FO: Clapotis

Cross posted at Sally Comes Unraveled and Second Wave Clapotis KAL.

It's done!

I finished my Clapotis last night while I was at my parent's house for a little Memorial Day barbecue. I even had enough time left for a goofy photo shoot in a clashing shirt before I left.

As I said before I used US size 4 needles from my Boye Needlemaster and SWTC Oasis in "Purplexed." The yarn is much better in this project than it was that weird lacy poncho I was knitting before I frogged it.

I'm not planning to block it. It seems to lie pretty flat on its own, except for the corners. I should have measured it while it was laid out. I know it's a little longer and more narrow than the original (I think), but it works.

I'm debating how to actually wear this. I have some time to decide. It's way too hot for scarves, wraps or anything warm right now.

For the parting shot, the classic shawl pose. Not quite the same with this project than a more traditional lace shawl.

I am no longer a Clapotis virgin.

WIP: Clapotis

Cross posted at Sally Comes Unraveled and Second Wave Clapotis KAL.

I was all excited about sleeping in on my day off, but then I woke up at 7:15 and couldn't go back to sleep. (However, I will be napping after this post.) I think I'm excited because today is the first day of my 1,001 Days.

I've been meaning to post more WIP pictures of Clapotis. I love to see the progress as I go along.

I took this picture earlier this week in the break room during work. The white couch makes a good background. I think I was near the end of section three here.

This picture was taken Wednesday at Chicks with Sticks Wednesday night at Bluebonnet. I think I was officially at the end of section three.

Here it is as of yesterday, at the North Central meetup. I've done some significant work on section 4 at this point.

With any luck, there will be an FO post tomorrow.

How not to open a jar and other bits and pieces

It's Friday. I just got paid. My tummy's full of frozen pizza. I went for a swim this evening. It's time for a little of everything.

I keep questioning this cooking thing. The smoke alarm went off again, and the pizza wasn't even burnt. (It was a little dark, but definitely not burnt. I ate the whole thing.) I struggled to remember how I did it before. I should note here that I put books on the chair, and pushed from behind the thingy that comes out of the ceiling.

Here's another issue I had with cooking earlier this week...

How To Open a Difficult Jar
Get a dishcloth, hold on really tight and turn.

No.

Run the lid under hot water.

No.

Wedge something under the edge of the lid to relieve pressure.

No.

Try them all again.

Attack it with a pocket knife and bottle opener, make a hole big enough for the olives in your black olive and caper spaghetti sauce to come out and pour it out before the spaghetti gets cold.

Yes.

I wonder where I can get the pattern...
I was looking at some Unforgettable Faces last night and found this guy crocheting on a subway. (Ironically, you can't see his face.) I like his outfit. I wonder if his closet is full of crocheted clothes.

Contest
There is a contest over at One Scheme of Happiness. I wonder if I can win another Schrodinger Cube. (Be sure to tell them Large Marge Sally Comes Unraveled sent you.)

I'm not ashamed
From this site:

Many of us own collections that we're too ashamed to discuss in public, whether it's vintage porn, yarn or commemorative Burger King glasses.

Who's ashamed of their yarn collection now? Now that I'm saving money, I'm thankful that I have nice yarn saved up for a rainy day, because it's raining now. (More food for thought here.)


Don't Take I-35 This Weekend

Seriously. And of course the detour they recommend will probably clog up the exit I take all the time.


Clapotis Update
I started dropping stitches. Check it out.



Extreme close up!

WIP Time

I finally have some projects going.

True to what I said yesterday, I finally cast on my first Clapotis last night. I'm using size 4 needles from my Boye Needlemaster and SWTC Oasis in "Purplexed."

I bought this yarn all the way back at the The Knit n' Knibble in Florida. I was going to knit a lacy poncho. But something about the fat needles I was using with the relatively thin yarn, not to mention my doubts about the size and style, led me to frog it.

So it's been waiting patiently in my stash, traveling halfway across the country in the process.

A while back I found this Doppelganger Clapotis on Ravelry. It was made with the exact same yarn, color and amount that I had in my stash. I feel a little weird making a twin Clapotis, but it was just too perfect.

So far I'm enjoying it, even though I haven't gotten to drop any stitches yet. I'm realizing this yarn is closer to worsted than I thought. It would make a great summer top.

Oh, and I've been accepted to the Knit -A-Long. I'll probably be set up by this weekend.

I've dubbed this the Single Skeins Scarf. Yes, skeins is plural. This is for the same friend from church who asked me to knit the fun fur scarves. She gave me several skeins of yarn and asked me to knit scarves until it was gone. I only had single skeins of the remaining yarn, so I'm holding all three strands together with US size 17 needles.

Hopefully I can finish this scarf before Sunday.

Fun with Priorities

I was surfing around and discovered The Prioritizer this evening. It was designed for prioritizing your expenses, but really it can be used to prioritize any list of 15 items or less.

I've been looking for something else to cast on. So I put in 15 pattern I could start tonight, and decided to see which one I wanted to do the most. Here were my results:

1. Mabel's Scarf 100
2. Clapotis 86.9
3. Wavy 84.5
4. Pro Bono 79.8
5. Rainy Day Scarf 77.4
6. Calorimetry 64.3
7. Scrunchable Scarf 57.1
8. Knitted Bunny 50
9. Entwined 42.9
10. tie Binary Cable Hat 30.4
Nautie
Drop Stitch Scarf
13. Coronet 14.3
14. Spirogyra 7.1
15. Palette 0

Of course, afterwards I realize Mabel's Scarf costs money to download. While I'm sure someday I will download it, tonight. I will go for the free option. I'm finally going to knit my Clapotis.

I hope the Knit-A-Long is still open.

It's supposed to look like that. (Yeah, that's the ticket.)

