I'm Dyeing!

So a friend of mine sends me this text message that I should do this baby sack and make it look like it was tie-dyed. Well my mind went to work trying to figure out how I could do this without actually dying it.

I couldnt come up with anything so I decided to knit the sack in Knit Picks bare and dye it myself. Mind you, I've never dyed anything before so this was gonna be scary! Well for me at least. All you dying guru's out there have my permission to laugh at me. But go easy on me please?

So I hopped on the computer and went looking for the pattern my friend showed me and as it turns out, the designer took the pattern down.

Strike one.

So I did some rummaging and found a couple places where the pattern was recreated and as it turns out...the picture that my friend showed me was a modified version of the original.

Strike two.

So my brain kicked in gear and came up with a modified version of the recreated version of the original version.(top picture) (getting dizzy yet?)

(hang on, strike three is coming up.....however, I think this win might qualify as an erasure of the second strike perhaps??)

I went to KP and got me some Bare Swish Bulky Yarn. Superwash cuz, its for a baby and you need to be able to wash it. One skein ought to do it since the original pattern page in Ravelry says it only takes 120 yards to do this, and one skein of bare is 137 yards. Right? Wrong. I got the yarn in the mail and began to get to work and got to the end of the skein and I wasnt even halfway through the baby sack.

Strike three. But not out...it gets better from here.

I had to put it down and go and get me some more. It was my fault really, I got the yarn and decided it wasn't as bulky as I thought. So I needed to hold this yarn double in order to get gauge. I suppose I should have looked a little deeper as to how bulky it actually was.

But none the less, after all that, I came up with this......

Aint it cute? Now I needed to dye it.

I had gotten a Tulip Tie Dye Kit after watching this video on dying your already finished knitted project. So I got all that out and got it ready, laid me a trash sack and some saran wrap out, studied which order I wanted the colors and set them out. And got some paper towels at the ready...

I soaked the sack while we ate supper and came back and got as much as the water I could out of it and started to put it in the bullseye position, rubber banding as I went.

I was nervous! I was ready to dye!!! HOLY COW IM GONNA MESS THIS UP SO BAD!! So I ate some chocolate, put my gloves on and went to work putting dye on this bound up pile of knitting and rubbing it in to make sure it got down into the centers and all kinds of work I probably didn't need to do, but did anyway because I didn't know what I was doing. But I was excited, so on we go!

The video said I should wrap up the project in saran wrap and let it sit overnight, and so that's what I did.  My son looked at it and said "Umm Mom? That don't look very babyish." I said "Good. I believe son, that was the point."

So all night long I kept turning it because I didn't want any dye to drain and pool under this rainbow worm as my son has named it.

I woke up this morning to this rainbow purtyness.

Im a bit scared to open it. It looks so purty sitting here. What if its a total disaster when I open it?? But I must. do. it.

So I took it over to the sink and took off the bands and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed ...ect...and then threw it in the washer and dryer and this is what it looks like all opened up to show all its glory!

As it turned out......I didn't mess it up at all! YAY! GO ME!

How do yall think I did?

Now of course I realize, this could be the beginning of another habit. At the very least, dying yarn like this is off my list of things to be scared of. The type of dye that is much more complicated....I will leave to the guru's. This is simple and works. Good enough for me.

TTFN

Knitted Lettering

My son started going to school this year, so I decided he needed some school spirit for winter. He on the other hand.....not so much. Oh well, he's getting it anyway, and how can he deny me this opportunity to knit something??

So I gathered the appropriate color yarn and went to looking for some lettering that would somewhat match the schools. I dont want to be exact...copywrite and all, but I wanted to share with you this blog post I found over at ChemKnits.

Its An Assembly of Alphabet Charts!!!! WHOO HOO!!

Definitely something to keep bookmarked!

Off to chart up the lettering.......

TTFN

Chuck Roast and Sauerkraut

Now I know what your thinking.

EWWWW!!

But really, you should give this a shot. I not a fan of sauerkraut particularly but I absolutely LOVE this stuff! Just read through the recipe and then make your decision.

I usually start this in the morning somewhere between 8-9am and we eat supper at 6pm.

The how tos:

Gather a crock pot,
a good sized chuck (or whatever ya got) roast, just pull it out of the freezer, this works best with a frozen roast
1/2 cup of brown sugar
27oz of sauerkraut (When I don't have my own, I use "Franks")


Put your kraut at the bottom of your crock pot.

Then add your brown sugar. You can add more or less sugar, its up to yalls taste buds, but 1/2 cup is what I put in. 

Then put your frozen roast in. It would be my suggestion to leave it intact. Don't cut anything off, it adds to the flavor. You don't have to eat the fat, but you should leave it on during cooking.

Turn your crock pot on low, put the lid on and go on about your day. Come about an hour before suppertime, cut you up some potatoes and get them to boiling for mashed potatoes(skin on preferably) and some sort of veggie. And you have some goooooood eatin!

YUMMY!! 

TTFN