I Dyed for Fishy

KoolAid dyeing in a crockpot is fun and easy.  Colors that are analogous (next to each other on the color wheel) will blend better with less muddying.

Brew mix.

Dye before setting to brew (yarn soaks and heats in 2 cups white vinegar and water to cover yarn, dye is added when hot).

Squirt bottles used to insert dye in water bath.

Brewed yarn:  Water turns clear or milky in the hot bath when the yarn has absorbed all the dye.

3 oz. of dyed Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool

Fishy (free pattern from Delicious Stitches) before swim.

Fishy after swim, drying in front of a small fan.

Fishy took some hard hits but with a little reshaping, he is looking much better. 

Can this be knitting?

Yarn Bee Chrysalis in Bog Copper from Hobby Lobby

Netted ribbon yarn is not my fiber of choice but I accepted the challenge of a friend and now a scarf of layered ruffles is falling from my needles.  The work is tedious with each loop having to be spread open to hook it with the knitting needle to become the next stitch.  Don't drop a stitch, picking them up is a challenge if not impossible.  I started over, once, already.  See if I do another one!

Dilemma: Ready to Felt/Full?

16"x16" in Full o'Sheep Yarn

My Amish Jewels version of the Painted Diamonds Bag is ready to felt/full.  I-cord handles have been twisted and tied with a square knot.  Should I leave them twisted or undo them and twist them after the bag has been processed?  I am leaning towards leaving them twisted through the water bath.  Any thoughts or recommendations from experience?

Update:  Today, August 28th, was felting/fulling day.  The bag was processed with the handles twisted.  They didn't stick to the bag and they can be separated to be twisted again.  Some thought they might untwist with the vigorous agitation.  They may but they are just as likely to twist more.

Also, some recommended securing the handles with additional stitches.  I did this and I tied them before twisting.

Bag is now 13.75 inches wide by 13 inches tall.

Handles stretch when hung damp to dry.

Sticky Situation

I was blessed with a Singer Puzzle Box a week or so ago but something sticky had adhered to the surface.  From a telltale hair and previous experience with a Singer 128 from a barn with similar spots inside the base, I suspected mouse droppings.  To remove the rather large splotches in the 128 base, I soaked them with oil and scraped with a putty knife.  To cover the oily spots, I put in a nice new piece of black felt.  That process wasn't going to work for a nice looking Puzzle Box with a decent finish.

The picture above shows the worst of the droppings and two spot faintly circled in red that were test spots for cleaning products. 

Since I had used oil on the Singer 128 base, I thought maybe something oily might work but it had to have more solvent action than just oil.  Since the Treadle On members are adept at cleaning old treadles stored in unusual places, I asked for suggestions.  Murphy's Oil Soap, Paul's Elixir (a specialty home brew that seems to work similarly to Dr. Woodwell's)*, and OxiClean.  I put Paul's Elixir as a last resort because it will soften the finish on the wood and redistribute it.  If the droppings were embedded in the finish, I would need to use it to blend in the spots where the finish lifted.

I didn't have any Murphy's Oil Soap and I was afraid the oxygen peroxide created by mixing the OxiClean in hot water would cause discolorations.  So, looking through my own multitude of cleaning products for an oil base cleaner that would act like the wood oil soap, I turned up two, Ultra Krud Kutter and De-Solv-It.  I tested both but the organic De-Solv-It was more effective at softening the spots.  Even so, I still had to lift them with a flat blade screw driver and then smooth the area with fine steel wool.  They came off, but they took some of the finish with them.  Eventually, I will have to use Paul's Elixir to restore the finish but since the biggest spot is on the section that is usually sitting on the bottom when the emblem is upward, the box is now nice enough to display in my office near the Singer treadle cabinet.

*Note:  Paul Hayes (the Fenman) has an extensive article at Needlebar.org.  Chapter 4 of the article specifically demonstrates The Elixir while to rest of the article is worthwhile for understanding the pros and cons restoration. 

Finger Wiping Good!

