Yes, busier and busier
Worrying, worrying. T is coming soon and then John and Paul together. Overall a great kick in the pants to rev up my engines. Or engine, I think I only have the one.
Cleaning, cleaning. Although, predictably doing less of this than I should be doing. Pulling everything out of the bedroom and depositing it in the dining room. I think I have a whole another room full of stuff!!! It's made me realize that it's not that I need to "put it all away" it's "There's too much @#$*& stuff! It wouldn't fit even if I knew storage origami...which I don't
Dyeing, dyeing. I am trying to dye some yarn I've bought Gryffindore colors so I can knit various and sundry house scarves. It's not hard to find the colors, it's hard to find the colors at a decent price. The colors are maroon and golden yellow.
Alpaca, alpaca.In an effort to save money, I dyed some alpaca I bought a long while ago on ebay and decided to use MX (for cellulose fibers like cotton) as I have a lot of them. I used vermillion and burgundy and it didn't look right--too pale, too reddish purple and it was taking a hundred years to wash out the excess dye. I looked up Maroon and found that it's a reddish brown!
My last alpaca dyeing experience was the similar--alpaca seems to be sort of dye resistant. But, I've seen alpaca since then that's dyed fairly dark so I knew it must be possible. I dumped it in a pot of water and heated the water--the idea being to loosen the dye. I decided to try adding vinegar and acid dyes--brown and Cherry Red. It exhausted almost completely!!! I think it's a combo of higher temperature and longer dye time. It looks much darker and much more maroon.
Recycle, recycle. I've also been dyeing the recycled yarn from thrift store sweaters. It's all cashmeres and silks. I again used the MX and this time I found that the original dye isn't wash fast! So, that puts it's ability to reliably bond new dye to itself and again with the 1001 washes.
Sale, sale! Found some yarn at Joann's. it was 2.37 for 87 yards. Turned out to be superwash!!! Lots of complaints on the Joann's website cuz it was originally $5 or something (I think 2.37 is already a lot for 87 yards)and many people bought it to felt only to find it was an unmarked superwash yarn and would never felt. Very soft. I've got the gold dyed in that. Next is the Maroon.
I haven't started the Knit Picks yarn. The idea here, besides scarves, is to sell handpainted yarn on etsy. Except for one seller--Fearless Fibers--it goes for about 21. per skein. There's a ton of superwash and my suspicion is many are using Knit Picks yarn which is very cheap--5.99 a fairly large skein.
