Experimenting with Color: Kool-Aid Edition

A few months ago, I was in my local St. Vincent DePaul. While there, I checked the craft section for some sewing notions but instead of finding zippers and buttons I scored a HUGE lot of undyed 100% wool, each skein was $.79 and there were seven skeins ! HUGE yarn score!  I knew right away that I would attempt to hand dye some wool and Kool-Aid would be my dye of choice.

I next had to figure out what I was going to do with this yarn, I knew I would dye it but what knitting pattern would I use?  I finally decided to knit Christmas stockings for my family. I found this pattern (http://home.howstuffworks.com/free-knitting-patterns-for-beginners11.htm#). Here's the Ravelry.com link too.

Next I needed to start thinking about color since the yarn was undyed. I did a quick google search for "how to dye yarn" and this was the first link I came to (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html). I'm a big fan of bright colors and I'm not going for a traditional stocking look. I want something a bit different. So I decided to use regular everyday colors instead of the usual green and red.

Based on the chart provided in the Knitty.com directions, I chose a few colors (flavors) and headed to the store in search of Kool-Aid. I came away with packets to make orange, pink, teal and red.

Tuesday night was then deemed Kool-Aid party night. A few of my knitting friends came over to see the process and to keep me company.

Before the dying started, the yarn needed to be soaked, I gave it a bath in a big bowl with a few drops of laundry detergent and let it sit for a good twenty to thirty minutes. This process rinsed the fibers and got rid of a LOT of dirt and oils.


I then rinsed the yarn with room temperature tap water and I gently squeezed the excess water from the yarn. It was now time to dye! I started with orange since Max requested that his stocking be his favorite color. Preparing the dye is quite easy, basically 1 packet of Kool-Aid to each ounce of wool. My skeins were three oz skeins. I emptied the contents of three packets into a Pyrex dish, added some water to dissolve the Kool-Aid, placed my yarn into the dish and added a bit more water to cover the yarn. Following the directions, I microwaved my yarn in the dye for two minutes, let the yarn rest, swished it around a bit and cooked it for 2 more minutes and let it cool. I let all the yarn hang out in their Pyrex dishes until the end. As you can see in the photos below, the dye is QUITE bright prior to submerging the yarn. The dye is then absorbed by the fibers leaving a semi-clear water behind.

The dye is then absorbed by the fibers leaving a semi-clear water behind.

I then rinsed and gently squeezed the excess water out again and hung them to dry in the basement.


I'm happy with how each of the colors turned out. The red is QUITE bright! It took two extra cooking sessions to secure the dye in the yarn and the water never quite cleared like the others. Overall, it was a really fun project although slightly messy... I've come away with some awesome colors of yarn and two bright red hands.

More photos of the process can be found here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cararolinson/).

New Things

Life has really stepped in the way of blogging lately! I'm sorry for the the lack of quality updates in over a month and beyond. I'm going to do my best to NOT let this happen again. I am going to blame a few things, one, the fall weather, during my free time with the kids, we've been outside a LOT and two, I haven't created much. I've been knitting away at a pair of socks, I've got one down and just started the 2nd a few days ago. sock number one fits like a perfectly snug dream! I think i've found my "go to" pattern for socks (rav link - it's also in my projects list) that fit my weird little feet. I can't wait to wear them as a team! LOL I have created some halloween costumes but I have no photos of those yet, so we'll save that as a topic for another post in the next few days.

So, since there is little crafting and really NO interesting cooking going on in this house, I am going to share some news about ME!

I realize that it's October and the end of it at that! I also realize that a good bit of my readers already know this but it's part of the big picture so that's where I'm starting. At the end of August I went back to school. I'm enrolled in three classes, two evening and one online. I hope to finish by Spring 2011. I'm majoring in Digital Media Journalism at Point Park University. So far, I love the classes and the time out of the house alone is really rejuvinating. It's amazing how much one misses the outside "grown-up" world when they are staying home with toddlers. The schedule change was a welcomed one by everyone in the family, Chris gets more time with the boys, the boys get a break from me and I get to talk to adults about things that don't include topics like sippy cups, snacks and dinosaurs... Win.Win.Win.

