Friday, June 23, 2006

Because I thought I should share...

There's no one but me in the office right now, and I just did the numbers for this week of summer reading programs. I did 12 programs, covering 2 year olds to middle schoolers and 388 people attended (assuming I counted right, which I don't always do because those little ones can be so squirmy!). I'm pleased with those numbers - it averages out to just over 32 bodies per program. And I know there will be an extra group attending next week, plus others who signed up this week, but didn't come.

It's all very exciting. Must go plan more for Monday...

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Fun with Koolaid and wool

A few weekends ago, I became obsessed with dyeing some plain ivory sock yarn I got last fall. I researched kool-aid dyeing online - here and here. And then I followed a very useful tutorial about making the yarn self-striping.

And then I went to work. I started with three "shades" of kool-aid: Lemon Lime to make a light, bright green, Berry Blue to make a light blue, and Changin' Cherry for a blue green. I only used one packet of each because I didn't want really bright saturated colors.
I used Knitpicks Color Your Own Merino Wool.
I divided a long loop of yarn (I wound it around two dining chairs about the width of my kitchen apart) into four sections - two small sections to be green, one large section to be blue, and another largish section to be blue green. Then I mixed the kool-aid with water in mason jars and popped it all in my crock pot to slowly heat.
When the dye was absorbed, I rinsed it all in a colander. Looks like bizarre spaghetti, huh?
I hung the yarn up to dry, then wound it into a skein. Here's a variety of glamour shots. I'm not sure the lighting in any of the pictures shows the colors totally accurately, but you get the idea.


Someday it will be a nice pair of stripy socks.