collage

collage

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Does anyone read blogs anymore?

So a lot has happened since that last blog post about jeans.  We moved about a 1/2 mile from that house and then a year later moved 3,000 miles away to the opposite coast of the U.S. . We had just started getting settled here when the pandemic hit and we got locked down. My son finished his first year at his new school at home and then proceeded to have his entire 8th grade year at home as well. (Well at this point he still has a few weeks to go) I had been working at a local yarn shop and stopped rather abruptly once my son was home all day every day. 14-ish months later we are mostly vaccinated and starting to venture back into the world and it all feels surreal. 

The thing that struck me most about the past year, was how easy it was for me to fall back into being home nearly all the time. Sure I missed my friends and family. Sure I missed aimlessly wandering Target for no good reason, but honestly I feel like we were very lucky this year.  We got extra time with our son, who will soon be entering High School and will begin the natural pulling away that happens at this age. I feel like I had the time to do all of the things I love.  I began baking all of our bread again, something I didn’t have time for when I was busy with working and volunteering and shuttling my son to sports and play dates and all that comes with elementary school.  I embraced the life at home as best I could even though there were days when I hated it, and weeks where I wanted to hop in the car and run away. 

Ok ok. Enough about the pandemic. The thing that brought me back here was of course yarn related. I saw my old blog post about dying yarn with Kool Aid and I realized that’s I never updated my further adventures in yarn dying. This year I tried my hand at self striping yarn dying with food coloring. I found a tutorial online that used mason jars and the microwave, so easy and I think I’m hooked.  My first attempt was very primary and my stripe sequence didn’t work out as I planned but I think that was a happy accident. I don’t think I would have liked wider stripes of these colors together and so the accidental narrow blue stripes worked out in the end.











Even though this first attempt wasn't perfect or even what I thought I was going to end up with, I was hooked and set about dying my second attempt before I finished knitting the first pair of socks. For this one I did a little research into color mixing on the Wilton food dye sites. 





It's time to think about colors for my next pair. I bought five skein of bare yarn from Dyer's Supplier and I love how bouncy and full the yarn seems. The first pair was a Knit Picks bare yarn and while it is nice, the base from Dyer's Supplier is a tad thicker and bouncier. 

A friend gifted me a LOT of different Wilton Gel Dye colors for my birthday recently so now I have so many options. I am exited to keep going on this adventure. If you've ever thought about trying to dye your own yarn with food coloring, DO IT! You won't regret it.