Round Peg In a Square Hole-crafts

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Live and Learn-Dying with Kool-Aid, part deux

Notes to self:

1) Just because you’ve tried a technique once, doesn’t mean you really know how to do it

and

2) Red is evil.

Just finished my first set of post-Sock Wars SoD. I had done them in white (with “Sock of Doom” on one heel and “Sock Wars” on the other, in black), with the intention to dye it red with Kool-Aid. Since I had dyed with Kool-Aid before, I thought I knew what to expect, and that it would be easier dying red. Last time, I was a little unhappy with the intensity of the color, so this time I used more powder, and maybe three packages of Kool-Aid (two cherry, one strawberry) were a little much for one pair of socks, because the damn things KEEP BLEEDING!

When I did the green ones, the socks sucked all the color (from two (plus a little) Kool-Aid packages) from the water, and didn’t bleed very much at all. This time, I used the same dish, a similar amount of water, and three packages, but there was still a lot of color in the water when I took them out, and the color keeps coming off in the rinse water. Grrrrrr! Not really sure what I am going to do.

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Monday, November 27, 2006

Sock Wars end game and misc.

Well, the first Sock War is over, and I think it was concluded with a pretty high level of satisfaction. There was a change in the rules in the last week or 10 days, once Yarn Monkey realized how many of us would still be alive by the end--she imagined being inundated with socks, I guess, and a lot of us were unhappy with the idea that we would get neither swag nor socks. YM had the happy idea of choosing the winner by who first sent a letter or postcard to her at an address she posted on Nov. 24, and Heraldis (who was familiar to those of us who frequented the forum) had the brilliant notion of wiring her flowers. Very clever, so she gets the goodies, and with all good will, as far as I could tell from the forum.

Now, the rest of us will just knit the last socks that we were working on, and that should ensure that everyone gets socks. I'm hoping we can keep the forum going until everyone is accounted for.

In the mean time, I finally got SIP to make for my last target, and was able to kill her in the last week of the game. Am knitting more socks for her, though, as the ones I got in the game were a little more "special" than I liked; besides, I had already started them. Finished that second pair today, and will dye them tomorrow, so I should be able to post them by the end of the week. My target was almost finished with the socks she was working on, so it makes sense for her to just finish them and send them on. Have contacted that target, to see if she has socks she wants to finish, or if she wants to send them to me. I may be a warrior w/o a target, but that would free me up to compensate folks who got taken advantage of in the game, so maybe that's a good thing.

The latest on the slipper front is encouraging: the felting/fulling in the washer worked just as advertised! One shrunk more than the other, but I was able to block them both to the correct size, pinning them to the carpet of the sewing room floor. Now, I just have to assemble the pieces: foot, suede sole, knitted and not felted cuff, I cord for trim. Oh, and make the other two pair, too.

In other crafting news, I finished the sleep shirt for my mom (every year I make matching stretch velvet sleep shirts for my mom, my daughter and myself, for us all to wear on Christmas Eve), as well as a shirt I had completely forgotten I had said I would make, so that was one of those "it only goes on the acountability matrix once, and that when it's already done" oddities. Ah, well; someday I will keep better track of my projects. Yeah, right.

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Monday, November 06, 2006

Updates

Still no change in my Sock Wars status. I really hate that some people aren't taking this seriously; it makes it much less fun for the rest of us. I don't know if my latest target is actually dead (she's been listed as dying for about 2 weeks), and I haven't gotten any replies to emails in over a week, so I'm stuck. Fortunately, chaos seems to be reigning above me, as well, so I don't think I'm in immenent danger of dying. Ah, well.

In the meantime, I finished the socks for my mom. Didn't really like them for several reasons: didn't like the pattern (then why did you let Samantha pick the pattern, hmmmm?), didn't like the way they knit up (probably should have used an even smaller needle size), and I grew to like the color less and less as I worked on it. However, they are wonderfully soft, and look great when on a foot, and I was very pleased with the result of my conversions of a top-down sock into a toe-up sock and the heel-flap to short-row heel. Those techniques should be very useful in the future.

Finished the foot of the first slipper for Kate's husband John, and am REALLY hoping the felting process works as advertised: this thing is HUGE! Will have to finish the second and felt them right away, as I have two more sets that I want to work on, so I need to know if this pattern and technique actually work.

In sewing news, I cut out the matching sleep shirts for Sam, my mom, and myself for Christmas Eve; this year, they're raspberry pink! (Sam picked the color.) Also, I finally remembered to pick up my mom's cross-stitch from the French Hand Laundry, so now I need to pick out a mat and get it cut, and buy the frame, then do the framing myself.

What else? Did a little more on packing up the sewing room; this consisted of building one of the two new racks that I bought for the storage space, and stacking it with boxes already in storage. Since the two new racks are shorter than the old ones (3 ft. vs 4 ft.) I'm trying to decide whether to put another of the old racks in storage or put up a pole to hang costumes from between the two new racks. Tough call.

Consulting the old accountability matrix, (spreadsheet listing current projects, their status, their due-date and their priority. Used to send it to a friend, and she sent me hers, to keep us honest and making progress on our projects; that's how it got it's name.) I note that I started the last pair of mitts for the Sewing Circle ladies (Belle is the last) and finally finished Kate's stockings! Woo-hoo! Also, picked out patterns for socks for several people and was intelligent enough to realize that I won't be able to finish them until next Christmas, so I DO learn from my mistakes. AND I finally decided what colors to use where on the tablecloth for my sister-in-law (bought the floss last year, but had forgotten what I had planned) and started stitching! Now I remember why I prefer cross-stitch to regular embroidery: there is no "right" answer in embroidery, there are only many wrong and a few not-so-wrong answers. Sigh. I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of satin stitch soon; I remember enjoying the last thing that I did that was mostly satin stitch. Oooh, that reminds me! I have an embroidery project for my mother that I need to include on the accountablility matrix.....

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