Sun Dyeing

Since it is now almost 7am, I can no longer say "tonight" and must instead say "last night". Anyways, last night after dinner I did some basic hand painting on a skein of yarn. 150 yards of some Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool. Nothing special really, but here's a picture of it draining. It's currently drying.





Of course, I'm 99.9% positive that this method works. Been there, done that. Still a load of fun to play with colors, but otherwise no adventure.

Enter dyeing yarn using the power of the sun. Unlike the previous skein, which is heated in the microwave, this method leaves the containers of yarn out in bright sunlight to cook.

Earlier in the afternoon, I picked up a large jar from the store. Plastic I think, but the important thing was that it was clear and could be closed well enough I didn't have to worry about spills. So earlier in the wee hours this morning (no, I haven't slept yet) I put the last of my white wool (which has provided me with enough yarn for three 150 yd skeins) into the bottom of the jar. I then poured my leftover dye over it. Wasn't enough yarn to actually use up all the dye, but a good amount of it.

I also had a partial skein of wool/bamboo/nylon sock yarn from my fingerless gloves. I mixed up a packet of orange koolaid into a zipper bag, then chucked the sock yarn in. The sock yarn was a white/green/dark purple-blue colorway, so no clue what orange will do. Hopefully something drastic. It wasn't my favorite colorway.

Anyways, I then took the jar and the bag out into our backyard. I left it near the end of the yard where it ought to get plenty of sunlight once the sun is fully up. This was somewhere between 5 and 6, with enough light to see by but otherwise the sun isn't actually up yet.

I just checked it a little bit ago. It looks like the orange dye has already exhausted into the sock yarn. From what I've heard, superwash wool sucks up dye quickly. However, I'm going to leave it out there with the jar so it can get some heat. Yeah, the water I used was warm. But where's the fun with taking it in now?

No pictures unfortunately. My camera chose now to start acting up and claim low battery. Which means that they're just not fully charged anymore. I'll probably go see if any of my wii remotes needs a fresh battery change.

Off to bed I go. Now let's just hope that it doesn't rain!

Happy Birthday!

Not much to say really. Having chicken wings for dinner and get to open presents later. I don't really do "parties" so it'll be a quiet night. :D

On Birthdays and Presents

I really wish people would stop asking me what I want for my birthday. Honestly, while there's plenty of things I wouldn't object to getting, there's nothing I actually want. I'd rather that, if someone wanted to get me something, they just surprise me. That's the fun of presents and the entire point of wrapping them up in pretty packaging.

Apparently, people have a hard time thinking of things to get me. That means, if I come up with anything to tell people, I'm pretty much guaranteed to get it. Which is nice I suppose, but it's totally not the point of presents. If I want something, I'll just buy it.

Snow Pics and Warmer Weather

Soon is a relative term I suppose. As promised, here's some fun pics of all the snow:

First up is a nice night shot of the snow piling up around our picnic table. It's still coming down pretty hard here.
















This is the same shot pretty much, except with the ordinary flash on instead of the fun "night" mode my camera has. Worthless as a picture of the picnic table, but great for showing just how much snow was coming down!












This one was taken several days later. It's probably still snowing, but not nearly as much. As you can see, the snow pretty much has buried the bench part of the picnic table. Compare this with the previous picture of the table and you can see just how much snow fell in a little more than a week. O_o










The weather has warmed up considerably since then, though the snow is still really deep for around here. The top layer has probably thawed and frozen several times since it first fell if judging by the icy crust on top is any indication. Too bad it's not strong enough to hold my weight. In fact, crunching through that crust is so impractical that no one has really gone off the shoveled paths. It's quite nice looking out the window at fresh, untouched snow.

That's not to say that I'm wanting it to stick around much longer. Today's nearly 50 degree weather felt wonderful!

I think the trees appreciate it as well. The last several days of above freezing weather has caused a few trees to start budding, especially one across the street that has lovely pink buds forming. It pretty much explains why I woke up this morning with nose and the upper back of my throat itching in a way that only allergies can do. I'm still in a fog from either the stuffiness or the allergy pills, but at least the allergy pills stop that awful burny itch.

If I'm going to be a sneezy wreck I want the snow to finish melting and spring to come. Right now, anything above freezing feels wonderfully like jacket weather. It always amazes me how 45 degree weather in the fall has people scrambling for their winter coats, but 45 degree weather in late winter/early spring gets people out in light jackets and occasionally even shorts!



Note to those on Ravelry who might actually care: I've changed my blog link to this one rather than my patterns one simply because my pattern one is boring. I'll still be using it to post patterns, but I add the patterns to Ravelry anyways so it's not like anyone will be missing anything.

Never assume anything

Ever. Really, I mean it.

For the past couple of days, the news has been telling us we were going to get buried in snow. 7-12 inches of it. Yesterday it was snowing real good, and so the main city schools announced that they'd be closed today. This was in the afternoon, so I'm assuming that none of the staff actually wanted to wake up early this morning. After all, we were supposed to get dumped on, right? Cue late evening and the snow pretty much stops. "They called off the main schools. I'm sure you'll have off tomorrow too," said my mom. "If not, me or Dad can drive you." Thanks mom... And you know of course I had to come. Actually, I am glad for the ride. If anything, I slept like crap last night and it probably wouldn't be a great idea to put me behind the wheel of a car even if it weren't all snowy out. Now I'm just hoping my evening classes will be canceled so I don't have to be here all freaking day.

I've got some cool pictures of all the snow I'd love to get up here soon. <3

Rain

Rain rain,
go away.
Come again another day...

...then again it may melt the remnants of that snowman. Go ahead and rain a little more. I want my scarf back.

I <3 Kirby

Look what I managed last night!