Knitting Crone Crafty Page

The Magic of Knitting

Well now! This view of magical knitting is fresh and makes so much sense!

Until next time...

Dyeing like a mad woman!

I am dyeing and spinning like a mad woman in order to be able to cast on the Kimono Wrap for the first day of the KAL .
At first I thought my first skein of spun yarn was more DK than worsted, but upon washing, dyeing, and finally drying it, it has fluffed up a bit! So I will knit a swatch out of it to see if it will work....or not.
I decided to stripe dye the yarn in purple and royal blue with sections tied off to get specks of white. I cannot wait to see what a swatch will look like!


And my craft area is always cluttered...but who said being a craft bug would be neat and orderly?! HAaaaaaaaaa!! I have found that swiffer dusters make cleanup under the carder when I am done go a lot quicker. It doesn't grab all the crap that comes off the fleece onto the table, but it's like a whisk-broom.

You can see my production line in the pic with the drum carder. Merino to the left, Alpaca to the right...all ready to be blended together.

An interesting thing happened in the dye pot with this blend of yarn. Alpaca is notorious for needing twice as much dye to get a complete dyeing than it would wool. The dye striked the Merino in the yarn first leaving the alpaca only slightly dyed with color. It's a neato and unexpected effect! I love dyeing!!!

My LYS, the one I work at now, is gonna carry MERINO ROVING!!! How lucky am I?!! I can order just about any kind of top through the LYS now and...get my premo-employee discount to boot! I did take next weekend off so I could go to the wool festival. Yippie!! Speaking of wool festival, I get a "Get in free" pass from the local spinners guild since I am planning to come and help with the sheep to shawl demonstration. Sweeeeeeeeet!!! I tell you what...the right attitude in life makes one a very lucky person!!

The BF has been calling me "Pretty-thang" after a clip on one of his favorite cartoons "Samurai Jack". He is just the cutest thang when he says that! I miss hearing things like that from him. The experiment is working!!!!!!!

The Fiber Frenzy pal got my package and she was all giddy over it all! I sent a lot of fiber and bought a few well priced extras to send along. I am so happy that she is happy with the swap! I still need to find maple candy to send along as a thank you to the lady that sent me fiber goodies. I just don't have the money at the moment. I don't even have the money to send out the red scarf to the Orphan Foundation!! Oye. I should have some to use for postage Tuesday, but most of that is gonna get put back for the fiber festival. I really ought to start a savings fund JUST for this fiber festival. I really enjoyed it last year even though it was unseasonably cold and rainy. This year, I plan on bringing some pants, my shawl, and a jacket...just in case! Because you know if I come prepared it will be unseasonably warm!! At least, that is what I hope will happen!!!

OH! And I finally got my needle tips from Knitpicks. I dunno why, but it takes seven days to get tips from them, and only three to four when I order yarn...on the rare occasion that I do buy yarn. Weird aye? Now I can transfer my two socks on the one circular to a larger cabled circular.

Until next time...

***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website(text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited(linking to the post is OK).***

Fox News Kills Monsanto Milk Story

Yet another reason why Fox News is bad for your health...literally. I never watch Fox because I can never believe anything that is aired, trust it to be the true or accurate, and they warp the truth to play the ratings game. Locally, when interviewed several Wiccans at a Hallows party at a community center, we told them...the pentagram is NOT upside down. Our symbol is the five star within a circle with the point up. Wanna guess what they did? They aired a graphic of an upside down pentagram. That is proof enough for me that they are corrupt. Bastards.

(video)

Conquering the Dreadful Scales...

I have put off weighing myself on the dreadful scales for months. I always fear I will find out I have not lost as much as I had hoped so I have been measuring my weight loss my size alone.

Well, this morning I said "ta-hell with it!", pulled out the scales from storage and stepped on it hoping the battery had not gone dead yet.....

I almost shit a brick right there on the bathroom floor.

I knew I felt lighter, smaller even....

Now I know it is not just my imagination.

When I looked down to check the digital readout...I had lost ANOTHER 10 POUNDS!!!! I have lost a total of 25 pounds since I started Karate earlier this year!!!

TWENTY-FIVE!!!!

Say it with me now!

YOU GO GIRL!!!

Tee-hee-hee!

Until next time...

***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website(text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited(linking to the post is OK).***

WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday

I've got me a pair of socks started on ONE circular from two balls of yarn. Yes, ONE circular. I am awaiting needle tips from knitpicks so I can use a larger cable. These are a bit too small but will do until they arrive.

I am done spinning one bobbin full of alpaca and merino for the Kimono Wrap. I think I will twine die it in blue.

And here is the scarf all ready to mail out. I just need to wait for Sept 1 and the money to spend on postage. DOH!!

Until next time...

***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website(text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited(linking to the post is OK).***

Total Lunar Eclipse: August 28, 2007

NASA - Total Lunar Eclipse: August 28, 2007

So here in my area the eclipse will start happening around 4AM, with total eclipse around 5AM and ending aroung 7AM. Still debating whether I will stay up or get up with the BF to see it....

