Kool-Aid Hat Project

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

I came up with something fun to make for H's little friends, and he got to help! We made custom colored hats, using wool yarn dyed with Kool-Aid.

First I got some Fisherman's Wool from Lion Brand, and wound them into long skeins using these iron chairs. The loops ended up being about 9 feet, and I first made up a test hat and measured to see how much yarn I'd need for each. Then I remembered about pom-poms, so I wound those separately. See the little tiny skeins on the left side of the last picture? Those are for pom-poms.

H was super excited about this project. Here he is getting ready to pick out the color combinations. I only helped by suggesting: "What colors do they like? What colors do you see them wearing?" otherwise the combos were all chosen by him.

Color combos! We ended up picking three for everyone, so a couple of these are still waiting for the third color choice.

Everything was dyed on the stove top. H helped put the packets in the water and by stirring the yarn.

When it first goes in the pot, the water is colored, and within 30 minutes we saw the yarn soak up the colors, and the water went clear.

Rinsing out in a glass bowl in the sink. With wool yarn, you have to be careful not to agitated too much, and not to switch temperatures too fast, or else it will felt.

Hanging out to dry on our decorated balcony. This worked perfectly because there's a ceiling fan above it.

Then I wound it on the niddy noddy, which H thinks is a hilarious name. Casper then inspected the yarn :)

Here's a sequence of three yarns. Soaking in the dye, wrapped up in a towel and hung to dry, and then wound into a ball.

This was a fun color combination. I worried that the purple would be too dark, but once it dried it looked great.

Pretty yarn! I love how the colors looked different at each stage.

I then knit them up together on my knitting machine, and stitched them up.

All finished! We made 6 hats, one for each classmate (and one for H), and then an infinity scarf for his teacher.

Here they are all lined up, and me modeling the scarf. So much fun!

Brown Fisherman's Sweater

Happy new year!

After knitting a toddler sweater for H, I decided to make one for me. I used his sweater as a guide for gauge, and made adjustments as I went along.

Overall it's not too bad! One of my main goals was to have sleeves that aren't too short, and I definitely got those. I crocheted the edges at the wrist and neckline, and machine knit the ribbing at the lower edge.

I like how my little guy photobombs me as he's having a snack: "whatcha doing, Mom??"



It's so warm, and not too itchy if I have a shirt under it. And there's his sweater, which is a little too big, next to mine. He calls his an "owie sweater" and won't wear it. I'll make one with softer yarn next time :)

My cat Dragon, however, approves.

Koolaid yarn and more knitting adventures

Did you see the orange hat in the last post? That's one of H's favorites right now, and I made it up on my knitting machine.

I can't believe it's been two years since I dyed that wool. I found the post about it here.

I had stated some hand knitting with the orange one, and decided to pull it out for a hat. The knitting machine has it's own table now, which is awesome. I put the stone gargoyles to work holding my yarn in place :)



I managed to make a sweater for our little guy. It's all blocky and such, but I think it's cute, and I learned a lot while making it. Unfortunately it's a little scratchy and he doesn't want to wear it anymore. Good thing it's roomy, and maybe I can convince him to wear it over a long sleeve shirt again sometime.

I got a little creative trying to pin up the weighted hem. See the loopy blue stitches in the first pic? I've since figured out how to clip it correctly. The second pic is stitching the sleeves together, and the last one is before it was blocked and sewn together. It looks pretty silly there.






Soon I'll make myself a sweater, but for now I've been making more hats.



I made these for the lady that watches H when I'm at work- one for one for each of the kids there.



Self striping yarn is so fun, and I love seeing how the colors come out!

Craft Faire and Knitting Machine

I did it! I brought my shop In The Redwoods to a craft faire for the first time.


The first day was POURING rain, and some of the vendors opted to stay home. It was cold, but I was working on a red scarf, so I wore it to keep warm while I crocheted the edges.

One of my most popular items was the neck cozies, and a lady bought one for her dog. Isn't it cute?? All in all, it was a good experience, and I'm excited to do more, and to get more things loaded to my etsy shop.

Then I got myself a tool that I've been wanting off and on for many years. A knitting machine!


I read a bunch of reviews, good and bad, and decided to start with low expectations. I probably wouldn't get it to work smoothly right away, right? Well, I've been taking my time getting to know the basics, and other than a couple hiccups, I LOVE it.

After the sample piece I made this red hat for H. It's a little big, and he likes to pull it over his face and thinks it's hilarious. He's such a ham.


Then I made a wool blend lap blanket for the car (on the machine at top.) It's a little smaller than I expected, but works great for a toddler. He loves it :) I crocheted a border around the edge. It's about 18-19 inches, and just one skein of yarn.


This is my experiment with stripes. He was too hyper and wouldn't stand still for a picture :)


I've also made a black wool beanie that was an attempt at adult size, which H has taken possession of, and then I tried some sock yarn with the smallest plate (smallest stitches.)


Unfortunately my attempts to put heavy weight yarn in haven't been as successful, but thankfully it's the smaller yarn that is harder for me to knit or crochet by hand.

Not too bad for three evenings and a morning of knitting. I'm looking at my yarn stash in a whole new light!

Eventually I'll get around to making sweaters with it, maybe.