The knitted Shawl

I was at work last night reading one of my magazines...think it was Reader's Digest and came across this little story....

"I've always wanted a beautiful shawl to wear with my winter dresses. so when I opened the present from my sister and saw that it was a white and silver shawl, I squealed in delight.

'I love it!' I told her that evening. 'I wore it all morning.'

'You wore it?' she asked smiling, 'It's a skirt for the Christmas tree.'"

For what ever reason this really tickled my funny bone. Must be due to the fact that I am in the process of knitting my first shawl and it is going to be a present for my mom. I just hope she can tell it is a shawl.

Dying and Living to tell about it a few days later

I had such a great time on Friday. Rena called me and asked if I wanted to dye that day. I told her not really (knowing all the time she was referring to lace and not death itself) Anyway, Rena came over with some fingering weight she purchased from Knit Picks. This was to be our test dye. The resulting picture looks like this. I think it is absolutely beautiful! Rena is planning on making a pair of socks.

Next plan was to dye the skein of Wollmeise lace I received in one of the last updates. The only lace that was available was natural and I never thought about dying it after I ordered it until Rena suggested it. The beautiful skein of 1700+ yards of soft Wollmeise lace looked like this:


Rena had looked up the process of dying on the internet. The only process I ever knew of was the process that I taught within my hospice career. This was going to be a lot more fun......

First the lace needed to soak in vinegar. My son Jason came in the kitchen and thought it was a bowl of angel hair pasta. Good thing we were there to tell him differently. He has been known to eat what ever he sees in the kitchen :)

Next we mixed the dyes one by one. I had decided I wanted to do a combination of green and blue. It took a while to mix the colors..... It was a process that took both of us to do

First with Yellow???? I wanted green and blue. It took a little convincing from Rena that yes Cathy, yellow will brighten the green and blue. Good thing Rena is more artistically inclined than I am....

Very, Very tired... had worked all night but going on this dying process/adventure was keeping the adrenaline pumping. Anyway, the next step was to put canning jars into my canning pot keeping the temperature of everything about 170 degrees. We did not want the liquid to reach boiling point because then the wool is boiled and would not look beautiful at all knitted up into a shawl.



Next step is to add the lace. It starts soaking up the color instantly. We used a turkey baster to make sure all the lace was colored. This was a long tedious process.

The colors are stunning....


It is finally done and ready to go to the sink for rinsing.


I was so afraid that too much color was going to be rinsed out.


Obviously not....


Now to take it outside to dry in the wind. It was a cooler, almost colder day but the wind was blowing and it should do a good job of drying the lace....


The lace is now inside hanging in the laundry room to make sure it is completely dry before we wind it. I know this will make a beautiful shawl or possibly several beautiful shawls. I learned so much that day. I gained a great deal of respect for all the indie dyers that support my sock yarn addiction. I can not imagine the volumes of yarn that is dyed just to satisfy all the sock knitters. No wonder it is a feeding frenzy when the dyers update their online web sites. I also learned that through this appreciation that I probably will not make this a habit. I thoroughly enjoyed myself but I can not afford to be tempted by one more fiber related hobby. I will be proud of this hank of lace, I will knit it into something beautiful. I will possibly dye another hank of natural if I ever get another one.

Thursday

Good morning!
I bet you are wondering why at 541pm I am saying good morning? Well it is to me. I work nights and am now enjoying the sunset. Crazy shift if you ask me. I thought I would share pictures of my pets today and the story of how/why I have them. Probably boring reading but they are such an integral part of who I am.

Sallie is on the left. She is a boxer/black lab mix and just about the best dog ever! She is 14 years old and came to live with us when she was 1 yr old. I was a hospice nurse and I loved this dog that belonged to a wonderful woman named Pat. I looked forward to visiting Pat due to her undying humor and this awesome dog. One day I arrive to Pat's house and she was crying. She was becoming weaker by the day and was to give Sallie to her brother. Pat told me that her brother no longer wanted Sallie and she did not know what she was going to do. I didn't even hesitate. Sallie came to our house to live that weekend. She was ornery at first but has been the most faithful, fun-loving dog I have ever owned.

