2009 May « Ten Thousand Dancing Stars

Archive | May, 2009

A Late Post

This post is a couple of weeks late. That’s just how much I have going on.

Two Fridays ago, we went out for the first time in a while to Festival City. We were intent on seeing Push, but it was rated 15+ which meant the kids cannot come in. Somehow we managed to pass Aibi off as a 15-year old, but the boys had to settle for Monsters vs Aliens. I got them the 3D seats though so that was cool.

After the cinema, it was time for munchies! The kids felt like TGIFridays so that’s where we went. And here’s our lunch in action.

Patrick really into his chicken!

Joseph digging into the nachos.

My lunch: Paella!

Of course, Patrick had the crayons to pass the time.

And dessert was these huge Oreos filled with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with caramel and chocolate sauce. The kids enjoyed it.

My Sundara socks enjoyed Dubai. They really feel so amazing in my feet, so squishy and soft.

The boys waiting while we went to the little girl’s room.

Lovely red blooms at the Atrium.
And that concludes our Friday at the Festival City. I did nip in to Magrudy’s to pick up some brushes for Joseph’s art project plus some knick knacks for the Sundara swap.

Good weekend.

Categories Uncategorized

Irish Spring

5 May

I’m on a dyeing kick!

I suppose it has something to do with the almost instant gratification. You soak the yarn, add into the dye mix, squeeze, rinse, hang to dry and voila! you have something pretty. Okay so you have to knit with it to truly make it pop. But watching colours take on a bare skein of yarn is amazing.

Last Friday, I found a shelf stocked with packets and small tubs of fabric dye at Magrudy’s Festival City. I thought it looked dodgy at first but reading the instructions and the label told me it can be used for wool. So I picked up two packets, Dark Green and Olive Green.

The day after, I pulled out one more skein of the Wollmeise 80/20 to start playing. I did have my reservations because the packet said anything with nylon will dye to a lighter shade. So I used the entire packet which is usually good enough for a full shade on 250g of cotton or linen. I figured I will compensate for the 20% polyamid in the skein.

Ready…skein, dye pack, gloves

Get set…a full tub of warm water with the dye powder mixed in

Go…here’s the yarn after the first 15 minutes of soaking. I think I love this dye because there’s no acid and no cooking/nuking involved

Ta-dah! The skein ready to hang to dry.

I left it overnight behind the bedroom door to dry, the label said no direct heat or sunlight and I didn’t want to risk it. Here is the final product wound into a cake. I love how even the colour is, it’s a solid colourway which reminded me of a brand of bath soap from my youth called Irish Spring so that’s what I’m calling this colourway.

If the Dark Green dyed like this, can you imagine how much lighter the Olive Green will be?
Last Friday, I started working on the Mad Color Weave socks as part of the Q2 KAL in the Socks That Rawk Group in Ravelry. Here’s the husband clearly enjoying holding up the sock! This skein was one of the first ones I purchased from Blue Moon Fiber Arts about a year ago. So you can imagine my surprise when, this early on in the work, I found a knot in my yarn. A knot!The pattern is working up really well, except for the heel. I prefer my short rows so that’s what this pair will get. Because of this I am also dropping the second column of mock cable running down either side of the sock.
See how much neater short rows are compared to picked-up heel flaps?