Dyed in the wool

In the depths of a box I came across a plastic bag containing six small balls of vivid pink wool. I had a vague memory of it being frogged from a crocheted item of dress made for a child back in the 70's when such colours were a la mode. A label in the bag said it was 100gms of 3ply 100% wool, and when I weighed it to check, this was correct. The two larger balls together weighed 50 gms, and the other 4 balls made up the rest. I have been wanting to play with dye for a while, and this seemed to be the opportunity I had been waiting for, as I didn't think I could make this any worse than it already was. I rewound the wool into 25gm kegs, and put it to soak in warm water and vinegar. As a dye I was undecided between using violet food colour and jar of sliced beetroot in vinegar, but settled on the violet when I found there was more beetroot in the jar than could comfortably be eaten as a snack. I removed the wool from the dish it was soaking in, and poured all but ½" of the vinegar water away, then added a teaspoon of the violet food colouring from a bottle that has been hanging around for twenty odd years and so is rather more concentrated than it had been. The next step was to just sit the kegs in the liquid so that the dye was only absorbed into the bottom of the keg. I covered the dish with cling film and zapped it in the microwave for three minutes, checking it after each minute. By this time, the water left in the dish had lost its colour and the wool had absorbed it. I left the whole thing sitting for half an hour to cool down, and then rinsed the kegs in tepid water and squeezed them out. (I was half way through skeining the last ball when I thought of taking photographs) Dying in the keg like this is supposed to avoid a regular striped effect that appears if you dye in the skein, as the way it is wound means that the outer layers will have longer lengths in the dye and the inner ones shorter. I clamped the two halves of a wooden dish rack to each end of the balcony table and skeined it out to dry in the breeze. I kept the sun off most of it with the umbrella as I am not too sure how sun-fast food dye is. The light pink patches in the photo are sunlight, not stripes, and the colour distribution appears to be completely random, as promised. It only remained to rewind it when it was dry, and I was pleasantly surprised at how soft it had stayed, and at how little felting there was. Now I need to decide what to make with it. It may become a ripple stitch scarf, but who knows? A great part of the pleasure comes from looking through patterns and it may take months to find just the right one...

Buns

When I went out this morning to get bread and newspapers, I was drawn towards a packet of teacakes; the fruity bread type, not the chocolate covered marshmallow on a biscuit type. The packet told me that they had been made in Holland a fortnight ago and were good for another two weeks. I was prepared to believe the first part of the statement, but not the second, and a prod with a stiff finger confirmed my belief. Nevertheless, I felt a yearning for a toasted bun dripping in salty butter, so I picked up a package of fresh yeast from the fridge on my way to the till.
These are the result of my endeavour (minus three tested earlier). Craggy and misshapen they may be, but they went down very well at teatime. I am not an habitual baker these days, so I looked for a recipe. First I looked in Mrs Warnes Cookbook, bought as a wedding present for my mother back in 1943. Take 7lbs of good bread flour...well maybe not. I dallied over Fanny's version, as she was my mentor and taught me all that I know, but in the end, I settled for the next generation's guru of the kitchen; Delia. Her recipe makes a dozen, and is very easy to follow. I substituted my fresh for her dried yeast and storecupboard sultanas for her currants. The Kenwood has been highjacked downstairs, and the Aldi substituted for it is a waste of space when it comes to kneading, but the sun shone in through the snug window and heated up the roofing slate that acts as a table mat, and this proved to be the ideal spot for the fungal growth required...

A Rose by any other name..

Moogsmum pointed me in the direction of one of those daft blog quizzes. "What's your name's hidden meaning?" Try it yourself. It doesn't take long to work out the system. Josephine reads:

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you.
You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries.
You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice.

You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life.
You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you.
At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself.

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong.
You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.
You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are influential and persuasive. You tend to have a lot of power over people.
Generally, you use your powers for good. You excel at solving other people's problems.
Occasionally, you do get a little selfish and persuade people to do things that are only in your interest.

You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.
Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia.
Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.
You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.
You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

Sophie on the other hand, is only half the woman I am....LOL

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong.
You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.
You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do.

You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life.
You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you.
At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself.

You are influential and persuasive. You tend to have a lot of power over people.
Generally, you use your powers for good. You excel at solving other people's problems.
Occasionally, you do get a little selfish and persuade people to do things that are only in your interest.

You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.
Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia.
Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.
You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.
You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

Owlets

"What can I find for the Craft Club to do?" is a weekly problem. Some ladies seem to be only interested in making cards, but a few are prepared to give other crafts a try. I had seen versions of these little owls in various places around Blogland, and the little chap on the left was my first attempt. He is rather dumpy and has no feet, just a circle of yellow felt to hide his sphincter. His eyes are felt circles behind shirt buttons with the centre blacked up using a CD pen, and he has a felt beak. Then I came across Moonstitches Tutowlrial which gave me a better idea of the proportions between the front insert and the body. I used her method of embroidering a beak, but didn't use her covered circle base. Instead I added feet to a felt circle. For eyes I layered buttons. I liked the way the stripe through the blue shirt buttons added a little life to the eyes.

I forgot to take my camera to the club yesterday, but I shall email a round robin and ask that they bring their little owls in next week for a photo call. As each person brought in their own fabric and buttons, and stuffed in their own particular way, there was a lot of variation in our little parliament.

Edit: Please ignore the wood ash on the mantelpiece. I'm not known for my housewifely competence. Anyway, if Bossman decides to clean out the woodburner, I think he should clean up after himself as well..

Knee Highs and Lows

Two pairs of odd-sized stockings ready to go to their new home. Alas, I chickened out when it came to adding a corset pink stripe as dared by Mountainear, but I may pluck up the courage when I make the last pair. The photo is a poor one as the light coming through the window led to a little overexposure on one half. It was taken at the last minute before I put away the ironing board for another week (month?) or so.

