Last night the only real excitement I had was when I got to open a new tube of toothpaste. Really, that was the highlight of my night. I need to get out more.
Knitting Knews
The front of the Aran pillow is off the needles. (I originally wrote, "The Aran pillow is finished" but quickly realized how grossly inaccurate that was. What about blocking? What about finding a surface to block on? What about knitting the other side? What about blocking the other side? What about purchasing the pillow form? What about sewing the back and front together? What about inserting the pillow form and seaming up the last side? My vision of a finished pillow, glowing slightly and surrounded by angels and heavenly music, is receding rapidly into the distance.)
Many thanks to the folks working on the Highly Secret Project who, unbeknownst to them, inspired me to take on the pillow. And they continue to inspire me, nay, nudge me, nay, zap me with a cattle prod as I think about what to do for the back. As I mentioned before, the pattern calls for a plain checkerboard back but I am being encouraged to—gasp!—design a back of my own! K, on the other hand, says, just slap a piece of cloth on the back and get it over with. I think this is because she is eager for the pillow to take up residence on her new leather recliner.
Dye Garden Dyegest
Made two failed attempts at making variegated yarn, using the plastic wrap and steaming method described in "Twisted Sisters." First, used a spoon to dot a skein with what I thought were judiciously small spots of hollyhock dye. The judiciously small spots immediately expanded and bled together to make one solid skein of grayish purple yarn. Then, remembering my magic elixir, ammonia, I tried to make green spots on the purple by dotting ammonia all over the skein, a little more restrainedly this time. Taking its cue from the purple dye, the green expanded and bled to cover 90% of the skein, making me the proud owner of the ugliest green and purple variegated yarn imaginable. Some of my Dear Readers have exclaimed, not possible! There is no such thing as an ugly green and purple combination! Bless you, Dear Readers, but we are not talking the beautiful purple and green of a rainbow, or the purple and green of a lush lilac blossom against a field of leaves. We are talking bruise colors here, ugly grayish purple all smooshed together with a sickly green, light spinach color. I will post a picture soon and let you judge for yourselves.
I have, however, not given up. Yesterday I stopped at a pharmacy and picked up some kind of squirty, eye-droppery thing. I think it's actually designed for doing unspeakable things to your child's ears, nose or bottom—I'm not sure which—but hopefully it will help me control the dyeing process a little more.
Posted by Ryan at October 8, 2003 10:11 AM