Basic Tutorial: Dyeing Yarn with Cake Paste Dye

There are various methods you can use to dye your own yarn or project. You can handpaint hanks of yarn, microwave your dyeing project or use a big stove top pot. For actual hanks of yarn, I prefer the stove top method, but if I am dyeing actual projects, I use my oven. My Modus Operanti for (over)dyeing shawls:

I use the basic methods outlined in the links above, but opt for a cake icing dye paste which I bought in a local cake decorating shop. The paste is so concentrated that I need to use only a small amount to dye an entire shawl, thus making it a more economical choice than, say, Kool-Aid (at least if you are in the UK) or commercial food dyes available in your local supermarket. The icing paste also comes in a gazillion colours and you can mix/match to your heart's delight.

For my Echo Flowers Shawl I used half a teaspoon of paste which I dissolved with boiling water and I added citric acid as a mordant. Most dyers use vinegar as it is easier to obtain, but I happened to have some leftover citric acid from some lemonade making. The rest of the dyeing process was straight-forward and I am still very happy with the result.

Completely unrelated: how amused am I to try my hand at Quizlet and getting a B- (75%) score on my Danish language skills? I guess that is what I get for spelling words correctly instead of imitating the quiz master's spelling mistakes. Lumosity is a much better way of wasting time online in an educating and self-improving manner.

And headcold has turned into a real cold. I apologise in advance to anyone meeting me off-line in the next few days. I look and sound like I'm on the edge of death.

(Ain't) Misbehavin'

I like late nights. I like staying up till the world around us grow quiet and I can hear myself thinking. I like caffeinated drinks: coffee, tea and various soft drinks. And I like working away until I finish things and then have a long, meandering chat with the Boyfriend. Unfortunately my body does not agree with me and so today I am incredibly shattered to the point that I began crying in public today for no apparent reason. Embarrassing, yes, and also worrying.

Pledge to myself: I'll quit misbehaving and begin listening to my body again. Everything else is just plain silliness and I'm too old to be silly.

A few random links:

• Les Garcons de Glasgow. A Glasgow street style blog. I'm slightly unsettled by how many of these people I know (sort of) and how many photos have been taken in our neighbourhood. Also: looking like a drunk East German hairdresser circa 1983 is really not cute (or go the whole way and get yourself a Trabi)
• Caring for Your Intro-Vert: I spent years and years thinking I was a quiet extro-vert. Yeah, I know. Link via Anna.
• Interior Design from Scandinavia. My old Copenhagen flat looked like a cluttered version of this photo. You can take a girl out of Scandinavia..
• And if you are in London, make sure to catch the V&A exhibition on quilting. It looks fabulous and I wish I lived close enough to actually make my merry way there. So catch it on my behalf, mm?

The Other Things In Life

First of all, a huge thank you to Fineskylark and Paula. Ms Fineskylark sent me these gorgeous oak buttons (made in her part of Canada) and Paula has given me the official (and very cute) Ravelympics 2010 pin starring Ravelry's mascot, Bob the Boston Terrier. Thank you, ladies. I wish I could say that I knew exactly which cardigan calls for those oak buttons, but my knitting mojo has gone AWOL. I'm about to graft the toe of the first Monkey sock, but my Frankie Says .. pullover is languishing in my knitting bag. I love the pattern, I love the yarn but I'm beginning to have second thoughts regarding the shape of the pullover. I'm, well, "top-heavy", as the professionals say, and I'm unsure whether a cropped pullover in quite heavy silk/cotton will do my figure any favours. I'm beginning to eye Blithe from Rowan 47, but I'm not quite ready to change my project just yet. I might need to talk this over with my knitting group.

Moving on.

I was disappointed in humanity when I came across this MetaFilter post about a recently discovered mass grave in England discovering during work on the 2012 Olympics site. The grave contained over fifty beheaded Vikings, possibly killed during the St. Brice's Day massacre in 1002AD. My disappointment arose after reading several MeFi comments of the "Vikings, LOL!" variety. I know this may come as a surprise to people who generally know Vikings as bloodthirsty barbarians from films, comics or Christian monks' annals, but, hey, they were actual human beings.  Actual human beings who were my ancestors and I fail to find the funny side in beheadings or mass-graves. Show some respect, please. The only good thing that came of the entire Viking thread on MeFi was a link to Star Wars re-written as a saga .. in Old Norse. Now that's hardcore.

