Kool

A few weeks ago, I was on the hunt for sugarless Kool-aid powder. Kool-aid, it turns out, is a really easy (and relatively non-toxic) way of dyeing yarn or any other kind of animal fiber (including your own hair, by the way).

However, after much hunting in bodegas and supermarkets, it's nowhere to be found near Park Slope, Brooklyn. So I went onto my knitting forums and found a woman willing to give me her stash of Kool-aid that she didn't need anymore. (She bought them out of the state.)

Lovely woman that she was, she also threw in a couple of skeins of undyed yarn and a mass of unspun, undyed fiber (white). This last weekend, I finally got around to dyeing the fleece with so-so success:



The red dyed fleece became this:

2008: Year of the Sweater

I've decided to set a challenge to myself:
- make mostly adult sweaters this year
- use only yarn I already have
- improvise the pattern for all (or at least heavily modify existing template)

So far, I've completed two:



But I'm having a little trouble getting going on my next one. The thing with yarns is that regardless of what YOU want it to do, it will do only what is in its nature to do. Or so I've learned.

Aborted idea #1: Summer sweater, kimono-style sleeves, empire waist using existing cotton/rayon green yarn. And it started off looking promising:



But I think the fabric will be too stiff for a light summer sweater. I'm going to have to use a different needle size to make the fabric more flowy. So this one is hibernating in my WiP pile.

Next. Aborted idea #2: Aran saddle-sleeve cabled cardigan using yarn given to me by a friend.

Initial test patches looked good, but as I started knitting the actual piece, the delicacy of the yarn started to both me. If you give the yarn a good tug, it breaks in two. That's not good for a sweater that's made up of lots and lots of twists and cables, all of which pull and tug this way and that.

In the end, I decided to pull the stitches out and start over with a less strained stitch. Only thing is that I think it's kind of boring and I'm not that excited about making it. I think maybe I need to put it down and move onto the next idea. That would make this boring stitch "Aborted idea #3".

Branching Out

It was only a matter of time. I decided to try my hand at making my own yarn.

The Russians

On Sunday, Scott and I went to Brighton Beach for the hell of it. We figured it was a good way to experience a little bit of Russia via the subway.

We had lunch on the boardwalk and then walked the promenade along with the rest of the Russian retirement community.

I noticed something curious. People here seemed to favor the wearing of tissues or candy-wrappers on their faces, kind of like zinc oxide. Here and there, we'd see old ladies in their fur coats and wraparound sunglasses sunning themselves on benches and wearing shiny candy wrappers on their noses. Or wearing a kleenex tucked into the rim of their fur hats, sort of as a visor. I would have taken a picture, but we were trying to blend in.