Here is my yarn soaking in it's black walnut dye bath. I took about a dozen fresh black walnuts that I stole from the squirrels (not the rotted ones), put them in a pair of old panty hose, and tied it off. I let the walnuts soak in the water with a handful of rusty nails for about a week, then brought them to a boil and let them simmer for 2 hours (keep the lid on-- it's kind of sweetly stinky). Then, I pulled out the walnuts, and added my soaked yarn, that I soaked for about 2 hours with a little dish detergent and room temp water. I brought the water back up to a slight simmer and let the yarn simmer for another two hours. Then, I took the pot off the heat, and let the yarn stew overnight. The next morning, it was time to rinse:
And here is the finished yarn, after drying:
I simply love it. It's a tad washed out in this picture, but it's a delicious color of chocolate-brown, with a very slight color variation of a darker shade. This will become a pair of socks (as it's Knitpicks Color Your Own Sock yarn-- the 100% wool), but I'm excited to try dyeing with the black walnuts again. I think the squirrels may have swiped all our black walnuts though...
I'm moving along great on the Dimple Socks, much farther than this picture attests:
In fact, I'm just about ready to cast on for a new pair.
In house renovation news, we have a hole in our house:
The resident handyman (my dh) replaced a huge window in the living room this weekend. Too bad it poured rain all Sunday, or the other hole in the house (I failed to take a picture) would be fixed, too. Arg.
I also made a little jelly.
What started out as this huge bag of grapes from MIL:
Became this:
16 jars to be exact. I'm thinking it will make a great office gift for Christmas. Yep, I'll probably still be here around Christmas-time. I wasn't initially planning on working here for that long, but last week I got a promotion. It's definitely not my dream job, but it's a great opportunity (and I can get up to pee whenever I want LOL), and it is a bit more money. I started out as a temp, was hired full-time as the receptionist, and am now a legal administrative assistant. It's amazing how much differently I'm already being treated. Isn't that sad? Attorneys who would never say more than two words to me are now asking me how my weekend was, and trying to start a conversation with me. Grrrrr.
And here is the finished yarn, after drying:
I simply love it. It's a tad washed out in this picture, but it's a delicious color of chocolate-brown, with a very slight color variation of a darker shade. This will become a pair of socks (as it's Knitpicks Color Your Own Sock yarn-- the 100% wool), but I'm excited to try dyeing with the black walnuts again. I think the squirrels may have swiped all our black walnuts though...
I'm moving along great on the Dimple Socks, much farther than this picture attests:
In fact, I'm just about ready to cast on for a new pair.
In house renovation news, we have a hole in our house:
The resident handyman (my dh) replaced a huge window in the living room this weekend. Too bad it poured rain all Sunday, or the other hole in the house (I failed to take a picture) would be fixed, too. Arg.
I also made a little jelly.
What started out as this huge bag of grapes from MIL:
Became this:
16 jars to be exact. I'm thinking it will make a great office gift for Christmas. Yep, I'll probably still be here around Christmas-time. I wasn't initially planning on working here for that long, but last week I got a promotion. It's definitely not my dream job, but it's a great opportunity (and I can get up to pee whenever I want LOL), and it is a bit more money. I started out as a temp, was hired full-time as the receptionist, and am now a legal administrative assistant. It's amazing how much differently I'm already being treated. Isn't that sad? Attorneys who would never say more than two words to me are now asking me how my weekend was, and trying to start a conversation with me. Grrrrr.
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