Did you all drink orange soda when you were little?
Man, I used to love that stuff.
Can’t stand it now.
But this reminds me of Orange Crush.
After my success dyeing a couple of weeks ago I decided to give it another go. This time with sock yarn. Since I’m obsessed with sock knitting.
I saw some sock yarn in an online shop that I really really wanted. It was a slightly muted reddish orange. I couldn’t get it, it was sold out (well that, and, I’m sort of on a yarn diet since my drawer for sock yarn is full). But I thought maybe I could create it myself.
I think i got pretty close. Mine is a little bright yet. I considered over dyeing it with tea to mute the color down a little. But I’m afraid of ruining it, and I quite like the color I got.
I dyed this one in my crock pot (totally awesome) and for dye I used more gel frosting colors from Wilton and Kool Aid.
I might be hooked.
Summer is more than half over. I can’t believe it. In a little over a month I start the daily trek back and forth to school. Sigh.
But before we can think about school, we have birthdays to celebrate in this house.
Two birthdays.
Since Shortcake doesn’t know any better I decided to do one big joint thing. We got together with the grandparents.
I made cake.
Epic cake.
It was so fun. Time consuming, but fun. And it only took three batches of frosting.
The kids think it is the coolest cake ever.
Hey, I think its pretty darn cool too.
And here are a few more shots of it all going together.
Remember this post?
I find it funny – as in funny: interesting, not funny: haha – when those people part of the group get so defensive when those left out say something about it.
Not that I did. But apparently I’m not the only one feeling not good enough.
I have got to stop finding new creative outlets. I don’t have time for the ones I already do.
But really, I thought I would learn how to dye to save myself some money. Because the undyed sock yarn is about half the cost of the dyed stuff I’ve been buying.
Well, that, and… it looked fun.
So here is what I started with. I had this wool lying around. I bought it with intentions of creating some new baby hats for my etsy shop, but, well, I got into sock knitting and it never happened. It is called Full O’ Sheep, and you can find it at Joann’s. Just plain natural, undyed. it comes in other (very bright) colors also. But they wouldn’t work as well for this project.
And my friendly dyes. If you have read the blog for any amount of time you’ll know that I have decorated cakes for my kids’ birthdays. So I have several colors of this lying around. (the best part about this particular project is that I didn’t have to spend any money! Well, not any MORE money). For this skein I used the colors pink/rose and copper. Sorry for the poor photo here. Don’t know what I was thinking.
I had planned to use only pink but what came out was just TOO pink for me, so I toned it down with some of the copper. In retrospect it may have been ok. But I dipped some paper towel in the dye after I mixed it up and what came out was a little scary, and I got scared, so I changed it.
Now I could write out what I did step by step, but it’ll get boring and unless you are a yarnie you probably don’t care and it’ll all be Greek to you anyway. If you are a yarnie and you do care, well, by all means get in touch with me by leaving a comment and I can tell you in more detail what I did. Here it is in pictures (with a lot of steps missing since I was trying to concentrate and forgot to get my camera out).
Pre-dye soak:
Yarn in my biggest pyrex, dye has been added and it is ready to be zapped in the micro (heat is needed to set the dye).
Dye is completely exhausted – meaning there is no more dye in the water, it has all soaked into the yarn. So at this point it is done and cooling.
When it was cool I rinsed it out, squeezed as much water out as I could, and took it out back and hung it over my deck to dry. And when it was dry I rolled it up into this lovely.
Meet “Blush.”
So that was fun. And I learned some things. And I now want to do it again.
And I have to figure out what I’m going to make out of this.
Another finished project. I’m pleased with this one. I wasn’t sure about it… I wasn’t sure about the color, I wasn’t sure about the size…
But then I washed it and blocked it out and my, it is lovely. I do still wish it was a little bigger. It came out only 30×34 inches. It is a really nice size for throwing in the car seat or stroller though. So it will work.
The pattern is another lovely ravelry find… Seriously you all, get on there! Chalice baby blanket, with a lovely chalice lace pattern. In case you don’t know, a chalice is like a wine glass or goblet. And if you look at the pattern you can easily see why it has that name.
I modified the pattern just slightly, by making it wider and longer, and I also used a different stitch – seed stitch instead of garter – for the border (which I really love!).
This one is a surprise giftie for my nephew who we won’t meet until September. Can’t put this one up on Facebook just yet so all you lovely blog readers get a sneak peek. And the project I’m working on right now is completely stealth… so no sneak peeks and no knitting photos for a while.
And in other yarn news, I’ve been thinking about playing with dyeing some of my own sock yarn. With Kool Aid. Yep. Stay tuned.
It is no secret that I enjoy sweets. I may have mentioned it a time or two. Maybe.
But if there is one thing that I just cannot resist above all others, it is chocolate. A few weeks ago hubby brought home a chocolate cake for me. It happens to be my most favorite chocolate cake ever, covered in chocolatey chocolate frosting goodness. The most chocolatey yummy cake in the entire world. Two layers, probably 8 inch round, although I’m not sure on the measurement. It never stays whole long enough for me to confirm that.