A few weeks ago during a playdate my friend asked me what my plans were after I complete my degree. Was I planning to work outside of the house? Was I planning something else? My answer at the time was, that I have loose plans to use my new digital media skills to create some sort of online presence in the craft world, writing a book is part of that loose plan as well. Since then, my direction has taken a slight turn. That is still something that I would like to do eventually. But I am now seeing a brighter and straighter path. Since that playdate I have found myself with a new job and this job brings lots of promise for others like it. Before I found this job, I had loose ideas about what I wanted to do. Those ideas struggled with me not wanting to be out of the house much if at all for work and they also struggled with my desire to be my own boss. Frankly, me getting a job out of the house would mean, that Chris and the kids would get to have all the fun in the summers while I sat in an office. NOT appealing to any of us. (i realize the double standard here, yes chris works the other 8 months out of the year in an office but those 8 months are the cold/wet/snowy/dark so it all sorta works out right?)

Then, all of a sudden, a new opportunity fell out of the sky, landed breifly on a local message board that I frequent, Pittsburghmom.com, and safely landed into my lap. The forum manager/director, and friend, later told me that she often receives emails from local companies looking to fill jobs with her forum readers and participants. Some are good some are not. This one, was exceptional. Basically this company was looking for a local stay at home mom to manage some social media directives a few hours a week for a client of theirs. Said, client, Steaz.com (I want to add, I've tried MOST of their products in the past week, I haven't met one that I didn't enjoy! They are organic, vegan, support fair trade and the company is VERY VERY eco friendly. It's awesome to be able to do work for a company that I can stand behind.) Anyways, I figured, I know how to use facebook and twitter AND I manage our pages for our own companies so I surely understand how this would fit into an advertising package. I also have public relations experience from my past life so, I jumped, I didn't leave my chair until I had an email prepared to send out inquiering about this new endevor. I heard back in a few hours via email, and we had quickly set up a time to talk on the phone the following day. That phone call went VERY well! Last week, I met with them locally and Wednesday, I am flying out to Philly with to meet the company founders and the rest of the team at their company headquarters. Just like that, I'm a social media consultant! and frankly, it all happened so fast, that it makes me giggle when I think about it.

In short, I'll be managing the facebook page and group for Steaz and using Twitter as well. We also have plans to do outreach to mombloggers for giveaways and some other fun things too! We'll be doing giveaways, and coupons and online events. (I'm sure that there will be a LITTLE bit of cross-over here with some product mentions, but don't worry, my main topics will not be about products, and they will continue to be about knitting, sewing and my family.)

If you're interested in following me as Steaz on Twitter, we're @steaz. They are currently figuring out their facebook presence, they have both a page and a group. After our meeting tomorrow, I should have a better idea about which one we'll be using regularly.

Also, Chris and I have added some new services to our offerings, you can read about those here.

Very Exciting Times are ahead!

And the winner is....

Number provided by:

"True Random Number Generator Min:1 Max:14 Result: 5 Powered by RANDOM.ORG"

The winner is.....

"Anonymous said...

So cute!! You friend is very crafty!! Love it.

e h po pe@ live .com

September 10, 2009 8:32 AM"

Congratulations to you! I've sent an email to you and you'll have 48 hours to reply, if you fail to do so in that time frame I will contact the next person.

Again, a BIG thank you goes out to Jo from Two By Two Crafty Creations!

Come back soon, I'm planning a few more giveaways in the next few weeks! Stay tuned!

Giveaway!

******* THIS CONTEST HAS BEEN CLOSED, A WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON MONDAY! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED! **********

I've been tossing this idea around for a while... I have a few friends who make fun crafty items and I want to highlight their work here. The best way to do that is to have a giveaway!

The first in this series is my friend Jo. She makes adorable toddler adornments with ribbons and buttons! Lots of fun colors, lots of fun options! Her Etsy.com shop, Two By Two Crafty Creations, can be found here so make sure you check that out too! Very fun stuff!

This is the item that we're giving away!

It comes on a slip on clip but it can be also be placed on a headband, which will be included.

To enter this giveaway, you need to leave a comment, please include your email in your comment. You don't have to say anything special in your comment, just leave one to enter. You can enter TWICE if you also repost this, either on your own blog or on facebook or twitter, wherever! Just leave a 2nd comment telling me you did so and provide a link if you can. The contest will close at MIDNIGHT this FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2009. I will announce the WINNER Monday morning! Good LUCK!

