Sweet Tarts and Blueberries...

After Easter, I bought a bunch of egg dye with the intention of dyeing some wool yarn. Friday night I finally got around to dyeing my two skeins of natural Patons Merino. The intention was to make a pair of shorts out of each skein, but the end result of one skein is too girly for Kaiden. I think I have a plan for it though. ;)

This first skein is "Sweet Tarts". I asked my baby brother and sister what to name them, and they came up with "Pickle Pumpkin", Mom and Nate came up with the final names for these skeins.

The first step was to soak the yarn in water and vinegar. I soaked it for about an hour, then squeezed out the excess liquid, and laid it out on top of plastic wrap. After mixing the egg dye, I painted it on with a sponge brush, then wrapped it up in the plastic wrap. To set the color, I used the microwave. Cook for two minutes, let cool for a couple minutes, repeat for a total cooking time of 10 minutes. After it cooled down completely, I spun it out (on gentle, of course!) in the washer, and hung it to dry. Saturday afternoon, when it was all dry, I reskeined it.

Pretty, no? Unfortunately, way too girly for Kaiden to wear!

Here it is in a center pull ball, and a swatch I knit up to see how the colors blend.


Next up is Blueberry Fields. Nate said he wanted something blue and green, so here it is! The bright blue and neon green are original egg dye tablets. The darker shades are ones I mixed out of various colors.

For this one, I followed the same steps as above. Here it is after painting and hanging to dry. Saturday it was all dry, so I reskeined it as well, then put it into a center pull ball and knit a swatch as well. This will become a pair of cargo shorts for Kaiden, though I'm not sure what color I'll use for trim yet. I love how the colors came out though, and I can't wait to see a FO from this yarn! Here it is in the skein, before I rewound it into a CPB.

It IS April, right?

I think someone forgot to give Mother Nature the memo announcing April! We've been blessed with near 60 degree weather recently, but it's been below normal lately - in the 30s! We had a nasty snow storm Thursday, and were without power for 12 hours. We're one of the lucky ones though, there are still a lot that are without power even now! There's a chance we may be getting another storm in the near future, hopefully it will pass by!

We're all battling colds right now. Nate has the sniffles, and had a sore throat yesterday. I've got a sore throat, congested nose, and my sinuses feel like they're going to explode! Kaiden has his first "real" cold, thankfully it's not horrible, but he does feel yucky. Hopefully we're feeling better for Easter!

Easter day, I'm going to Mom's with K, and Nate will be cooking dinner here. Once it's ready, he's bringing it to Mom's, and we're doing Easter dinner there. Trish will be coming, and possibly Grampy and my Gram. I guess we'll see when Sunday comes! We're also doing an egg hunt for the twins, and Nate will be doing a scavenger hunt for his birthday present, since his birthday is Monday.

Kaiden's Easter basket is all ready to go, though I'm not sure if we'll do it here or at Mom's. He's getting Goodnight Moon, a bunny plush toy, and a bunch of wooden toys from Oompa. I can't wait to give them to him! The "filling" is green shredded paper, and the basket itself is a wicker basket - all recyclable!

Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll do my best to update more often!