Kiss My Knits!

A while back I came up with a design for a warping board made out of PVC pipe. It would be used for dyeing self-striping yarn. The design doesn’t seem to be quite like any others I’ve seen out there in blogland. That could either mean that it’s a new idea or a poorly thought out one with pitfalls I haven’t foreseen. I’m hoping for the former. The last time I dyed self-striping yarn it was a pain in the neck to unwind again and I don’t want to magnify that with some sort of Rube Goldberg-esque contraption.

I was going to use my Dremel to cut the lengths I needed, as I did when I made my PVC niddy noddy. In that case, though the edges were uneven and rough and I wound up having to use the Dremel again to sand down each cut. It was a lot of trouble. Right now I’m trying to decide if it’s worth $10 to buy a PVC pipe cutter to save me the hassle, since a PVC pipe cutter really isn’t a tool I’d be using a whole lot. I dunno. Probably what will happen is that I’ll decide to save a few bucks and painstakingly cut down about four of these with the Dremel, then throw up my hands in exasperation and go buy the cutter.

I’ll keep you posted on just how tangled and unruly the yarn gets using this contraption. This could turn out to be genius, but even in the worst case scenario it could still be comedy gold.

For your entertainment:
Rube Goldberg beer dispenser
Office Rube Goldberg
Best homemade Rube Goldberg machine ever.

One skein Paton’s Classic Wool merino, which was a gift from Illiane. This has a tiny bit of variegation, but it was supposed to have more. Lesson learned on the proper order to add colors to the crockpot. Still, it’s pretty!

Today my husband is brewing beer. His setup incudes a propane tank and burner with a gigantic pot. I’m eyeing it for dye days. Mwahahahaaaa…

Pattern: Zhenya’s MUMTU sock recipe
Yarn: 225 yds Louet Gems, handdyed by me with acid dyes
Needles: size 1 US
Comments: These had a 60 stitch foot to fit my 9 inch circumference, dropping to 56 for a standard 2×2 rib on the leg. I’m a loose knitter, so I never get a really tight gauge even on smaller needles than would normally be used.

The toe-up gusset method is my new favorite foot construction. These fit me SO much better than a standard short row heel. I’d recommend this pattern. Its ability to plug in whatever numbers you like would be especially helpful for those who don’t care to do sock math.


I dyed this yarn going for a random speckle effect. It was straight blue acid dye, blue mixed with black, and blue mixed with a little red, keeping the same base and varying the shade. I’m pleased with how this turned out.

It’s nice to have a new pair of socks, since Em’s really taken to walking to school. We went up again today, and saw two gray and white housecats, a flock of geese, and a dead Junebug. Also, from Em: “I stepped on an ant. The other ants are going to come and take it back and bury it.” Aw.

Em wants to walk home, too, so I’ll be hoofing it back up to the school this afternoon. It’s about 7/8 of a mile from the house to the school, so it looks like I’ve got a new form of daily exercise.

Something other than fingering weight! This is Knitpicks Bare DK weight 100% superwash merino. It was crockpot dyed, then I decided I wanted to add something to the chartreuse, so I overdyed it with black and a bit of midnight blue. I was concerned about how the blue would play off of the yellow tones, but it works. It’s actually more striking in person. I’m pleased with this.

This morning, it had finally stopped raining, so Em and I walked to school. It turned out to be a good thing, since she had had a bit of a fragile morning. Walking up seemed to give her an opportunity to regroup. She told me a story about her dolls coming to life, and about a guinea pig magically turning into a white duck. She’s big on magic wands and transformation right now.

Em felt she was running a little late, so she said, “We’ll walk quickly.” She did. I had to stretch my legs a bit to keep her pace, and she was shorter than me by a foot and was wearing a pack. That’s my girl. She comes by her speed and walking determination honestly. It’s a trait from my mother’s side of the family. Soon she, too, will be alarming tour guides by rushing to the front of the group, rest of the tourists be damned.

