Kettle/Crockpot dyeing with Kool-aid

I started knitting a Quant today, mostly because I avoiding the sizing up and sizing down of a pattern I am making. Why avoid it? Because my temp is 101 to 102 right now with out meds and the meds I can take are putting me in a fog. (I think I have the flu that my daughter had about 2 weeks ago, which makes sense because it takes 2 to 3 weeks for the flu virus to gestate.) Anyway it is a no-go for pattern math because I am SURE I will make a mistake.

Ok so I am FINALLY getting this thing up! I have had the pictures up on Flickr for about a week but have been way too busy.



This is the yarn soaking in the crock-pot. I let it soak for about an half an hour.



These are the "kool-aids" I am using. For the record the exact colors I am using are Kool-aid Berry Blue and Wyler's Orange. Two packets of each. I pre-mixed this time in 1/2 cup of water.



Before adding the colors I moved the yarn to make a spiral from the bottom up. I added the colors with a turkey baster, making sure that the colors got to the bottom. I then turned it on low and left it alone for about an hour. The dye bath was not fully exhausted at that time so I stirred it around gently and it immediately exhausted.



The yarn is drying in this picture.




And here is is all reskeined. I still need to find a name for it... Can't think of anything.

In a quandary...

I have been thinking a lot about WHERE I want this blog to go and what I want this blog to be. I really don't want this blog to lose the fiber aspect, but I have also been wanting to write more about family and religion too. The reason for this is because I started a Bible Study at church (Beth Moores' Daniel Bible Study) that I want to blog about too, not to mention family stuff that comes up, but at the same time this is my business blog so should I blog about that elsewhere? I don't know.

Basic Crochet Dishcloth/Washcloth

Yarn: Lily's Sugar N'Cream is shown but can be made in any worsted weight or non-worsted weight. I just suggest that you change the hook size if you have trouble getting the hook into the stitches.

Gauge: Not important

Hook size: US G/4.00 mm

Ch20 loosely

Rows:
turn and ch2, dc into 3rd stitch and ever remaining stitch.

Repeat until desired size.

I made this pattern for a class I am teaching and since everyone seems to copyright their stuff so you have to ask permission and pay them to use their pattern in a class, I just made up my own!

copyright info at bottom of page.

A vacation and knitting

Hubby, daughter and I got a mini vacation this Sunday/Monday to Orlando. I got to knit the whole way which was nice of hubby for not making me drive. I got through with almost 1/3 of the knitting and writing of the pattern for one of my designs. I feel great for it.

I keep trying to make it to a knitting group meeting but so far no-go.

I did go to A.C. Moores charity knitting/crochet thing last Saturday, which was really nice. There were several people there for a while.

I have a list of things to do on this blog and I am going to list them here so I actually feel guilty enough to do them.

The List for my Blog:

Post photos of and the free pattern for my crochet dish cloths/wash cloths
Post about the yarns I have kool-aid dyed
Post tutorial for one of the kool-aid dyes

Now I also have a list business wise:

Finish all 3 patterns and the patterns for them.
Get one of those patterns emailed to Knitty (summer) and the another to MagKnits(any old time!)
Actually find a book that tells me how to WRITE a business plan and do it! (this is more of a priority but I have a strange feeling that it will be something that doesn't happen for a year!)
Figure out how to make a PDF so I can sell them via Ravelry (I don't intend to use Esty for pattern sales... ever)
Research advertisement stuff via the internet (choices I like so far are Ravelry ads and hopefully getting something printed on a big online knitting mag)

As promised the pics!

So here are the pictures of the projects I have finished:


The baby surprise jacket with matching dress. I made it for my little nieces X-mas gift considering that her mom gave me the dress when our little girl was about 6 months old I figured I could at least make something to match.


The hair currlers. I have actually done all the finishing on them, but hubby deleted that pic on accident... oh well. I have used them but really need about 4 to 6 more to really get it done. Feels like a never ending project!


My calorimetry. Sadly the button is too small but otherwise very nice.

So when do I sleep?

Looking back at the last week/week and a half, I am starting to wonder if I ever sleep. This is not good. Anyway I FINALLY got my digital camera and my computer to like one another and got the photos on flickr. They are now in my Ravelry stuff but will be posted here soon. It seems that my husband deleted a few of my pics but I still have the yarns and the projects so I am really ok (Thankfully, he didn't delete any of our daughter).

Been designing away. I have 3 designs I am working on for sale purposes. One is the diaper cover/soaker pattern I want to sell via Ravelry. The other 2 are surprises because I want to sell them to magazines and mag companies demand secrecy to the point of craziness!

Now that I know I can get the comp and camera to work together (though not really like one another) I am going to try another kool-aid dyeing thing some time next week. Only this time hand painted. We will see what becomes of it.

A business plan?

For those of you that don't know this, I am kinda trying to make a business of my knitting. I mean at least tax wise I am. So because of this I am trying to write a business plan even though I am not taking out loans or anything. Now you may be wondering why I NEED a business plan considering I am not looking for investors (I know my hubby is) and the reason is I need it to keep focused on WHAT I am trying to do in the business. I know myself too well and know I will diversify to the point of uselessness if I don't have one somewhere. Basically I am trying to make knitting and crochet patterns to eventually sell either independently or sell to knitting mags and I am teaching knitting and crochet. My dream is to make 200 dollars a month right now, though really think I can make 50 a month for the first year/year and a half.


In other news, our little one is all better now. She wouldn't eat for the whole week she was sick (not from lack of me and daddy trying though), and it was an absolute battle to get her to drink anything. She is kinda lethargic now and has a MASSIVE appetite though I am not letting her eat too much at once due to her having basically fasted for a week (don't want her to throw it up from eating too fast or we might get her fasting again!). It is amazing to me because her legs used to be... not big but normal toddler size, and now they are SOOO thin.

I am BACK!

Sorry for such a long hiatus but I was traveling and then my 2 year old daughter got a temp of 103F so blogging wasn't really high on the list of things to do. Anyway, now I am back and I picked up yarn to kool-aid dye so we will get pics of that whenever it gets done.