I ate the whole thing. In a week (maybe less). Well, except one or two small pieces I shared with Sir (since Missy doesn’t like chocolate – who’s child she is, I haven’t figured out, but she surely isn’t mine!).
In my world, chocolate is a food group.
So when I ran across this recipe for chocolate chip banana bread I knew I had to try it.
So when our bananas got too ripe earlier this week, it was the perfect time. Plus, I haven’t baked in a while and I have been kind of itching to reconnect with my KitchenAid. She was getting lonely.
Mine didn’t take nearly an hour and 15 minutes to bake, more like 50 minutes. I’m glad I kept and eye on it, and actually I probably could have taken it out a little sooner. But it was really easy to throw together, Missy and Sir even helped. Missy did the dry ingredients by herself and Sir helped me mix the wet.
I can’t even tell you how yummy this is. The best I can say is that it was half gone a couple hours after taking it out of the oven. Yeah. She writes about slicing it up and freezing it in slices. Um, ha. I’d have to bake three loaves to get it to last long enough to freeze any.
And the best part? With the bananas and whole wheat flour, I’m guessing it is actually decently healthy too. Oh and add in the benefits of dark chocolate, since that is what I used. Can’t get better than that.
My sweet tiny is one. I can’t believe it.
I thought I’d cry, but I didn’t. I’m not entirely sure it has all set in yet. I don’t know when it will, but I know it will and it will be hard.
Dearest Shortcake,
I can’t believe you are one. You are my sweetest sweet. I love you so so much.
For your happiest happy smile to your teeny tiny little toes, you are perfect. You are perfect for our family. You fit in so beautifully, everyone just adores you.
I love the way you constantly wiggle your toes, they way you put them in your mouth every chance you get. I love you you give me tight hugs when I pick you up. I love the way you like to kiss my arm. I love how all it takes for you to smile is for me to look at you. I love the way you giggle when I tickle you. I love the way you grab my hair to pull my face close to yours. I love your beautiful blue eyes and your sweet strawberry hair.
I love your easy going personality. That we can drag you around place to place all day and you hardly complain. You can go most of the day without a nap and still be happy. You are just so happy all the time, it makes me happy just to be around you. Your presence lights up the room, and even in the middle of the night I am so happy to see you. You are a joy, my joy, and I can’t tell you how special you are to me. God really knew exactly how perfect you would be for our family. You have brought us so many good times, so much joy and so much love.
And you have treated me. You have not grown up too fast. In many ways you are still very much a baby. You are letting me cherish those baby moments for a little longer than average.
I am so so so thankful that you are mine. You are my light, my joy.
Love,
Mommy
There is nothing like the internet (read: Facebook) to make one feel out in left field. Left out of the action. Not good enough.
I hate that part of being so connected. I can see who is up to what and where I have been left out.
I hate that I feel that way. It is like being back in middle school. Wanting to be a part of a group but just living on the outskirts. That was my life in middle school. And high school. I was never quite friends with the people I wanted to be friends with. It is a crappy place to be. Just not quite good enough, not quite cool enough, just a little bit too nerdy or too shy or too something (what that something is, I could never figure out).
But it doesn’t really matter what the reason is, it still hurts and it is still difficult to deal with.
I guess being an adult doesn’t mean I get to escape those feelings. Sigh. I hoped being grown up would have had at least some benefit.
This morning was dreary, cloudy and misty. I’ve been cold all morning. I woke blue and haven’t been able to shake it.
Today is grandma’s birthday. She would have been 98 today.
For some reason I always thought she make it to 100. I pictured her name and pictures on the Today Show, in the segment where they celebrate birthday of people over 100. I always imagined I would see her name on there someday.
I guess that it wasn’t meant to be.
So it is a sad day for me today. Losing a hero is hard. There are so many things that remind me of her and what an amazing person she was. I am constantly reminded that she is gone. But even moreso today, a day I would normally send her an e-card for her special day.
But I do have comfort in one thought. I bet Jesus throws one smashing birthday party.
Happy birthday Grams. Love you and miss you.
I know, I know. I’m sock obsessed lately. The thing about socks is they are just so fun. So many pretty colors, so many beautiful patterns.
And so useful. Part of the reason I’ve been knitting so many socks is that I finally found something I can make and actually use. It took me a long time to find the perfect project for myself. I started with baby stuff. But people I knew kind of stopped having babies. And most of the time I felt like the work I put in was incredibly under-appreciated.
So then I started on Etsy. But you know, there are so many hats on Etsy. It wasn’t enough to really fill my need to create. And it started to feel like a job, and I began to groan every time I got an email saying that I had to make another baby hat.
Finally, I found socks. They are the absolute perfect project for me.
But this one… is not a sock.
Its a baby blanket.
Our family is growing. I am being blessed with a nephew. I hadn’t thought about making anything, but then the extended family started talking about a baby shower. So I got to looking for something useful that I could make.
It is kind of a nice change from the socks. I’m enjoying it.
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