It was also good to walk her to school, since I’m not running this morning. Instead, I have an optometrist’s appointment. For quite a while now, I’ve been having difficulty focusing on things. If I look at something close up for more than a minute, then look up at something far away, it will sometimes take a good 20 seconds for my eyes to refocus on it. And I’m squinting a lot, even this morning when I should still be fresh. I’ve increased the size of the type on my computer, and that’s helped, but clearly I need to get this looked at.

I have a feeling my optometrist is probably going to tell me I need bifocals. At right: artist’s rendition of me in new eyewear.

Now we’re cookin’ with gas. This yarn is – you guessed it – Knitpicks Bare, but the fiber content is different. This is 70% wool, 30% silk fingering weight yarn, handdyed with acid dyes using cold pour method. This marks the first steps in exploring creating a Jayne hat colorway.



The shot to the left is the yarn, loose, spread so you can see the long color repeats. I pulled out a bit to show that the dye doesn’t completely saturate. I’ll want to mix a stronger orange if I want it to really pop, but I’m not sure I do want it to really pop.

The colors remind me of butterfly weed flowers. I’m thinking of putting one of these at the corner of the house, assuming it ever stops raining and/or our yard guy ever shows back up.

Another Knitpicks 75% wool 25% nylon fingering weight yarn, acid dyed using cold pour method. This reminds me of berry cobbler. I believe the dye uptake would have been more thorough had it pre-soaked overnight, but then, I wasn’t going for a total saturation.



Same skein, spread out to show color changes. Note white areas around ties. It’s not a real issue here, since there’s white interspersed throughout, but it could have been a big problem. Lesson learned – don’t trust commercially tied yarn, retie it nice and loose yourself, and double-check any potential problem areas.

Tomorrow we move away from the blues, I promise.

At right: Mmmm… cobbler.

Second skein of the day. Similar color palette to the first one. Tangles and Mud commented that if the first skein was Westley, then this one must be Westley by night. I can see that!

Mmmm… Westley by night.

Wait, what was I saying? Right, yarn! The methods were similar to the other, but the colors were mixed stronger but were laid down in larger swaths. There were also sky blue and richer black tones. I’m partial to this yarn, but then, blues and grays are the colors I’m naturally drawn to.



One more, spread out so you can see the lengths of the color sections, which are variable throughout the skein. The yarn is Knitpicks Bare 75% wool 25% nylon fingering weight sock yarn, dyed with acid dyes then steamed to set. After this batch, I’m really thinking that next time, I need to buy my yarn in bulk.

Rain today, and probably all week, so no walking to school this morning. Em had a good first day yesterday. I was very excited when she told me she wanted something different in her lunchbox and she selected an apple. I thought it meant she might actually eat what I sent with her. No dice. The apple came home uneaten (“Oh, I forgot about that.”) and she told me she had a berry-flavored Capri-Sun for lunch. I can’t decide if that’s better or worse than the ice cream sandwich she chose to have every day yesterday. On the up side, at least she wants something different in her lunch now. For a long time, she wanted the exact same thing every day, even though she knew she wasn’t going to eat it. She actually asked to change – that’s progress!

I can’t go running this morning, so we’ll devote that extra time to boxing up more hats and knitting like the wind! Today, hats are ready to go out to Canada and Louisiana. Next up: ID, ID, and MA.

Okay, we saw the final yarn from dye day, let’s look at the first one of the morning. I was going to dole these out one day at a time, but hey, what the heck.

This was handpainted with acid dyes. Base yarn is Knitpicks’ superwash “Bare” 75% wool 25% nylon sock yarn. This didn’t come out exactly “perfect” in terms of the patterning I was trying to achieve, but I’m pleased with the color combo. I don’t feel bad about it – I was rushing a bit, showing the technique to someone else, and frankly, my bottles released a bit more dye than I expected. I need to invest in some beauty supply squirt bottles for greater control.