Finally, I'm trying to decide whether to go see A Single Man or, ahem, Legion. I need to make my mind up quickly as I suspect neither will be shown in cinemas for much longer..

A Long Post About You Know What

Someone brought the camera with him to work, so I cannot show you all the things I have been working on lately. I am playing around with a few yarns: Rowan Lima (a great review by Clara Parkes), RYC Cashsoft DK and Rowan Felted Tweed. I'm knitting up a small sample of Lima just to see how it responds to textured stitch patterns, while the Cashsoft DK will be given a test-knit to see how it works with 'everyday' stocking stitch. I started some mitts in Felted Tweed some weeks ago. I was particularly intrigued by how the Felted Tweed responded to being knit on 2mm (US 0) needles. It is a real treat swatching and playing with these yarns - just figuring out how they respond to needle sizes and types of stitches. I may finally have become a real knitting geek because at the end of it all I will have very little to show despite all my efforts.

I can, however, give you a little glimpse of yet another shawl I am working on. The photo was taken last week when we still had snow. This will be my fourth shawl since 2010 began and I am a bit .. shawled out now. I am knitting Kiri which is a top-down version of the lovely Birch shawl by Sharon Miller. I would have knitted Birch except it calls for 2-and-something balls of Kid Silk Haze and I only have two balls of KSH Liqueur. The shawl is working up really well. Just one more repeat and then the edging.

I sometime wonder where I fit in. Am I a Danish blogger due to my nationality? Do I qualify as a British blogger because I write in English and live in Britain? I read many Danish knitblogs, but I do not really feel part of the Danish knitblog scene because I do not meet up with anyone at Danish knitting events nor do I knit any of the popular Danish patterns in the yarns currently de rigueur in fair Denmark. But Lisbeth K obviously thinks I qualify because I was  given this little "creative blogger" insignia by her. Thank you, Lisbeth! I am not usually one for internet memes, but this is delightful.

The little award comes with obligations. First I am to share seven facts about myself and then I am to pass this award to seven others.

1. My favourite colour is somewhere between peridot green and moss green.
2. Peridot is also one of the very few gem stones I wear (along with amber, moonstone and pearls). I rarely wear jewellery, though.
3. I used to have fuchsia-pink hair. I was being very ironic in that special early-twenties way.
4. I like my own company far more than I like being around other people. I am not anti-social (indeed, I am not) but I need a lot of solitude and quietness in order to be at my best.
5. My perfect home would be an 18th C cottage with an open fireplace, bookshelves lining the walls, worn leather sofas with handmade throws and a sleeping dog. Unfortunately this sort of cottage does not sit well with my other requirements: a local Fair Trade coffee shop, a Mediterranean deli around the corner and excellent public transport.
6. I would still really, really, really like a dog. And the handmade throws.
7. My birthday almost always coincides with seeing the first few snowdrops/vintergækker.

I am passing this on to Paula (one of the most multi-talented creative people I know and a fantastic friend to boot), Ms Mooncalf (who is slowly taking over Scandinavia with her crafty blog and thus deserves a Scandinavian creative blogger award),  Bells (for inspiring me daily both through her projects and through her words), my dear friend Kathleen (whose projects always fill me with awe and admiration - her Hap Shawl is my favouritest project ever), Anna (who thinks amazing thoughts about crafting and also conjures the most beautiful things out of seemingly nowhere), Meg (because she uses her crafty talents for nefarious things such as steampunk costumes and awesome jewellery) and finally Louise of Garn & Gammelt (a recent blog discovery but I love, love, love her style and creativity).

I Heart Crochet. Deal.