These were made with odds and ends of the wool for a daughter who likes stripes on her socks, and as a long distance hug-and-get-well-soon-after-your-knee-op substitute.

Later in the month....

I know... I know...I know...I'm supposed to blog every day...but when all I seem to do is knit socks and read blogs it seems a little too boring to bother writing about. Last night I made the decision that the pair of socks I had just finished was going to be the last for a couple of weeks, well at least of the knee high dull grey variety. This morning I had a lie in and read. I am reading The Loop by Nicholas Evans. Last week I read his The Smoke Jumper, and enjoyed it, so I was quite happy when I came across The Loop in the Bowling Club library. It is set in Montana (again) and deals with the problems that arise when wolves are re introduced into the wild and then extend their hunting range into farming areas. There is the odd reference to African refugee camps and boy soldiers thrown in, bringing echoes of The Smoke Jumper, but so far I have no complaints.

The two ATCs above are for the March swap on CSATCs. The directive was to make a collage from bits snipped from a magazine. The nearest mag to hand was a copy of German language AMICA, picked up from the freebee shelves in Zurich airport. Good thick glossy paper that doesn't show the print on the reverse when the glue hits it! The first one almost made itself as the frog and the Kiwi ad were on facing pages. The colour of the frog echoed the colour of the fruit, and who is to say that frogs are not nutritious? The second was mainly taken from the cosmetic pages, with a Seychelles sunset taken from the travel section as a background.
The Lancôme Hither Look...

Follow up to the previous post

Although I am comfortable with my clutter, I have been persuaded to join in with a group of friends who are trying to remove 100 items in 10 days. As I don't consider this to come under the heading of crafting, but definitely more along the lines of the boring life of two wrinklies, I shall post my progress on the other blog.

A Perfect Mess

I have just seen a reference to this on a blog. It sounds just what I need to justify my slothfulness...

Tidy-ish desk

These cardboard drawers were going cheap in Lidl or Aldi, can't remember which now, and they have gone a long way to helping me keep my desk a little tidier. They have reminders of what is in each drawer, or at least what was originally in each drawer, and hold all the bits that I use each day. If you are wondering about the object on top of the stack, it is a tracing paper covered frame that I use when I take photos of small objects, to diffuse the strong sunlight coming in through the window at this time of the year. That's why the curtain is pulled across to keep the sun off the screen, but let me sit here feeling the warmth....

I haven't blogged much crafting lately because it has been a little boring; One of the residents of the place where we bowl lost his wife about 18 months ago, and he is running out of socks. Yes, he does know how to use a washing machine, but he doesn't know how to knit. He had polio when he was a lad, and since then, one of his legs has stayed the size it was then. He has to wear a brace and an enormous boot, and his wife Mary used to knit him knee socks with a big turnover to stop the brace rubbing. He asked if anyone would be willing to knit socks for him, and I said yes, not realising at the time that he wanted five pairs! He brought me a Fortnum and Mason's hamper containing Mary's annotated sock patterns, half a dozen balls of wool, one completed man size sock and a half completed boy size sock. The man size sock was riddled with moth holes, as were the balls of wool. With a lot of knot tying, I managed to complete the half done sock and darn the holes in the completed one. I then put the whole lot in the freezer for a few days in the hope that the treatment would kill off any remaining eggs. A visit to the local wool shop didn't produce anything with the right wool/nylon mix to survive the wear and tear plus machine washing, so I ordered wool on-line. It arrived the week before Christmas, and I've been knitting it ever since. Three grey pairs completed, and only another two to go....

I should be making shaker cards for the PC swap, but my heart isn't in it at the moment. I fused on a backing and the heat of the iron melted the vinyl on the other side. I tried another, carefully protecting the vinyl in the centre, but afterwards the shakees would not be shook, and they clung resiliently to the vinyl. I'll have to re-think my methods.

Shake it all about

I dropped my Elna SU sewing machine on its head today. I did the ironing first thing this morning, and one of Bossman's shirts needed a repair, so I sat down to do it there and then. As I got up from the machine, I caught my foot in the extension lead that lead out into the hall where I had been ironing (Because the ironing board in the sewing room can't be seen for boxes) . The extension was looped around the sewing machine cable, and as I pulled one, the other followed, as did the machine. I held my breath as I picked it up. Both bobbin holders were at a crazy angle, but I couldn't see any other damage. I undid the large left hand screw/bolt that holds the top of the machine in place, then the smaller right hand screw/bolt. As I turned this one, the whole top oscillated backwards and forwards. The force of the landing had bent it out of shape, but I was able to remove it. The bobbin pins are set into plastic flanges that fit into holes in the metal top. A couple of the lugs had broken off, but I managed to pop them back into place, replaced the wonky bolt, allowing the top to wiggle, then the tightened the large one. A test run showed everything was fine. I don't think a computerised modern machines would take this sort of punishment!

I have signed up for a shaker card exchange. Not the usual card shaker card, but a fabric shaker postcard. Having read the hints of those on the group who have made a start, I decided to test a vinyl page protector through the sewing machine. The machine seemed happy to sew it, and the vinyl didn't split or tear, so I went ahead. I have now made two, but I haven't yet worked out a work-round on how to substitute the foam pad spacers of the card version that allow a gap for the shakees between the background and the vinyl. The first one had snowflake confetti, but it only moves given a very sharp rap, and the second has beads and sequins that seem a little more mobile. What I really need to do I think is to use a couple of layers of felt as a frame around the vinyl area, and to keep this window quite small. I'll play again tomorrow afternoon.