Tangles

As you no doubt noticed, I just added my Olympic Gold Medal to the sidebar.  Nifty design, don't you think? 

I will make a longer post soon, but need to take and resize some photos first.

Knitting Olympics completed

Now, I'm really hating Firefox.  I've lost two posts to weirdness of the program and my Mac.

Here's the second hat for the Olympics challenge.  It was fun, now I'm off to swatch for the Ann Norling Top-Down raglan for CIC.

Finished Product

The dye experiment turned out much better than I expected when the wool was still in the pot.  The first photo shows the yarn outside yesterday--

Here is the finished yarn after winding.  One ball is quite a bit lighter, but it should be fine when worked up into the kid-size sweater I have in mind.  The skein of yarn on the bottom of the pot was the darker of the two.

This was fun and I will definitely be trying it again.  Next time, I won't load up the water with so many different colors.

Rainy day photos

These little cloudbursts lasted about 1 minute each and now the sun is shining.

Experimenting

Here are photos of the beginning of my latest attempt and dyeing yarn.  I'm using Gaywool dyes and Wool of the Andes Natural from Knitpicks. 

I started by soaking the yarn for a couple of hours in plenty of water and a small amount of Eucalan.  This is a cheapo enameled stock pot that will never be used for cooking food.

Next, I started heating the water and dissolved the dye crystals in boiling water. 

The last photo for tonight shows what the yarn looked like after adding the dye solutions.  The colors used are Indigo, Mulberry, Tomato and Honeycomb. 

The pot then bolied gently for 30 minutes.  The colors bled together quite a bit, so I have doubts about what the whole thing will look like in the morning.  I covered the pot and will wait until morning to see what happened.  I suspect I overdid the dye solution, but we'll see.

Here are a couple of photos of the orchid I bought last weekend--Dendrobium kingianum :Yuko"

Here are a couple of photos of the orchid I bought last weekend--Dendrobium kingianum :Yuko"

I figured I should add a new post since it has been a few days.  Things are very busy at work and I'm tired at the end of the day.  That situation wasn't helped by having to take the day off yesterday to wait for the UPS man to deliver my new computer.  Yes, that's right--I have a new iMac Intel Core Duo. The package was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, but I didn't realize that a signature would be required and no one was home at 9:30 in the morning.  I stayed home Thursday and figured I'd just be a few hours late and go in as soon as it arrived.  Not so much--the big brown truck didn't appear until 2:30 in the afternoon.  The day off was nice, but it would have been better with some advance notice.

Knitting Olympics-wise, I have finished the first Odessa hat.  Unfortunately, the intended recipient came over today to visit his Mama and do laundry.  He claimed the hat right away and I forgot to get a picture.  Guess he liked it--it was on his head as he left for his apartment.  My plan is to cast on the next hat as soon as I get this entry posted.  Mustn't keep the other son out of the loop.  He picked out his color when visiting last weekend. The pattern is great, very simple once you get the rhythm down.

I ordered some nifty yarn for my Secret Pal and look forward to mailing by the end of next week.  Just a couple more goodies to collect and this package is ready.

Secret Pal 7 Updates

My sweet Secret Pal has sent me another great package.  This one contained 2 skeins of "Sierra Aran" yarn by elann.com, a package of Jelly Bellys and a very pretty glass ornament with two bluebirds.  There was also a handmade card with a pretty picture of swans. 

Thanks so much for spoiling me, SP7!!

Also,  I forgot until tonight to resize the photo of my latest CIC socks.  These are made using some of the Encore Sport that was in my first SP package.  I worked it with a strand of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride to give them extra weight and warmth.  Thanks again for contributing to such a worthy cause.

Odessa and Orchids

Here is the first progress photo for Odessa. I have completed about 2.5 inches.  I really like the Cashsoft DK.  It's very soft, but shows off the stitches nicely.

This morning, I went to an orchid show.  The Fascination of Orchids is being held at the Orange County fairgrounds for the first time.  I wasn't crazy about the change of location.  The booths were too close together and the aisles too narrow.  The older I get, the smaller my "personal space" gets.  Today, that space was invaded a few too many times. and leaving was the only cure.  The displays were great and I took quite a few photos.

I only bought one orchid--Dendrobium kingianum "Yoko"  The display smelled great and my plant is covered with buds.  Hopefully, there will soon be open blooms to photograph.