Halloween is in the House!!!

I am currently dyeing self striping colorways.  This is Candy Corn!

New Beginnings ...

The Fall always feels like the start to a new year to me. I'm energized, productive and rearing to go. There are several things I would like to change in my life at this time:

1) I'm always late ... and being late means typically that I'm frazzled because I know I am late and I forget things, or don't do things I wanted to because I didn't have time, etc. I like to get up in the morning and have my coffee and browse the web ... not rush like a lunatic around the house freakin out, LOL!

2) I think fixing #1 would fix a lot of other things. Like paying bills (not just knowing that a bill is due soon ... but knowing where the bill is), making it to the bank, grocery shopping consistently and re-stocking before out of things (like we shop because we're out of toilet paper ... not because we know we will be soon).

3) We cleaned the house this weekend. I would love to be at a point where things were on auto-pilot and I could finally get to the cobwebs in the corners because everything else was already done ... yeah I know that's asking a lot. How about no dishes in the sink when I go to bed and sorting mail each day so it doesn't pile up and be all over the place (see #2).

I'm pretty sure that pets think we get new furniture solely for them!

"Why did they put this TV on my new sleeping spot?!?!"

Here's a glimpse of the yarn I dyed up this weekend (5 different skeins).


Tomorrow the Knitters' Guild starts up again. Have to come prepared with 200 yds of sport weight yarn if we want to start the group project at the meeting. Luckily I found something in my stash ... still have to wind it before I go to bed or tomorrow morning ... again, see #1 ...

Weekend Update 7-30-11

Are these not the cutest freakin' things?!?! And what a great way to use up left overs! Chubby Chirps by Rebecca Danger and its FREE!



I think I don't have to purchase any more yarn for the rest of the year ... or umm, my life. This is yarn that was purchased in June and July that I have no where to put ... oh there's more, but I found somewhere to put it.



I got through the first half of the roving I was spinning. This is my "practice" roving. I decided that I would spin half and take it off the spindle and then spin the other half. I'm not sure if the entire 4oz would fit on the spindle ... but I didn't want to find out the hard way that it didn't.



Towards the end its quite good. Now though taking it off the spindle and seeing what was spun at the beginning, I'm not sure what I want to do with it. My initial intention was to spin half, remove it and spin the other half and then ply the two together. Now that I see that about 1/4 of the yarn is thicker and well, kinda crappy, I'm not sure I want to do that. So now I wonder if I should 2-ply the first half and practice navajo plying the second half, that way I can practice both methods of plying ... again, with this "practice" roving that's not that great anyway.


I dyed some yarn this weekend. From left to right: Bloody Kisses, I'm keeping this one, Wormhole and Emerald Isles. The black one I can dye again, the black dye is a bluish black, so less concentrated its purple, blue and black, very pretty. Bloody Kisses is new, gross name I know, but it really reminds me of blood red. Wormhole is new, teal and black. Emerald Isles is the same as I dyed before that I am using for a shawl.

Grand Opening Give-A-Way!

Its the Grand Opening of my Etsy Shop - Revelations of a Delusional Knitter Yarns!

Here's how you can enter a drawing to win some yarn:

Post a link on your blog mentioning the Give-A-Way, then leave a comment on this post by 7-15-11 with your contact information for a chance to win one (1) skein of your choice from the shop!

Weekend Update 7/4/11

Happy July 4th!

We rarely have people over ... mainly because we're lazy. So much so that it took us the entire day Sunday cleaning up the house and yard to make it presentable. I like to knit and watch tv, he likes to work on music or play video games ... neither likes to clean the house. We have no children, so really are just big, old children ourselves and we like it that way ... not so cool when people are coming.

For example I've had mildew on my bathroom ceiling in the corner where there's not a lot of ventilation ... its been on my to do list for months now, it takes company for me to get off my butt and clean it off. All it took was a bucket and gloves, some bleach and water and about 30 minutes. Acckkk! Why are we so freakin lazy?!?!

