Eggstravaganza

I wonder how many posts in the blogosphere have had this title in the past week or so…

Anyway, we dyed eggs today and much fun was had. We thought we'd do it outside but things were blowing off the table and also there are about 1,000 gigantic bumblebee-like things swarming my house now that it's warm. I think they are living in the eaves or something. I got creeped out by them and wanted to come in. So we moved everything in and worked in the kitchen, which was probably better anyway.

I like to use food coloring, but Missy May really wanted some good old Paas, so we did both. She also painted the eggs with glitter paint, which was really pretty. I also like to put a little splash of oil in the dye to create a marbling effect.

I had a few extra brown eggs in the fridge so I threw them in the mix, but I have to admit they didn't dye well.

She also did some crayoning on a couple of the eggs before dyeing them. We had forgotten to use crayon on them while they were still hot (as seen in Jean's lovely post) so she didn't get the lovely melty wax, but the dye did resist the crayon a little. It's kind of hard to see though…

You can see some of my marbley efforts here. For the yellow and red one in the front, I put the

egg in the carton and dripped first oil then yellow dye, then red dye over it. M.M. said it looks like a hot air balloon.

Another thing I like is to wrap rubber bands around the eggs before dyeing them to make stripes and spirals. I didn't do very many like that today, though.

All done! Aren't they pretty? They're waiting at this moment to be hidden for the morning excitement.

One Down!

I got one sock finished; it's not perfect, but the imperfections are ignorable as far as I'm concerned. Sock #2 is about 60% done, the gusset, foot and toe to complete. The foot is always so interminable that I'm kind of dreading it but I will persevere because I got my second sock club package the other day and I really want to get to it! These should be quicker because it's heavier yarn, so presumably bigger needles, bigger stitches, quicker knit.

I'll put up pictures of my (beautiful!) new sock, but I want to take them when it's light outside.

Sock Club Saga

I love the color of the yarn, I love the look of the pattern, but it is not without its issues. The bobbles take *forever*, which is ok because, surprisingly, I think they're super cute. It's kind of hurting my hands to do them, which tells me I need to knit looser. So ok.

I am having gauge problems, totally unrelated I'm SURE to the complete absence of swatching I did. I'm doing medium socks on the recommended needle size and word on the internets is that it will be too big. On the other hand I tried going down to size small and it was clearly too small. So, whaddaya gon' do?

I am excited about these socks but I'm just a wee bit discouraged right now. I finished the first row of the second pattern repeat today and ended up with the wrong number of stitches. May not be able to stomach the thought of frogging all those bobbles but on the other hand I may not be able to stand the mistake.

Time will tell.

looooooove

Check it… more hearts. I am on a roll, baby, I can't stop. Somehow I started getting little holes along the edge (visible on the dark purpleish stripy one in this photo. I have no idea why. I swear I am using exactly the same process as in the earlier, non-holey ones. M1, no prob. I don't get it. Anyway, I have lots more to do - woohoo!

Soon I will (probably) start sharing photos and updates on my sock club socks. I can't express the excitement and deep satisfaction of participating in this club. I had no idea it would be so, I don't know, community-feeling, and exciting and stimulating. All I can say is, it's way more than 6 skeins of yarn and 12 patterns. I get it now.

more heart pictures

These pictures are terrible but I can't help it. These hearts are just TOO CUTE for me not to share. I did the dark purple one this afternoon in like an hour and a half start to finish. That is a major deal for me. Tonight I went through my yarn and came up with a whole bunch of other yarns to make them out of.

Little Knitted Hearts

Aren't they cute? I'm going to try to make one for everybody in my daughter's class.

I Am Covered With Cats!

They're all over me, flopped on my legs in the bed. I know we only have two, hut it seems like many more. What's with that??

I'm Baaaaaack

No promises or anything, but I'm gingerly putting my toes back in the water after a long blogging hiatus. I'm coming back for the purpose of writing about and displaying pictures of my knitting, not so much the kid stuff or life stuff at this point. So,

I've just finished a hat, navy blue, snowflake on it. No picture yet.

I've just joined the Blue Moon Fiber Arts 2010 Sock Club, with some trepidation about my ability to keep up with knitting that many socks, particularly along with the various other projects on the horizon. But even if I don't, I'll have yummy yarn with which to knit whatever else I choose at whatever point I choose, and I'll have new sock patterns to knit up anytime I decide with whatever yarn I decide. So, I'm plunging in.