Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend

The best laid plans...We had all sorts of great ideas about how to spend this weekend.  Instead, we have been home dealing with a broken pipe under the house - and the subsequent flooding.  It was one of the original 1939 cast iron pipes, a crack developed and it started spilling water.  By the time we figured it out, we had a little swamp under there.  So, bring on the plumbers, the remediation guys, and the inevitable blowers to dry things out.  Oh, and by the way, don't use the bathrooms.  Or the laundry, or the kitchen.  After tense negotiations, the plumber agreed that one of the bathrooms was OK to use, since it connects below the break.  Whew.  Otherwise we would have had to buy a really big litterbox.....

My solution to the situation was to knit, and knit some more, and dye.  My shoulders and back get really cold at this time of year, but a sweater is really too much, and a shawl is hard to keep on when you are doing things.  I have knitted shrugs, and capelets, etc.  But at the San Diego Museum of Man Rock Art Symposium, I saw Jan wearing what I thought would be perfect for me.  She said she made it in a workshop.  I took a close look at it, decided how to make it a little better for me, and set to knitting.  A couple of years ago when I first started learning to dye, I practiced on some white Condon yarn that I purchased in the mid-1980s.  I dyed it with food coloring, Easter egg dyes, crazy color combos.  Then I set it aside.  I almost gave it away a few times.  But a couple of weeks ago, I pulled it out - five skeins.  One of them I liked.  The other four were like the proverbial clown barf.  It being the holiday season, I decided to overdye the skeins with reds and red-browns.  I did two at first - and I loved the result.  Some of the crazy color remained, but muted and with added depth.  So I cast on one of the skeins for my Rock Art capelet.  I did not want it to be snug around the, ahem, front so I cast on a goodly number (after first checking GAUGE), and knitted an inch or so in seed stitch.  Then I knitted a little more, then went down a needle size, decreased, knit a while, decreased, then tried it on.  More knitting, then four raglan type decreases for the shoulders, using EPS.  I like rolled collars, so I did a double welt neck - open enough to wear with a t-shirt if I want to.  And so I cast off today, and blocked it.  Done on Sunday.  Just in time for San Diego's 85 degree weather. But it's cool at night.

 I like the way it turned out.  And it is very nice and warm.  I ended up using one entire skein, and some of the second one I dyed.  To blend the colors, I alternated rounds until I used up the first skein.  You can see that towards the neck, there is more copper or bronze color.  But I think it blends nicely.

I also dyed the other 2 skeins today.  One was super bright: yellow, pink, and hot pink.  The other was more purples.  I overdyed both with reds and a little brown.  I am really happy with these two skeins also.

The goofy colors are muted, and I have some nice reds and wine colors. Condon is a two ply, and not next-to-the-skin soft (for most people; I don't mind it but I know I am weird).  Thus with my overdyeing, I rescued some odd colored yarn and made four skeins of very nice yarn that blend together well.  I highly encourage this activity.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!!