The other night I sewed some diapers for Princess A and if I can grab some more spare minutes in the day I will post the instructions for how I did it.

Just a few nights ago I finished up one pair of self-striping socks. I was using up some yarn from my stash to make these. They turned out okay. I’m not completely in love with them though because they are from acrylic yarn and I really don’t care for acrylic. All in all they are not too bad. I am also about half way through another pair made out of self-striping yarn. Both yarns are by Moda Dea.

Yesterday I dyed some more superwash wool. This time around I opted out of the natural dyes and used Country Classics dye. This yarn is probably going to go through a lot of washings so I wanted to dye it with something that will withstand some abuse. I am going to make it into yet another diaper soaker. Not too much longer and I won’t be making these kinds of things anymore as Princess A will be 2 in September and is starting to show signs of being ready to move out of diapers. Sigh, my baby is growing up.

The hats turned out so cute and she just loves them. It is really cute seeing her walking around the house showing them off. The purple one is way too big for her right now but she will grow into it. The blue one fits perfectly. I tried to get some pictures of her wearing it but it is so hard to get decent pictures of this little girl because she never holds still!

 I knocked both of them out really fast which was nice as I haven’t had too much time for knitting/crocheting/crafting these days. Been busy with family and getting my garden rolling….

They both went through their first washing together. I washed them on cold to help slow down any fading that might happen. When they came out of the wash I was shocked.  The pretty pale lilac color that I had achieved from the dye mixed with vinegar was now a muddy purple and the soft sage green that came from the baking soda mix turned a more yellowy green. I was not expecting those kinds of results at all! I was expecting some fading but instead I got total color changes. That tells me there is something up with my tap water since I had used rainwater to make the red cabbage dye. I am a little frustrated with that! Obviously my tap water ph is whacked or full of something that affected the yarn. If I dye something with rainwater how am I suppose to wash it when it gets dirty? Use rainwater?! I had previously checked my tap water’s ph by using those little test strips but I think they were no good because they wouldn’t change or show any kind of reading. Now I am wondering what exactly my tap water ph is for the yarn to change so dramatically.

A few years back I used to have a fresh water fish tank and I would test the water to make sure it was healthy for the fish. I had this little kit that would tell you how to read the results and what to do if your water was too high in ammonia or the ph wasn’t quite right. I’m thinking I might try one of those kits to test my tap water. They are easily found at any pet store and I know I’ll get decent results to tell me what might be making my yarn change color like it did.

The socks don’t look all that bad. Although I did like the colors better before they were washed. They are not as bright now. The pictures I am including in this post are before being washed and after. The pictures don’t show the color change in the green as well as but they do give the general impression of the change in the purple.

I know in my last post I said it had been quite a week but it has actually been quite a month. 2008 is starting with a bang for us. It has been one thing after another in our house. Thankfully it seems everyone is starting to feel a little better.

My blog and knitting/yarn dyeing have been somewhat neglected while I was busy attending to everything else. But, I am happy to report that I finally finished knitting the second pair of toddler socks out of the Cabbage Yarn last night! I didn’t think I was ever going to get those darn socks finished! It was frustrating me to death, after all, they are only little baby socks. I should be able to knock those out super fast but, it has been quite a month and I was lucky if I could get one or two rounds completed on them a day. I kept thinking, Princess A is going to outgrow these before she even gets to try them on! At least I was able to finish them. Now I feel like I can move on to the other patterns and yarn I am itching to get my fingers on. Those socks were guilt tripping me all over the place. I would pick up one of my other works in progress and feel a wave of guilt and hear a little voice say, “you know what you should really be working on, those little socks, not this.” I kept feeling like I had to work on them because: a) I didn’t want her to outgrow them before they were even completed and b) I really want to get her wearing them so I can wash them a few times and see what happens to the color. Will it fade or not? I have read in more than one place that yarn dyed with red cabbage is not very colorfast. I want to see for myself and I needed to finish knitting those socks in order to find out.

They haven’t gone through any washings yet but once they do I will be sure to post the results here for those that might be interested.

I think the socks themselves turned out pretty cute. I just love the colors I got from the red cabbage. The green is a very soft color and looks really good up against the lavender. I am very interested to see how the colors hold up after being washed a few times.

Now that those are done I can finally move on to some new projects! Well, I still have to finish the striped cardigan and the striped pullover for Princess A. Now those are probably going to start guilt tripping me next. After all, I have got to finish them before the weather decides to warm up and she will no longer need sweaters.

Yesterday I finished knitting this pair of mittens for my youngest son, L-man. He likes bright and crazy colors so these fit his personality perfectly. And I am hoping that considering how bright they are they will be hard to loose! Both yarns I hand dyed. The orange is dyed with annatto seeds. The yellow and green is the yarn that I dyed with marigolds that I posted about: here.

I struggled with finding a pattern I liked for these particular mittens. I ended up using the pattern from One-Skein Wonders titled Easy Mittens. The pattern does not have a ribbed cuff but I added a 2×2 ribbing because I happen to like that look and felt they would stay on an active nine year old a little better. I also modified the pattern a little bit more when it came to sizing because the pattern was designed for a woman’s hand not a child’s. Unfortunately, I had to measure his hand a couple of times and have him try on the mitten half way through to make sure it was fitting right. I say unfortunately because now he knows all about it and I really can not give them as a gift like I had originally wanted! He is excited about them none the less which is cute. Last spring he planted the marigolds from seed so the yarn that was dyed with them has a special meaning to him. I find that to be really cool! He witnessed the whole transformation from start to finish. Pretty darn cool I would say.