naptime fun

Thanks for all the compliments on the sweaters, Jenifer, Kim, and Lolly. Hubby's requested that if I do Christmas sweaters again (and I think I might), they be Christmas colors. I'm really pleased he likes it so much; I never thought I'd get him to wear a sweater.

I had some fun on my day off on Monday, while Billy was napping and hubby was off job-training (he thinks he wants to become a professional poker player), I decided to have some fun with kool-aid. Now, I love Cork, that chunky, discontinued merino blend from Rowan, but do not love the color Sour. It will not work for me, no-way, no-how. So I thought I'd see if I could over-dye it into a more palatable shade. I bought way more kool-aid than I needed (having forgotten that the Knitty article says 1 packet per ounce). I bought Cherry, Cherry Berry Burst, Sour Apple, Grape, and Ice Blue Raspberry lemonade. I made 5 mini-skeins from one ball of Cork (with about half a ball left) and had at it. Here is the cork after washing and before dyeing with my little bowls of kool-aid. As you can see, that is just not a Netter color (Hubby agrees it would make me look sallow). I had lots of fun and my counter top vaguely resembles a Monet. Fortunately, ink and dye don't stick to my skin very well, so I don't look like I have a skin disease. Ahem, I forgot to put on gloves. Here are the miniskeins hanging out before drying. I wound them into a ball last night and started swatching this morning. When that's done I'll decide which color to use on the nine remaining skeins. Currently, I'm leaning toward cherry (gives the clearer orange). Hubby liked the two reds and the grape (which was odd because he doesn't like brown which is what it looks like to me). I was most surprised by the blue. Right out of the bowl it looks like a bright turquoise, but is a grassy green now that it's dry. The Apple (which looked white in real life not the green above) made the sour look more like bug, taking out a lot of the yellow.

In other cork news, I've put together the project bag for Billy's birthday sweater. I have 3+ balls of delight (nice bright orange) and I'm making Ronan from the Cork Collection. I was debating how to stripe it last night (with the nice green, Bug, or blue), when hubby asked if I could just get more orange. Last night I said I didn't think so, but after some online searching I found a place in the UK that's not charging too much for it. I ordered 4 more balls. I'll have to see how closely the dye lots match, but I'm going to cast on anyway. Hubby and I were concerned last night that the smallest size might be way to big for B (ages 5-6), but I measured one of his t-shirts (a 3T) and it's 13" across while the sweater schematic, such as it is, has the width at 14.5". I think it will be good to grow into and he'll be able to wear it over layers this Spring and into next fall and winter. But, so far on my kool-aid swatch, I'm not getting guage with the US11s called for in the pattern. I think I may swatch with the orange cork with 10.5s and see how it goes (perhaps the washing and dyeing have affected the kool-aid cork).

The red scarf is drying. I was right, it gained almost 10 inches after washing. It's now about 54". It's not dry, yet. I hope to mail it out tomorrow. I'm going to use a tag like the ones Theresa used here for it. I'll post a pic tomorrow am.

I finished up most of the cougar last night. I realized the folly in trying to duplicate stitch the paw print on after it's stuffed. I'm thinking I'll knit up an intarsia patch and he'll have a little pocket. Pics tomorrow, as well.

Have a great Wednesday (so looking forward to LOST tonight) and stay dry!