KnitPicks (one of my fav-or-ite online stores):

It is Cascade Yarns Magnum in "Denim". It gets 1.5-2 stitchs per inch - I'm going to make the big fluffy hat (not the real name) from Hip To Knit. The green thing in the picture is a colored pencil, so you can get an idea of exactly how thick this yarn is. The skein is HUGE. Its like picking up and holding a fluffy cat. (not my cat thought... she's a chunk.) I can't wait to start on it... but I'm not going to let myself until I finish some other projects. Besides, I won't need a big bulky winter hat again for a while right?

So the verdict is in on dying combo-content yarns: it'll work just fine, except that that non-dyable parts (i.e. acrylic) will stay white (or their orignal color) giving the final product a heathery/tweedy look. There is a great article on dying yarn with kool-aid in the fall knitty, and a sock pattern out of dyed yarn in the winter knitty.

I didn't start on the sock last night - I spent too much time on the computer and had to go to bed or else I would have fallen asleep in class today. I might start them tonight, but today I have been thinking about a gift I would like to make for someone. (can't go into any more details online than that...) I probably need to start that soon, so I'll be sure to finish in time.

Right now I am playing with a really cool computer-repair tool kit my Dad got me from Tiger Direct. It has a whole bunch of screw driver heads in different shapes. Some of them are pretty funky looking - I want to know what they open!

I got home a few hours ago. Had lots of fun this weekend. I really want to start a new knitting project tonight, so I think I am going to go do that now! I received a package while I was gone - 40" circular needles (from elann.com) in a variety of sizes to try the "magic loop" technique of circular knitting. There is a pattern for a basic sock in the instruction booklet - I think I'll start with that and some charcoal colored wool-ease left over from something.

I'm leaving tomorrow morning/afternoonish for the wedding. Actually, I'm going to see Todd Rundgren in concert in Chicago tomorrow night, then going out to Peoria for the wedding on Saturday. YAY! So excited. Big UNfortunatly, I didn't finish either the scarf or the purse in time. Well, I might still be able to finish the purse if I bring it with me, but I won't have time to put the lining in. Not really a big deal, since I think i might wear a brown dress instead now anyways...

Grrrr... Ok, so I don't think the scarf is going to be finished by this weekend. Too bad, since the yarn goes really well with my dress. Here is the question of the day:
If you are going to dye (kool-aid, icing colors) yarn, does it need to be 100% natural fiber (such as wool), or can it have some percentage of nylon/acrylic mixed in? General consensus of answers to be posted once it is obtained. Does anyone have any experiance with this?

Here is a small swatch of the Plymouth Eros (its going to be a dressy scarf for a wedding next weekend - hopefully) You can see what the "yarn" looks like in the tail at the bottom. The whole thing is really stretchy/springy and looks really neat. It's not as dense as it looks in the pic.

I had a great time on my mini-vacation to St. Louis. I found the best yarn store I have ever been in! It's called the Weaving Dept., and they have the second story of a historic house full of yarn and goodies. I bought myself a lot of yarn that I have never worked with before. The largest chunk is self-patterning sock yarn (2 color patterns of Trekking XXL, and Fortissima Socka), some Fixation, my first ever Noro Kureyon, Reynolds Utopia (the softest acrylic I've ever felt), and some Plymouth Yarns Eros. I know I am going to be making the 4 hour drive to StL again just to go to that store - when I got home and looking at everything... hmmm... was this all I got? Ha. Some things I saw that I really really want in the future are Noro Silk Garden (a few skeins for a scarf for me), some stretchy sock yarn besides fixation, such as Regia Stretch or Trampoline, Plymouth baby alpaca, for a scarf/shawl (they had the best free pattern w/ purchase, I'm kicking myself for not buying some), super chunky yarn I saw for a hat (don't know the brand), Regia 6-ply for a crazy stripe sweater.... sheeeesshh... ok.. how about a few of everything there??? The one thing they didn't have which I also REALLY want but can't seem to find ANYWHERE is Opal Royal sock yarn, in blues with silvery glitter thread. so pretty!

I'm on my way to St. Louis for the weekend. Got a few projects to bring along to keep me occupied. (dishcloths mostly) My boyfriend is playing in a Lord of the Rings card game tournament, and I am planning on staying in the hotel room, writing a paper, and knitting. (The paper writing should really come first...) By the way, I finished all the knitting on my black glittery/fuzzy purse last night! I even knitted an extra piece of fur to sew around the top (didn't think it was hairy enough!). Now I just have to do the lining and finishing work. Yay! Hope to get a picture up sometime on sunday. I also completed one more pattern repeat on the "dresser scarf socks".

I finished the second side of my purse tonight. Tried to scan it, but the black yarn doesn't really look like much. I need to add some more fur on the top, make the sides and bottom (one piece) and do all the finished work still. I'm not positive what it is going to look like when it is done, since I am still just sort of making up the pattern as I go along. But, I like the results so far!

I added a tag board... everyone say hi!

I was having some issues with my blog last night... got some code type message on the screen, instead of the blog coming up... I think that problem is fixed now.