For many years I preferred crochet to knitting. As a child I crocheted blankets for my Barbie doll's bed, later I ventured into bigger projects such as pillow covers before making my first (self-designed) jumper when I was about eighteen. I made it during a stint in bed and I used all the scraps of colourful cotton I could find in the house. The jumper had granny square across the bust and the rest had stripes of whatever colour and stitch pattern I could conjure up. I remember not having the patience to sew it up properly, so I used the sewing machine with resulting bulky seams. No, it was not a perfect-looking jumper, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't even flattering, but I wore it proudly and a few people even offered to buy it off me. When I returned to crafting after a few years in the wilderness, I returned to crochet. I had found some crocheted jewellery on Etsy, didn't like the price tag and loudly exclaimed "I can make that myself". The next day I bought a crochet hook and some wool from Ms Old Maiden Aunt and, as they said, the rest is history. As you probably know, I swiftly moved into knitting but that is a story for another day.

Why am I telling you this? I'm telling you this because one of my major pet peeves is when crochet patterns really, really, really want to be knitting patterns. This crochet pattern is a crochet version of knitting patterns such as Lady Eleanor. Or how about a crocheted Aran pullover? A Bohus-esque pullover? By imitating knitting patterns, I think designers make crochet into a second-class activity. It is like they say: "Oh, knitting is amazing and we are so sorry that you are not knitting that we have made you some patterns so you can look like you are wearing some famous knitted stuff." Instead I want designers to say: "Crochet is amazing. It can do so many fascinating structural things with (negative) space and dimensions and we're designing patterns that really showcase what crochet can do." Yesterday I saw some examples of what you can really achieve if the designer understands crochet and that was a joy to behold. Crochet is not a lesser craft - it is a different craft.

Today I have the pleasure of a day off. Snow may be heading our way, so I think that is a jolly good excuse to curl up in the sofa with a cup of tea and the last few rows of my Fan Shawl. I just have some stitches to pick up and five rows left to knit. Sounds fun, mm? Unfortunate I have 350+ stitches to pick up but nevermind.. I have all day to myself and what a luxury that is.

http://www.oldmaidenaunt.com/

Catching Up

Christmas has caught up with me. We are leaving for Scandinavia next week (and it is rumoured to be very cold), we are heading for North-East Scotland this week (and it's rumoured to be almost as cold) and somewhere in between these two trips I have to finish David's sweater (because places are rumoured to be cold), do some Christmas baking, sort out some work things, make smart decisions about what clothes to pack, and get the last few Christmas cards sent. And suddenly I thought it would be a great idea to cast on a cowl for my partner because the weather is taking a cold turn (and MooncalfMakes sounds very persuasive). Thankfully I have talked myself away from that particular ledge of insanity.

Yesterday I was given an early Christmas present by a visiting hand-knitted pirate (her visit was a present in itself, actually): 18 antique buttons made of dark chocolate. The box itself is gorgeous and obviously I shall use it to store my non-chocolate vintage button finds once I have finished the chocolate ones. Yesterday I also spent a really lovely evening dining out with some of my closest friends here in Glasgow. That calmed those pre-Christmas nerves a bit.

Thank heavens I'm not actually in charge of anything important such as, you know, Christmas food.

Now, Anna asked what my cultural highlights of the Noughties were. That question made me waste copious amount of time on YouTube tracking down beloved songs and film trailers.

One of the first songs that sprung to mind was "It Takes a Fool To Remain Sane" by The Ark, a Swedish glampop band fronted by the fluently-gendered(?) Ola Salo (appropriately enough, the son of a preacher man). Not my favourite Ark song (possibly this one?), but it is the song which kick-started a decade-long affinity for the band (which is a great live band).

Four more songs: Betchadupa: My Army Of Birds & Gulls. I am weak when faced with vaguely psychedelic pop from New Zealand - especially if someone called "Finn" is involved. Liam Finn's disbanded band came into their own with this song.  The Delays: Valentine. One of the great lost singles of the '00s and a perfect pop song. Elbow: Leaders of the Free World. One of the very few good things to come out of the second Iraq war. Franz Ferdinand: Darts of Pleasure. Not the reason why I moved to Glasgow, but the first Franz Ferdinand album is the sound of Glasgow.