sports & stitches

I had a bunch of scraps laying around, so I threw them together into another Flapper Headband.

Reverse Flapper Headband

I decided that I liked the reverse stockinette better than the, you know, regular stockinette. So I flipped it inside out and put in a squiggly thingy. Like everything else I’ve made from this book it’s turned out way too big. I’ll figure something out.

I cast on for a Sweet Pea hat from the same book (Knit One, Embellish Too) and cast on the L because that would be the appropriate size for my big ol’ head. It came out HUGE. Not like “I didn’t check my gauge” huge, but “this is big enough for Shrek to wear” huge. So it got frogged and I’m trying out the M size. But this one is looking too big, too. I have no idea what’s up with that. Oh well, whatever. Maybe it’ll make a cute slouch?

Well, I’ve been squeezing in knitting while I’ve had time off from school. I got a few great books over break and made some cute little things out of them.

Side Slip Cloche

This is the Side Slip Cloche from Boutique Knits. It was sort of a test-run, so I used some Knit Picks Wool of the Andes that I had laying around. I steam-blocked the brim and it got all floppy and weird … it’s still not quite right. I cast on for another one today using some of the yarn I dyed red. My housemate really liked the look of this one and wants one of her own.

Flapper Headband

And this is a not very flattering picture (not like the first one was either) of the Flapper Headband from Knit One, Embellish Too. I made it from SWTC Karaoke, which is a wool/soy blend. The yarn isn’t very stretchy, so I had to make the biggest size and block it. It’s a tad big but it has almost no give. This was my first experience embroidering on a knit object and I think it went well. Once again I thought I had that button centered but afterwards I realized that I was mistaken. I need to brush up on my sewing skills apparently.

I also re-dyed that yellow yarn, something I mentioned that I planned to do.

yellow hand dyed yarn

So much better! I used 5 teaspoons of turmeric and half a cup of vinegar. Viola! Yellow yarn. Washing out the turmeric has been a big pain, though, let me tell you. I’ve rinsed the yarn twice and it still smells like turmeric. I might wash it again. Or I might just knit it up and hope that blocking the finished product will take care of it. We’ll see!

I’ve decided to dabble in dyeing (not dying). I had one of those giant skeins of Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool and decided to screw around with it. Here’s what I got:

yellow hand dyed wool

The above is approximately 110 yards dyed with two packets of lemonade Kool-Aid in the microwave. I decided I don’t like the microwave method very much. More on that in a moment.

creamy/tan hand dyed wool

This is another 100 yards or so of the wool dyed in a pot with some tea. The color could have been better, but I didn’t pre-soak the yarn. I know better now.

red hand dyed wool

This one turned out absolute fantastic! I pre-soaked the wool, about 220 yards worth, in lukewarm water and some Eucalan no rinse delicate wash. Then I stuck it in a pot of almost-boiled water with 10 packets of black cherry Kool-Aid and let it chill overnight. The color turned out really vibrant and I can’t wait to do something with this!

I definitely like the stove-top method. I’m about to re-dye that yellow yarn with some turmeric and vinegar. I’m excited to see how this turns out!

I don’t know about you, but I’m not the biggest fan of the 3D dock on Mac’s OSX Leopard.

3D Dock

I’ve been digging around online and found some code that will change the 3D dock to the “Simple” 2D dock that is the default when you put your dock on the left- or right-hand sides of your monitor.

Open Terminal, and execute this code:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock

This will make your dock look like so:

2D Dock

If you have a change of heart and want your 3D dock back, you can undo the action by entering the following into Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO; killall Dock

Cheers!