We have gotten a lot better over time ... I only had to sweep and dust the living room, really no clutter in there. The laundry room ... a hem, that's another story.

I did pick up the spindle again Sunday, haven't touched that in a while. I am happy that it truly must be a muscle memory thing and I didn't "forget" how to do it. All my previous repetitive practice has paid off. Now I just have to practice consistant drafting.

I dyed some more yarn this weekend. I tried to dye some colors that are not "me" colors. Typically I stick with purples and black ... as you can probably tell if you've been visiting this blog for a while. These will be up in the Etsy shop soon. Some I will re-skein for asthetic purposes, like the purple one on the left I already have.


I love using up extra dye with roving, its so easy to paint roving any type of color. This one I'll be keeping for myself.


I also tried a sock blank this time around. I knew from other people's experiences that the dye really moves across the blank, so actual stripes are very hard to accomplish without making an icky mess. So I stuck with colors that if they blended together wouldn't make brown, and I kept it more of a gradience than stripes.


Guess we're not recycling that paper ...


How was your 4th? Or your weekend if you've not in the States?

While I'm Away

This lovely yarn will be drying ...

Sorry for the crappy photo, but its
late Friday night and I still haven't packed.

I hope we don't have any more thunder storms, my poor sweet Willow gets so upset by them ... meanwhile the meatball looks like this during the thunder storm ...

I've got my Summer Mystery Shawlette with me and my Coriolis socks for vacation knitting. I packed the essentials along with my projects ...


Darning needle, puppy snips, crochet hook and stitch markers. The Coriolis pattern for the second sock (remember the stupid copier was out of order at work so I hand wrote it because I didn't want to drag the book along).

Oh yeah and I think I packed some underwear too.

Dye Another Day

Don't forget to check out the Summer Bead-A-Long, click the image above for more info!

Yesterday was a productive day of dyeing. I'm especially happy that the new colorway came out exactly how I envisioned it. Next time though, while the yarn cools, I'll find other things to do rather then sitting there staring at it!

Skeins ready for steaming to set the dye.


I'm impatiently waiting for the skeins to cool off so that I can soak them and dry them. This is a few hours after steaming was done ...



Finally, several hours later and a soak in Kookaburra (delightfully aromatic).


1. Coral Reef
2. Fucshia
3. Tesseract
4. Revelations
5. Petunia
6. Pansy

I love kettle dyeing. I think I might have to keep this one, but its easily reproducible.


This is my "Sacred Sage" kettle dyed. The first time I dyed this colorway I freaked out because I thought I grabbed the wrong jar of dye ... amazing how it starts out and then slowly turns to sage.


Apparently I was so interested in capturing this on film, that I didn't pay attention to the temperature on this one ... the dye broke.


I want to do some more kettle dyeing, but I'm out of ideas ... clearly, if you can't tell my favorite color is purple and next in line is green. So, what's your favorite color?

Weekend Update 5-29

I spent an hour today cleaning up the deck. We have a lot of trees around and there was debris all over. The cushions were covered in pollen and dirt and tree debris. The table had a nice layer of ick all over it.


That's my favorite spot on a nice sunny day, knitting and yup, that's a glass of grape Kool-Aid. Made me want to dye some purple yarn!


It was a hot one today. Here's Willow wiped out in kitty heaven sun wondering why on Earth I am bothering her by sticking a camera in her face.


Phantom petunias! I love them! This is the first year I've seen these ones. I planted them in the window box under the kitchen window. Once they fill out I'll be able to see them when I am doing dishes.

We went to see Pirates 4 on Sunday. It was good. My mom's friend is a cousin of the director. It was definitely different than the others ones, very good though!


Saturday, I spent the day dyeing ... OK not the whole day because I only have two pots and have to wait for stuff to cool. So in between I ran errands, the cats and dog wouldn't understand why they had no food no matter what I tried to tell them.

I wanted to use up some of my dye stock to get rid of it, a lot of it was mixed colors and I have no idea how I made them. If I am intentionally dyeing in the future, I want my stock to be straight colors. The dyes I mixed today I labeled with color and strength for future use.