Winston is the miniature sheltie sitting to the right of Sallie. We became Winston's family when Winston was 9 months old. A friend of ours purchased Winston from an Amish family and then realized he did not have time for him. That same year, my son was hit by a car and essentially bedridden for 5 months. This friend gave Winston to Brandon to keep him company. Winston is 7 years old, Brandon is 16 and loves to keep the company of girls now. :)


Bengi is my orphaned kitty. The medical Director of the Hospice I was working for found Bengi and his siblings next to their dead mother. Bengi's siblings did not survive but Bengi did and was hand raised by a veterinarian. Bengi sits on my shoulder when I am falling asleep to make sure I fall asleep and then leaves. If I am watching tv, he will put his paw over my eyes. I know he waits for me to fall asleep because when I pretend to be asleep, that is when he leaves. If I get up to go to the bathroom, he repeats the same thing until I am back to sleep again.



Kiki is my purebred Siamese. I really do not believe in buying my pets since there are so many homeless animals out there but I have this thing for blue eyes. I did not have any blue-eyed children so I could not resist. My heart melts when I am around this cat. I am definately hers. She sleeps in my arms. She sleeps in my lap. She sleeps on top of my arms when I am typing. She follows me around the house just like a dog would. She meows at me until I give her the attention that she demands.





Spencer is our special needs Kitty. Orginally I went and picked out Spencer for a friend that was looking for a tuxedo kitty. For what ever reason, (I think it was because he was a he) my friend did not want Spencer so not being able to just get rid of him, I kept him. My son fell asleep on top of him and we almost lost this handsome man due to oxygen deprivation. His eye sight is poor and he has some hearing problems. He also has had a broken right paw (when he became stuck on the bed with his claws and fought his way unstuck) and he also has had a broken right hip. He walks funny and doesn't always see where he is going.
He usually doesn't pay me much mind but lately he has been and I have had all 3 kitties sleeping on my lap when I am trying to knit.

So that sums up the furry ones that live at my home. I love them all very much. Well I have to make my family dinner. (Really hard to do since my body is saying it is breakfast time but what is a mom to do?)

Until next time..............

Another day

I get daily emails from this place called Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? I get sent the funniest pictures.
I particularly loved this one. I really enjoy knitting socks. I have a whole laundry list of people that would love to have some of my knitted socks. The last time I made a pair for me was about 2 years ago. This cat saying "Sry, sox unvaybel at dis teim" just struck me as being really funny.





This picture I was sent today. I have seen this happen at my house. Cats certainly are the dominant creatures in our lives.

I saw the Doctor on Wednesday regarding this lump I have in my leg. Wanted to make sure it wasn't a clot. I have Factor Five Leiden which makes me develop clots easily thus the reason I've had 2 blood clots in my lungs this past year. Anyway, I have phlebitis in my left leg along with a clot in my superficial vein. The doctor started me on an antibiotic and suggested that I take a week off from work. I just had 2 1/2 months off work from my last lung blood clot and do not feel as though it would be a good idea for me to take another week. I did stay home last night because I wanted to keep warm compresses on the site at least one day. So, today I plan on knitting and keeping the compresses on, hopefully the site will shrink and I do not run the risk of this clot breaking loose. Today I am going to work on my grand-daughters sweater so I can have it done before the cold weather goes away or she outgrows the size I am making her. I'll have to post a picture here when I am done.
I hope everyone has a really great day!

New additions to Ravelry completed projects

Slowly I am adding some of the completed items from the past few months. The Pescovegetarian hat and mittens along with the scarf were made for one of my best friends Victoria. We have known each other since 1984. Over 20 years. We have had a great friendship over the years and I thought it was time to finally make her something. Well that's it for now. I am at work and just wanted to write a quick post.