Sad times

We just returned from Florida. Tom's mother passed away. It was a very difficult week.

Sorry, no update, no photos today.

Knitting will "kool" yarn

Yes, I have been knitting with my "kool" dyed yarn. I wasn't sure how much I actually had, so I knitted a scarf first. Then had some left, so I mixed it up with cream yarn from my original stash. Not too bad. It's so light weight it's almost not there.








Also I've started knitting socks on two circular needles.



So far so good.






PS: I may be away for awhile. It's possible that we may need to make a trip to Tom's parents. Not sure yet, it depends on what MIL's doctor says tomorrow.

Kool aid Yarn?

A few months ago, I read about using kool aid to dye yarn. It sounded like fun so I figured I try it. I kept forgetting to pick up kool aid and for some reason Tom looked at me like I was crazy when I asked him to get it for me.

Anyway, today we had to go to HEB (local chain grocery store) to pick up a few things (like ice cream!). And I finely remembered to get the kool aid.

What I read said there were different ways you could dye the yarn with kool aid. There were so many differing techniques that it was confusing. So being me, I combined a few and made my own way.

I used yarn that I had left over from a shawl I knitted so if I messed it up, I wouldn’t be out much. I loosely wrapped the yarn around a chair back and then tied it in two places to keep it from getting totally knotted. Then I wet the yarn (natural fiber) and put it in a plastic zip lock. I mixed the “Lemon yellow” kool aid in an empty water bottle and poured it in the zip lock and sealed it good. I used another zip lock just to make sure. Then I placed the zip lock outside in the sun for about 2 hours.

Next I poured off most of the water. I didn’t want just yellow so I took another package of kool aide (this time orange) and sprinkled the power over the wet yarn. I kind of mixed it around the yarn. Again I placed the zip lock outside in the sun. An hour later I brought the yarn inside.

After it cooled off for about an hour, I drained the water and rinsed the yarn in cold tap water. I rinsed until the water ran clear.

Now came the hard part. I had to wait until the yarn dried. I cheated and hung the yarn outside in the shade. Once it dried, I gently rolled it in a ball, and then I used my handy dandy yarn winder. It looked very “fall” while I was winding it up. I can’t wait to use the yarn, but I’m not sure how much I have. That’s something I’ll have to figure out.
Not bad for my first attempt.

I'm back

Did you even miss me? Not only am I feeling better, I'm back to knitting, after all it's not long till Christmas.... Yeah, I know it's only June, but count the months!

Here's a start on my knitting list. Mittens for my brother's grandkids.

And now for somemore photos of my grandkids.

Now back to breathing

Thank goodness I'm back to normal (or as normal as I can be). Because I was too sick to knit, I'll give you more photos of the grandkids. Trina and Missy have been good at sending me photos. So enjoy.
Aurora, Jack (Danielle is behind him). Meghan and David. At the bottom there's a photo of a Fishing trip in Jacksonville. Tommy's too tired to yell at Missy for taking his photo. Missy didn't catch the fish (she claims her's got away and was bigger).