I'm thinking that if I open an Etsy shop it'll be sometime in July. I am traveling twice in June, so I figured the free time I had from now until then I would see what I could dye up and have several things to open a shop with.

Once the shop is open I was thinking of a giveaway for blog readers. I'll post a link and if you post the "grand opening" on your blog then I'll pick someone with a random number generator and you'll get your pick of one skein from what's in the shop.

I was trying to take notes to make reproducible colors ... thinking I was smart buying a brand new notebook just for dye notes ... until I realized that I can't take notes while wearing rubber gloves covered in dye. So I think I'll just stick with reproducing those I can easily remember the mix and take notes after and just having fun with the other ones.

I invested in some more dyeing equipment:

A large stockpot with steamer so I don't have to rig one with aluminum foil ... plus with that method I could only steam one skein at a time. I am thinking of investing in another small stockpot so that I can steam skeins and kettle dye more than one at the same time.

An apron ... somehow I've never gotten dye on my clothes, however, my back usually hurts really bad after dyeing because I bend over the table awkwardly to avoid getting dye on me.

A dishpan that can hold three skeins of yarn for soaking, definitely need another one or two of those!

Two clear plastic storage containers for dye powders and mixed dyes. Really much better than the cardboard box I was using :o)

One thing I didn't get ... towels. Did you know once you use one its wet?!? And it takes a LONG time to dry??

I also kettle dyed some laceweight in sage green and its lovely, I haven't re-skeined it yet though.


This one is Tesseract (if you're a nerd you'll recognize this word). This one is for me!



I also dyed some roving. This time I braided it first and I like that method much better. Apparently 7pm on a sunny day is the best daylight for photographs, this one is pretty spot on for color.

I don't expect to make any money off this venture ... but I'm sure it will support my habit of dyeing for fun!

To do or not to do ...

Click the picture to make it bigger.

I am contemplating opening an etsy shop. Above are yarns that I have dyed. I am wondering if its worth the trouble or if I should keep this as strickly a hobby.


Please help me decide. Be honest. I won't cry, LOL!

1. Would you purchase any of these yarns? Would you pay $16.50-$18.50 plus shipping $2?

2. What are your favs? What do you not like?

3. I know I can reproduce 4, 5 and 8. And yeah the green is that bright in person, LOL!! That's my "Red Eyed Tree Frog" colorway. I'm fairly certain I could reproduce the rest, but not entirely sure, but these give you an idea of my "style". Of course I have more colorways boiling in my brain right now.

ETA: Minding my Own Stitches brought up a good point - yarn base would be Superwash/Nylon blends, that's what most of these are and what I prefer.

Searching for the Tardis

I found a pattern for Tardis Socks online. Kept them in my queue for a while, and I finally wanted to make them. So I was on the hunt for the perfect Tardis blue. Everything was not quite right, a little too dark (or a lot too dark in the case of the Navy I ordered from Knit Picks), a little off on the color, etc.


I was determined to get the perfect Tardis color in order to make these socks. At this point, because the pattern requires 72 stitches for the "Police Box" colorwork at the top, I cannot change the stitch count. I figured if I am going to spend extra time making these because there are extra stitches, I damn well better he happy with the end result. So the color, does in fact matter a lot.


No, this is not the exact color of the Tardis, but in my mind, its awfully close and its pretty cool. Technically its kettle dyed, with slight variations in the saturation of the color thoughout. Which is fine with me. It will lend character to the socks.


I can't wait to see it in daylight. At this time its 10:45pm. So ...

It lives ... dyed roving

Sorry for the crappy photo ... but its rainy and grey today.

Well my braiding skills leave a little something to be desired ... I'll work on that. Initially when I was dyeing this roving I thought it was something I would never do again. I soaked it, and as it was in the bucket I thought, oh boy, was I supposed to do this?!?! Its all floating and mingling together, am I going to be able to find the ends in this mess?? I did, but I also broke it in two, which is why you see two braids here. And while braiding, I also broke each one in two yet again, LOL! Also why the braids are so messy.