With a head cold and tons of laundry to do, I tried to take it easy between loads.  This little towel sort of fell off my needles.  Later, with the laundry done, I sat in the sun to appreciate our recent appearance of summer sunshine and finish off the towel.   Now, that is what I call a productive but relaxing day!

I wanted something reversible that would work as a gift for the kitchen or bathroom with coordinating dishcloths or facecloths.  After a false start with another smaller towel freebie, this pattern developed.  It seems to have enough texture to be absorbent and is approximately the size of a guest towel (fingertip towel).

Download the free pattern:  Stepping Stones Fingertip Towel

From Dishcloth to Duster

I have some wonderfully soft cotton yarn from Hobby Lobby (I Love this Cotton).  It is just too nice for a dishcloth but a facecloth would be perfect.  Searching high and low through Ravelry and the cotton yarn sites for patterns just didn't turn up what I had in mind and the ridged dishcloth pattern I had made a few years ago, was just not to be found either in my files or on the internet.  So with a few frogged starts, a simple knit two rows, purl two rows ridge with a 3 stitch border became a facecloth with a delightful texture.  

With a good stash of firmer Peaches and Creme cotton on cones and an older simple Swifter sitting idle, in need of recyclable duster covers, I set out to use the same ridged pattern for my mop.  I cast on 70 stitches with a gauge of 4 stitches per inch and knit until there was enough to extend the width of the foam head.  Centering the mop head on the knit band, I folded over each end and stitched them to the bound edges to form pockets to fit the head snugly.  The duster head goes on great now but I am concerned it will shrink when laundered.  The next duster cover will be from the stash of acrylic yarn I didn't give away on FreeCycle before I moved.

Acrylic: To Block or Not To Block?

With DH gone for a week to do some mountain climbing, I settled in to to do some serious knitting.  With 3 days of concentrated effort, a Babies and Bears Sweater is off the needles, blocked, and ready for me to make a trip to the fabric store to find the perfect buttons.

Plymouth Encore yarn doesn't seem to be readily available in my shopping district so I had settled for Lion Brand Vanna's Choice, an acrylic/rayon blend.  With no previous experience with this yarn, I was pleasantly surprised.  The sheen is lovely and the hand delightful.  

With a few modifications to the pattern, the sweater will look great for winter with a cute hat.  The original pattern results in a shorter sweater with a hood but opting to join the two halves of the sweater before adding the front panels (substituted garter stitching in place of the Gansey pattern for both fronts and the back), I was able to lengthen the sweater buy 7 rows and continue the mitered corners.  I also chose to create a stockinette button placket that curled in spite of the garter stitches along the edge and I replaced the hood with a collar so baby can wear a wardrobe of cute knit hats.  ;)

With an obstinate curl along both button plackets, I had a dilemma, try blocking the acrylic yarn or let the buttons hold the placket in place.  Acrylic yarn can be killed by too much heat, but after consulting with the experts on the Yahoo knitlist and some Googling, I was sure I could cure the curl.

Uncontrolled, the lower placket rolled all the way over on itself.

My Rowenta hand steamer is still lost in the maze of moving boxes and it has had an obnoxious drip since it was new and gifted to me.  I decided not to hunt for it.  The Sunbeam steam iron was a better drip-free choice.

Filling the iron with water and setting it for the maximum burst of steam, I practiced on the gauge swatch, hovering the iron above about an inch.  First error was to steam from the right side but a test wash and toss in the dryer showed promise.  The swatch retained its now flattened edges.

Encouraged by the permanent results, I placed the sweater on my pressing surface, wrong side up and proceeded to cover the areas that I did not want hit by steam with cotton hand towels.

Working carefully, I successfully flattened just the button plackets and a small area in the back that was riding up slightly.

Don't worry, both fronts are exactly the same size.

Now, with the success of blocking acrylic yarn, I will be more willing to use it for future projects.  The only thing I won't do again is use that collar!  I followed the instructions for the shaped collar in the Baby Surprise Jacket pamphlet.  I like the idea of creating fullness for a roll line but the points are just not appropriate for a baby sweater.  They look more like a shirt collar or worse.