The shades are three colors mixed from one base. A silver-gray, then the silver-gray mixed with a primary blue, and the silver-gray mixed with black. Thankfully, none of the red crud in the bottom of my black made its way into the mix. The color on the picture isn’t quite true. It’s not as high contrast as it appears here. The blue has more gray tones, and there’s more shading between light and dark.

I think it’ll be fun to knit with. Or gift or sell, as dye day has put me a little over the top on sock yarn.

At left is the same yarn spread out a bit to show the color length.

For some reason, my first yarn of the day is always more pastel and muted, and then things heat up a little bit as I get more into it. Maybe it’s the equivalent of stretching before exercise.



This yarn is called “Westley” because turtlegirl made an offhand comment about the Princess Bride. She said this yarn reminded her of a line from the movie.

Man in black: Who was this love of yours? Another prince like this one…ugly, rich, and scabby?
Buttercup: No, a farmboy…poor! Poor and perfect, with eyes like the sea after a storm.

And there you have it. Westley.

More to come.

Before: This is the pic from yesterday. The yarn is the DK weight of Knitpicks’ “Bare” 100% superwash merino wool, acid dyed in the crockpot, primary color blue plus a little violet. The dye uptake wasn’t as thorough as I’d like, perhaps due to late addition of the blue, but more likely due to inadequate pre-soaking of the yarn. I decided to overdye the skein in darker tones.


After: What in blue blazes? This is the same blue yarn overdyed in the crockpot with a mixture of purple, violet-blue, and black. Unfortunately, my black had been mixed long ago and the red/orange elements had begun to separate. I didn’t realize this until I had upended the remainder of the bottle into the crockpot and started it going. Rinsing the bottle out released a flood of orange precipitate. Too late now! I hadn’t mixed any vinegar into the dye, but I still let it sit a lot longer than it should have. Let this be a lesson not to be a miser by trying to store mixed dyes beyond their natural shelf life.

Well, I learned something and it’s an interesting effect I would not otherwise have gotten, sooo… success? Sure. Why not.

Today’s the first day of the new school year. Em was at the door and raring to go at 6:30 this morning, but I kind of stalled her until 7am (the earliest the school doors open). At that point, we were in the yard and she started to go around the house, saying she wanted to walk to school. Oops! If I’d known that in advance, I wouldn’t have stalled so much. We wound up driving, but we’ll walk together tomorrow if the weather permits. We did walk up to the school’s open house last week, so she knows what she’s getting into.

Coincidentally, I grew up in this house and went to Em’s same school, starting there at the same age she is now. I walked to school myself. I think it’ll be a great way to start the day.

Today I’ve run the greenway – I’m jumping on my first free morning – and come home and watered the plants and done a little wii fit stuff. My weight was up a little the last couple of days as I madly sucked down water bottles to free up enough for dyeing. Heh. It’s back down now.

Later I’ll be packing up more kits and hats, as well as a ball of stash yarn which someone bought. I need to post more for sale. Tonight, hopefully, I’ll be binding off socks from my last batch of handdyed sock yarn.

I hope your day is as great as mine has been so far!

Dye day went well yesterday. Songs were sung, pizzas were consumed, and much fiber was dyed. I’m lucky to have so many creative, fun people around me. Pictured: tangles and mud (who is extremely talented with color, by the way), turtlegirl76, and illiane of Emergency Knitting Bag fame.

Turtlegirl, by the way, is having a stash sale on Ravelry. I’ve seen her stash. It’s impressive on a “My God, it’s full of stars” level. When she lets stuff go, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Not pictured are several others, including Jetsyknits whose husband had us testing out his latest creations. When he’s ready to share those babies with the world, they’re going to rock the fiber world’s handspun socks.

I may have said too much. Hopefully he won’t have to kill me.


I don’t want to reveal what I’ve dyed yet, as it’s not all done. This one skein is going to get overdyed. I’m not quite satisfied with it. Back to the crock pot with you, blue poser!

It was fun, guys! Let’s do it again!