ETA - if you've left a comment without an email please contact me with your email address!

SMALL PRINT: I'll be using this site to choose the winner, if I contact you as the winner, you'll have 48 hours to reply. If you fail to do so I'll move onto the next person on the list.

The Last 35 days in Photos

Yes, I've been MIA... I'm chalking it up to having too much fun thus no time to blog... or at least not much time to organize my thoughts into post format.... I apologize! Frankly, with all the fun we've been having, there is OF COURSE an abundant amount of photos to go along with it. 111 (after edits) to be exact... So the thought of organizing our summer fun into posts was a bit daunting since i had to deal with flickr and my photos first...

So here we are, the last 35 days in photos. (Some of the photo credits go to Chris, it should be fairly obvious which ones... I'm in them! lol)

July 21st - Chris and I each took a kid and had some one on one time with them. Chris took Max on a short road trip to the Breezewood Exit on the PA Turnpike so that they could explore an abandoned portion of the turnpike there. It's been closed off to motor vehicles for quite a long time but bicycles are welcomed! Photos can be found here. That day, I took Andy to the zoo! It was so much fun to spend time with him and just him. He never gets to have 100% of me! It was a treat for both of us.


August 1st - Chris took Max fishing with a friend of ours, however Max had developed a nasty rash the day before... (not our finest parenting moment) so I'm not certain that he really enjoyed himself, he looks absolutely miserable in the photos....


That night Max's rash got quite nasty so we decided to take a trip to the ER. He enjoyed it! LOL

Max spent some time making funny faces while we waited.

We spent the next few days relaxing and staying out of the sun so that Max's spots would could heal. We did play outside a bit in the evenings since it was the cooler part of the day, that included some chalk drawings in front of the house.

August 4th - ANOTHER trip to the zoo.... this time it was member appreciation night so the four of us got to go! We ran into Annie and her family in the parking lot and again in the aquarium so we stopped for a family photo. And I took this AWESOME photo of the underneath of a starfish.


August 7th - We finally filled the new sand box, did a little yard work and cooled off in the kiddie pool!



August 12th - it had been raining for a few days so after dinner and before bedtime one evening we took the kids for a walk down to the train tracks in town where we spent 45 minutes for the next train to come... here we are practicing to cover our ears :)



August 14th - We took a trip out to Idlewild with my parents. We walked through storybook forest, played in the ball pit (two times in a row), took a train ride, road the big ferris wheel and various other vehicles for the toddlers, some of us napped, some of us cried, and some of us swam. All other photos from this day can be viewed here.


August 15th - I sewed an adorable little pillowcase dress for an adorable little 1 year old. (separate blog post about that in the near future).

August 16th - We attended a 1st birthday party for the above mentioned adorable little Charlotte! Five Stars to her parents for having the most entertaining and fun toddler party EVER! There were about 6 toddlers in attendance and it happened to be one of the HOTEST days of the summer. They had a LARGE tent and tables for the adults to sit under and for the kids, there was a sprinkler, a blow up pool and a slip and slide. We arrived, put the kids swim suits on and let them loose. It was a blast to watch them all have so much fun! Even the folks that were there without children mentioned how fun it was to watch the kids have so much fun! (the entire set can be found here)



August 16 - 19 - We had Chris's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Larry visiting the area from Denver. We did some fun things and had time to visit. We went on a Just Ducky Tour as a big group followed by lunch in Station Square. Tuesday everyone came to our house for dinner and dessert and Wednesday we all went to OH for dinner again. Their visit was a blast! Photos are here.

August 20th - Max had preschool orientation. Chris and I both took him and he had a blast playing with some of the toys in the classroom. We recieved a list of items that he'll need before school and instruction on what he'll be learning and doing while he's there. We're all really excited about this! Here he is in his classroom :)


Later that morning we went to the zoo again with a friend of mine. it was HOT and the kids were pretty tired from their busy week prior... so we cut it a bit short but still had fun. We FINALLY got to see the polar bears swimming! HOW FUN! i didn't manage any photos of this but it was really amazing!