Follow-up

I'm still getting back into the swing of blogging on a weekly basis. As you can see I'm not doing a great job. This week has been uneventful, but yet still extremely busy. I've been at the sewing machine making a costume for Little Miss M.

As I mentioned last week I went to village discount and picked up a Coldwater Creek vest and some old curtains for her costume.

I will leave you with bits and pieces of the costume; however the final reveal will have to wait. I didn't have time to get pictures before she left for school.

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Dying Delight

Today, among other things, I dyed two skeins of yarn using Wilton food dye. It's overcast here, no surprise there, so I had trouble getting the colors just right in the photo. They are just spectacular in person.

I love using food coloring, because I can use all of my kitchen tools/utensils. However, it only works on protein/animal fiber. It's lucky that I just so happened to have two skeins of natural superwash wool yarn laying around.

There are many tutorials out there if you plan on trying this, but because it makes a great blog post, I'll show you what I did!

Here is what you will need:

Yarn

Wilton Food Dye - I used Teal

Crock Pot

White Vinegar

Gloves (not pictured)

Measuring Cup (not pictured) 

Tongs (not pictured)

I dyed one skein of yarn at a time in a standard household crock pot.

Step #1:

Fill the crock pot 2/3 full with almost boiling water. You could use room temp water and let the crock pot heat it up, but I just didn't want to wait that long. Add 3/4 cup white vinegar. Set the Crock pot to HIGH.

Step #2:

Creating your dye bath.

This is where you add your food coloring. You could mix it separately in a small measuring cup with water and then add to the crock pot, but I threw caution to the wind and just mixed it straight into the crock pot.

It was sort of hard to see how saturated the color was because I have a dark green insert. So to check the color, I dipped a white coffee filter in the mix. Sorry no picture, I was way too involved to snap one.

Once you get to the saturation you want move on to step #3. A word to the wise, err on the side of less dye, you can always make it darker if its too light.

Step #3:

Adding your yarn to the dye bath. You have many options here depending on the effect you want.

For my skein #1, I wanted a tonal effect. Therefore, I twisted my skein first,

and then added it to the dye bath dry. Why dry? I did this so the outside would absorb more of the dye than the inside. My pictures didn't turn out because it was all very dark.

Note: make sure your yarn is fully covered. Add more hot water if necessary.

I covered the crock pot, left it on HIGH, and let the yarn sit for about 45 min. Then I went back, and using tongs, I slowly untwisted the yarn and gently swirled it around a bit. I covered it again and left it for about another 45 minutes or so.

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For skein #2, I wanted a more solid color. Therefore, the yarn was soaked the in warm water for 15 minutes, then the excess water was squeezed out. I slowly added the yarn to the dye bath and gently swirled it a bit , It should look a little like this:

Again I covered the crock pot, set it on HIGH, and let it sit for about 1 1/2 hours.

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At this point the water should be clear, and all of your dye exhausted. If it isn't, cover and let sit for another 1/2 hour. If you are happy with your yarn (I was) move on to Step #4. If not, mix more food coloring with a 1/2 cup water and carefully add to the crock pot.

Step #4:

Rinsing the yarn

Using the tongs, carefully remove the yarn and let cool. I just set mine in the sink. Gently run under warm water until no more dye bleeds out. Squeeze out excess water.

Step #5:

Heat setting the color.

Now, because the yarn was sitting in a nice hot dye bath for 1 1/2 hours, this step is probably not necessary, but I threw it in for good measure. I set mine using steam.

I covered and steamed the yarn for 15 minutes, then allowed it to cool.

All that's left now is to hang the yarn to dry, step back, and admire your beautiful hand-dyed yarn! Oh and of course take lots of pictures and show off!

Going overboard in the process

**Warning**  This is a LONG post!

I had originally intended for this to be two posts, but since I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday, you get to enjoy one big blog today. Lucky you!

Let's start with Post #1:

As you are probably aware, I'm in the process of cleaning and organizing our house. This is a difficult task for me as I'm a bit of a pack rat. I know that we have way too much stuff, but I can find an excuse to keep almost anything.

So to keep me on track, I'm going to start posting pictures of some of the items that are in the process of finding new homes. I'm not near as good as my Knit Sib Deb over here at The 100 Days Cleanout, but let's just see what we have.

These came from a picnic basket set that we had many years ago. I had to get rid of the basket a while ago because it fell apart, but for some unknown reason I hung on to these.

I think that the kids have out grown their plactic IKEA dinnerware set (at least I'm getting tired of trying to find a place for it in the cabinet.) I seem to have collected just a few glass measuring cups. I know they're useful, but really how many do I actually need?

There are also some random items, like old coolers and clothes the kids have out grown, but please forgive me for not taking a picture of those. 

Moving onto Post #2:

The last holdout.

I was very much focused on getting my main floor cleaned and organized. I tackled the kitchen (including most of the cabinets), the dining room, the foyer and foyer closet, even the laundry closet.

All that was left was the sitting room (so called because I like to sit in here and knit). But it was overwhelming! I just didn't know where to start. Let me show you the chaos that has run rampant. (As before please don't judge me on the before pics.)

I started attacking it very meticulously. I set my timer for 15 minutes and started with one small corner. Overall, it took me about a week to cleanup. Since I know you're just dying to see how it looks now lets get going with the after picture!

This is about the point where I went overboard. In the process of cleaning out the room, I decided that something had to be done about my picture wall. At one point I had just slapped some pictures on the wall and they'd been there ever since:

What was I thinking? Please don't answer that!

So I pulled down the old pictures and went running around the house looking for more pictures and frames. This took about an hour or so. Then came the fun part. I laid all of the picture on the dining room floor and started arranging. 

Once I was happy with it, I snapped a quick picture (so I wouldn't forget the placement) and started to put them up on the wall. I have a lot of nail holes that I have to go back and fill in! But in the end I was was very pleased with the gallery wall I created.

Please excuse me while I take a moment and pat myself on the back. Ok, moment over. Before I leave you for today, I wanted to draw your attention to the piece in the middle. This is a shaddow box that the Teacher made for us after our wedding.

I'm embarred to admit tha this wonderful piece of artwork has been hiding in the guest room for the past ummm cough cough eleven years. I want to say "I'm sorry" to the Teacher for having negected it for so long. But, it really is very happy in it's new home. (Please excuse the lousy picture, I'm not a very ood photographer.)

I can't believe I actually did this!

As I was trolling Pinterest, I came along this neat idea for the inside of the cabinet. I fell in love with the idea as I always have trouble locating the right size measuring spoon. It always seems to disappear just when I need it. So, without further ado...

I would like to proudly introduce you to today's project! I'm not sure how my husband, the Engineer, will feel about the pink, but I love it!

Let me take you through the steps.

1. This is what I started with. (The only thing I had to buy was the hooks.)

2. I painted the paint stirrers a beautiful pink. I was planning on doing 2 coats of paint, but I was very happy with how it looked after the first coat. Why do extra work? I then pre-drilled the holes for the hooks so the wood wouldn't split.

3. I used a black paint pen to write the measurements on the stirrer, and screwed in the hooks. Everything was moving along just dandy until this point. This is where I realized that the screw was longer than the thickness of the the paint stirrers.

Not to be deterred, I went out to the garage and found these handy things to snip off the end of the screw. (And before you ask, yes I was wearing my safety glasses.)

4. I wasn't prepared to permanently attach this to my cabinets, so I used these hady damage-free hanging doodads.

5. For the measurements chart, I used black poster board and a pink paint pen.

All in all, the project took about 2 hours! And just to update you, my kitchen is still clean.