Ta Da!

Sort of.

I finished my first attempt at "handpainted" yarn with Kool Aid. (I have done a bit of dying with easter egg dye, but I used a different technique.)

At first I was relieved it wasn't a murky mess. Then I was disappointed that I had splatters and white spots instead of clean color repeats. But then it started to grow on me in a Jackson Pollock sort of way.

As I mentioned earlier, I had trouble finding the colors I wanted. I finally settled on Kool Aid in Lemon-Lime, Grape and Watermelon Cherry and Hawaiian Punch in Berry Blue Typhoon. this Knitty article was my guide. The yarn is Patons Merino Classic in "Aran."





Step One - Wash the yarn.

Step 0 - clean the sink.

Step 1 - Wash the yarn. I decided to use the baby shampoo because I didn't want the Lanolin in the Kookaburra to affect the dye.

While it soaked, I continued my other preparations.





I mixed four packs of each drink mix with about half a cup of water. It was really concentrated, but the directions said to only add a few tablespoons per package.











I went through a whole debate about covered the table and finally settled on trash bags and saran wrap. I was a little worried about fitting all four skeins on the table, but I decided it would be ok.


















I used a turkey baster to apply the dye. The results were, well....
















...splotchy with lots of white space. I was a little worried. Fortunately, I had bought 5 packets of each, but only (thought) I needed four. So I opened The others. Then I realized that the fifth Hawaiian Punch I bought was red, not blue. OK, so maybe just the blue would be splotchy.

So I mixed them, this time with more water. Then the dyes started to run. I did the best I could.













I pressed the yarn with my hands. Despite wrapping them in saran wrap, I still got my fingers all dark. But it made a big difference. It was time to cook it.


















Funny story about the pot. I knew they used a steamer basket in the Knitty article. I thought a steamer basket rested at the top of the pot, not the bottom. Thinking I needed the extra room, I bought 4 pots and 4 baskets.

After trying to pull apart one of the baskets for 10 minutes, I realized that it had those little legs for a reason. I finally called my Mom and confirmed that, yes, they do sit at the bottom of the basket.

(And yes, I did get my money back at Walmart. Although the checker said "you want to return all this?" I had my receipt, and the tags and packaging were still in place. Needles to say, I didn't ring the bell for outstanding customer service.)

Anyway, when I put it all in the pot, I was worried because there seemed to be a lot of dribbling and mixing. At this point, I decided just to go for it. Maybe I was supposed to do just one skein at a time?

After "cooking" for about 45 minutes, I turned off the stove to let it cool. Despite the fact that it was Friday night, I decided I was tired and went to bed.


But first I had to clean up. Fortunately, I only had one "major" mishap. I don't know what possessed me to leave the towel under the plastic bags. Fortunately, it was (mostly) purple on purple, and I had plenty of Spray and Wash on hand. We'll see just how color fast this stuff really is.





The next morning, as I took the skeins out one by one, I was pleasantly surprised to see they hadn't blended into one murky shade of brownish-gray.











And it didn't run, as evidenced by my first rinse (it's pretty hard to see the water in the picture.)

However, I was concerned at the "milkiness" left behind. Did I use too much soap? Was this some strange residue from the pot? The drink mix? (The blue and pink seemed unusually milky."

Also, I noticed little crystals on the yarn (something I couldn't capture on my camera.) Did I not mix the dye enough?

After multiple rinsings, I gave up on the crystals. I've knit with recycled sari silk, so I can handle a bit of crystalization.


Finally, and hung it on hangers in my bathroom. It's now about a day and a half later, and they should be good to go tomorrow.

What have I learned?

- I need to tie the hanks tighter, and in more spots.

- I need to try to do less skeins at a time (particular squeezing them on the tab;e so then hang off the table, leaving white spots.)

- I have a lot to learn about handpainting yarn.

Finally, go see Stephanie's yarn. I think she did a much better job than I did.

Niddy Noddy, Niddy Noddy...

...Two heads, one body.

I'm serious, that's the rhyme my Mom told me. (And she lent me her Niddy Noddy.) There is a good demonstration of the Niddy Noddy here, although the rhyme isn't timed very well. (You can also see demos of hand cards, the "Great Wheel" and tape looms on this site.) It's actually supposed to help you count.

I have two dying projects coming up, one for the Hand Dyed Yarn Swap and one for my Clapotis.

I have mixed feelings about Clapotis. It looks like fun to make and a good way to show case hand painted yarn. But I don't know if I'd actually wear it. So rather than plopping down a big chunk of change on fancy yarn, I'm going to make it out of Patons Classic Merino in "Aran" that I will dye with Kool Aid.

Speaking of, I've looked at 3 HEBs, 2 Walmarts and a Randalls and could not find the colors of Kool Aid I wanted. After reading this I decided that the colors I wanted were Lime, Grape, Blue Moon Berry and Strawberry Starfruit. I realize that my results may vary, but it looked like a good starting point.

I checked the Kool Aid Website and couldn't find a list of flavors. Mom suggested that I e-mail them, but I'm afraid of the evil things the people at Kool Aid will do if they realize people are using the drink mix to dye fiber.

So I'm going with the blue lemonade whatever HEB has a something else that will probably be pink. I'll pick them up tomorrow if I have a chance.

As you can see, the Patons came out fine, but I had some problems winding the Knit Picks Bare that I bought.

I took off the label and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was already tied and ready to dye.

However, upon further examination, I decided I wanted to wind it on the Niddy Noddy anyway to get a bigger loop (and thus longer color repeats.)

So it started out fine. I used my knees as a "Swift" of sorts (as I often do.) But then I started having problems. I thought that taking it off my knees would help.

Big mistake....







I must remember to breathe. And that it's only, what, 462 yard in a hank. Right?