It was fairly warm and sunny out while I was dyeing and the roving was drying and fluffing up as I was applying the dye. The nozzle of my squirt bottle was getting stuck in the roving and pulling pieces out. I moved quicker and quicker trying to beat the roving from drying. I thought I was making a mess of it and it was going to be a matted, completely ruined mess by the time I was done.

I found a tutorial after this where the person braided the roving FIRST, then soaked it and injected the dye into the braid. I think I'll try that next time. Then all the roving will be contained and won't be all willy, nilly flying all over the place.

Once the roving dried and fluffed back up and no longer looked like a dead, drowned, furry critter (see this post for that image) ... then I thought, oh yeah, I'll be doing this again!!

An Adventure in Dyeing

I finally found these pansies again after 2 years! Sometimes they are called Black Beauties, today they were called Halloween. They are so dark purple that they look black.



Since it was so nice out today, I decided to pull out the dye for the first time of the year.


I was nice to myself and actually labeled some of the colors before I put them away before.


I tried two new colors this time, Jet Black and True Turquoise. I am happy with the turquoise, but the black didn't really come out black. I've heard that about black. Next time I'll try mixing it double and see how it works.


Yarn ready for the pot!


The final product ... not quite what I had in mind ... but that's usually how this works out, LOL!! I am happy with it, its just not what I was thinking at the time.


I also tried dyeing some roving that I had. I love how it came out. It wasn't as fun as dyeing yarn and as I was doing it I was hoping that I wasn't rendering the roving useless by the end. It seems ok, its still wet here, but doesn't seem to be the matted mess I thought would come out in the end.

Lessons Learned ...

Saturday I went to a coworkers house to dye yarn with her. The first skein that I had an actual plan for went very well. I have a pansy out front that is very pale yellow with dark purple streaks and dark orange in the very center, that was the inspiration for this color:



The second one, not so good ... in fact I refer to it as the Great Dyeing Debacle of Twenty-Ten. However, I learned that if you hate the dyed yarn that much, pick a primary color and dye it again ... ALL OVER (except for one tiny section in this case) and all your problems will be solved. I really wish I had taken a photo prior to the over dyeing, but I really didn't want any permanent record of the disgusting colorway I had originally come up with ... the image is forever burned into my brain. Originally it was red, green and grey ... what I like to refer to as "Elf Barf" or "Christmas in Hades" or the "Bloody Hummingbird Masacre". I still want to try to make a hummingbird colorway, but not a bloody masacre, LOL!




Recently I took a class on the Baby Surprise Jacket, its done ... a little wrong, but that's OK. Meanwhile I had cast on the February Lady Sweater, which uses the same increases as the BSJ that I had done wrong ... I also ripped out the Feb Lady Sweater and started again doing the increases correctly! Good timing to learn that one.



Just needs seaming up and buttons!

Its getting chilly outside!

Its October here in New England and although they were there, I didn't see the signs coming. The leaves have been slowing changing color. Halloween is my favorite holiday and my birthday is in October ... I'll be the big 30 this year!

I think I got out of my sock knitting rut. I finished a pair this month. They are a little loose, but wearable. I can't figure how I get some to fit excellently with 64 stitches, then another too loose. One fits great with 60 stitches and another ... too tight. Can't quite figure it.

Going to cast on another pair today with the yarn I dyed myself at last month's Knitters Guild meeting. The owner from The Yarn & Fiber Co came and instructed us on how to dye sock yarn.



It was very cool. I went with the dipping method. We had plastic cups to mix dye colors in (we were only given red, yellow, blue, hot pink ... and I thought one other color, but I can't think of it right now). It was so awesome. So much fun. I am very pleased with my results having never dyed yarn before.

I am going to cast on the yellow/pink/orange skein today. Ia m thinking of going with Leyburn, its a stranded pattern that works well with hand dyed yarns.