I finished the Princess’s socks last week. She decided on the Double Moss stitch since I already had a finished pair using the stitch.
To stretch her hand-dyed yarn I added pink toes.
I used exactly 53 grams of the 106-gram skein of yarn so I could possibly get a second pair for her. The pink is Rouge in Knit Picks Stroll and I used 6 grams for the toes.
I love how the purple broke into blue and pale red. I like both the double moss stitch texture as well as the plain knit sole.
Our Colorado family visited us at the end of June. It had been 944 days since we saw them in person. That’s just too long.
The ArtistThe Karate KidThe Princess
Besides going on a hike to Blackwater Falls, visiting Geroge Washington’s headquarters, eating ice cream, having a picnic, painting rocks, celebrating our wedding anniversaries (Daughter and S-I-L 15 years, Mr. Atich and myself 48 years!), and rock painting, we also dyed yarn!
Blackwater Falls – The RockBlackwater Falls – The SwingHappy Anniversary!
Surprise, surprise!
Using the Crockpot method, we dyed six skeins (100 grams each) of fingering weight yarn in total, the most I’ve ever done at one time. [I did purchase a small microwave (specifically for dyeing/setting the dyes) the morning we dyed but didn’t have time to get it unpacked and ready to use.] For the most part, we used food coloring and Easter egg dyes but I did use some Jacquard dyes in Brillant Blue and Jet Black to add colors. I’m getting low on the Easter egg dyes.
The Karate Kid chose greens and blues.
The Princess chose red and purple. I didn’t add enough white vinegar to the water so as soon as the purple dye hit the wet yarn, it broke into pink and blue. She loved it so we continued.
The Artist wanted reds, oranges, and yellows. The red wasn’t as intense as we thought as a lot of it washed out.
She also used some leftover red and black and a mixture of those for a black cherry hue for this skein.
My daughter used red, blue, and purple with a few spots of lime green.
Lastly, the Karate Kid and I dribbled all of the leftover dyes down the sides of the Crockpot and just let it sit in hot water until all the dye was absorbed.
The final group all in a row.
Each will get at least one pair of socks. That’s a lot of knitting time for me!
I do have a question for any dyers out there: How much dye do you use in what amount of water to make your dye stock? I think I use too much dye and/or too little water as I’m seeing too much color go down the drain while rinsing.
My sister and I helped our mother clean on Saturdays. That included dusting, vacuuming, and sweeping and scrubbing the kitchen floor. There might have been more but I just don’t remember. And we might not have done those things each week. Again, I just don’t remember.
I do remember that our mother had a system on whether to dust first or vacuum first. But which?
Dusting first would cause any dust to fall to the floor and then be vacuumed.
Or did vacuuming first cause more dust to settle on the furniture so dusting was done after?
Or does it matter as long as both get done?
Or is the real question: what is this chore called “dusting” and why should I care?
I dust and vacuum (occasionally…don’t judge) but not always on the same day. However, we are having people come for a few days and I really need to clean!
Two years ago we had our old wooden deck replaced with composite decking. We have two levels of deck and the lower section is about 12 x 15 feet. For some reason, I never posted about it. Anyway, the contractor used the existing framing to save on the costs. Unfortunately, the framing wasn’t what it should have been so the decking sagged under the weight of our wooden picnic table and grill that we use on that lower section. Not a lot but enough to be concerned about.
The old wooden deck
I had been thinking of how to fix the sagginess since last summer. So last week, I decided I would beef up the framing on the lower deck before it got too hot out.
New joists are on the left, and two more are needed on the right.
I removed the decking in one afternoon. Then I added joist hangers and new 2 x 6 lumber in between the existing joists so the support would be every 12 inches instead of every 24 inches.
Section 1 finished. That’s a root on the right, not a snake!Section 2 joists finished!
The part that took the longest was putting the decking back on. There are special (and of course pricy) brackets that fit into the grooves on the sides of the decking boards so no screws or nails are visible on the top. It’s really neat and clean-looking. The issue was getting the brackets (I added more) and the grooves to line up so the boards would just slide in.
By the time I got to the last board, I discovered that it was too wide. Not getting the boards snugged up as tightly as the original installation was the problem. A fraction of an inch over the span of 30 boards added up. I managed to rip the last board down and get it in place.
I think this will hold an elephant!
I had some uneven stones as a kind of step off the one side but will find* someone (who knows what they are doing) to redo that area with some leftover pavers from another project to make a transition from the grass to the deck.
All in all, this took twice as long to do as I originally planned thought. Plus I was still recovering from that nasty virus. More clean-up is needed but the heavy labor part for me is done…for now.
*I don’t know what it’s like in your neck of the woods but trying to find someone, anyone around here to do work is next to impossible. I know most of the projects/jobs aren’t huge but does no one need money or to work anymore?
Knitting In Flashes 