Until next time...

Completed Red Scarf!

Completed Red Scarf
Originally uploaded by crafting4goddess.

Completed red scarf ready to ship with a card to the Orphan Foundation of America! Go Team Goddess!!

Until next time...

Majestic Mountains Stole

Check out the Majestic Mountains Stole that incorperates a wonderful knit and beaded scene of mountains and evergreen trees! I so want that pattern but it is gonna have to wait a few weeks.

Gosh darned it...it is RAINING again! Now I saw a pattern with my email siggies...when I put something like "Bring on the Sun"...it was sunny and very warm for a very long time. When we needed rain, I put "Bring on the RAIN!" and the rain came. Now that the rain is here...and after we have already gotten more than enough I put "No more RAIN!" but it doesn't seem to be working because it keeps raining! I had planned on biking down to Savers to see if I could find a few decent dress-tops that are comfortable. They say it will stop raining sometime in the afternoon but by then I will need to travel to karate. Humph. There seems to be a lot of lightening with this batch of rain...one already hit close by. EEP!

My goldenrod dyeings came out a wierd shade of yellow....kinda reminds me of a yellow highlighter than has been muddied by black ink. Not really all that pleasing. I'll try overdyeing half of the yarn in walnut JUST to see what happens. :) It's all fun!

I added salt to my coffee grounds last night before going to bed. The Bf was a dear and agreed to put the pot in the fridge when he got up so I would have chilled coffee ready and waiting for me when I awoke. Damned katydid kept me up for several long, agonizing hours last night. I was sleeping quite well too!! Damned katydids!! Anyhoo...the salt, unbelievably, IMPROVED the flavor of the fair trade organic coffee I bought from Java Cat Cafe'!! I was shocked!! I just put a sprinkle, not very much at all. I can taste the salt, but it is not overly salty. I am in shock! And since we are out of coffee and flavored creamer, I added some evaporated milk instead just to try something new. It is GREAT!!

You know, I tried to defrag this frickin puter and it sat all night only to get 10% completed!!! I have seriously waited way too long to defrag...eeep!!

Okay the lightening is getting a little more frequent so I think I will get off the puter now. JEEZ! The lightening hits keeps getting closer!! EEEEEEeeeeeeep!!!

ZOINK!

Until next time...

How to Make a Good Pot of Coffee - wikiHow

How to Make a Good Pot of Coffee

Wow, there are a lot of good tips on this website! Did you know you can add a sprinkle of salt on top of your coffee grounds before brewing to reduce bitterness?! Not too much, otherwise you will have a salty cuppa-joe...ew.

Check it out!

Until next time...

Goldenrod dyeings

It finally stopped rain long enough for the brush to dry and I was finally able to harvest some of the wild goldenrod that is in full bloom after all that rain. I harvested enough for myself and for my Fiber Frenzy pal. Her package is ready to go and as soon as I get a confirmation of the address I got from her I will send it out. The package weighs a good 3.5 pounds!! OYE!!! Flat-rate here I come!!

You know it rained for a good 6 days here in Wisconsin? OMG the skeeters populations exploded!! We are not used to so much water falling from the sky in such a short amount of time. People have flood damage where there should be no flooding and most home insurances do not cover it because we are not a state that floods all too often. We've got FEMA here trying to help those people left out in the cold by their insurance. Considering FEMA's recent failures not too sure what all they can do to help people here.

Anyhoo...back to dyeing.

HA!

Had the yarn sittin in a pot with 3/4 gallon of water (the pot was a bit smaller than I anticipated) with 2 tablespoons of Alum and 1 TEASPOON of Cream of Tarter. From the notes in my Dye Plants book (below) it looks like it has a ratio of 3 to 1 (alum to cream of tarter). It said to boil the flowers for an hour but another book I have (The Weaving, Spinning, Dyeing Book) says that flowers should not be boiled for that long because the color tends to get muddied. Wonderful. Well it boiled for a good 30-40 minutes before I read that so I took the pot off the burner and strained the plant material from the water.
From the looks of it (it is not done cooking yet) it looks like the yarn is gonna come out an antiqued yellow/tan.

While I was looking at the other book, I think I will try one of the beginner weavers projects...a tuffed rug made from fleece tuffs. Looks easy enough. Looks quick too. I can use that crap fleece I got from the sheep festival last year.

Speaking of the festival, it is coming up in two weeks and on payday weekend to boot!! I am so going out there again and takin my spinnin wheel with me to help the Pleasant Spinners guild spin up wool in a Sheep to Shawl demonstration. While I am there I will peruse the grounds and get lots of new pictures. I won't be bidding on any fleece this year since I was burned by it last year with the crap fleece. I got what I paid for, I'll admit that much.

Until next time...

***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website(text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited(linking to the post is OK).***