You ever have those days where at the end you just want to sit down and scream “leave me alone!”? I’m having one. Nothing in particular happened, just a rushed, stressy, stupid kinda day. Em has dance exams next week, and she’s getting stressy which sets me off. I had to drive to a dance shop 30 minutes away for the privilege of paying $16 each for two pairs of dance tights. 30 minutes there, 15 minutes to find a parking spot, 5 minutes in the shop, repeat. Then I had appointments, came home to attempt to make some kind of headway on laundry, housework, dishes, the neverending story. Went to school to pick Em up, took her to a dance lesson, came home and spent 2 hours listening to her pre-teen hormonal temper type emotional outburst. (Which was apparently about nothing in particular) cooked dinner, went back for another dance lesson, came home an hour ago to find that something in this house has a foul odour, and we can’t figure out what the hell it is.
Why do I feel stressed out? Hell, I dunno!
And I still managed to nearly finish the second Cloverleaf 🙂 Only the toe shaping to go!

Okay, the vote seems to be to leave the green yarn alone. So, as I intend to finish the Cloverleafs on time (ie – by Saturday, LOL!) I’ll swatch up the yarn when I’m done with the Cloverleafs and see how I like the yarn done in the pattern.
For those of you who wanted to know which seller I bought the Cloverleaf yarn from, her name is Celia, and she is a lovely lady from Sydney. She actually has put up on eBay more of the same (or a very similar) colour I used for Cloverleaf. You can find it here! But be quick, she only has one lot of this shade, and it’s Buy It Now. she has some other colours up there too!
I have turned the heel on the second Cloverleaf, so I’m on the home straight now, and I should have it done on time. Should. </snort>
And in the nature of cute pet pictures, here’s one of Twinky. Long, long ago, I posted a picture of Em’s first ever finished object, a Tea Cosy that she knitted for her Nana. This is the teapot the cosy was for. Em would periodically bring it out to check the fit. Twinky seemed to like it. 🙂

We’re going to have a poll!

My Kool Aid yarn is dry, and it has lightened a little, but is still a little blotchy. A lovely lady named Alison has kindly offered to send me more Kool Aid to give the yarn a second bath. Will this even out the colour? Does anyone with more Kool Aid dyeing experience than I know the answer? Should I redye it? The pattern I am doing is called “Making Waves” and is a cabled sock.
Even if you’ve never left a comment before, just say “yes” or “no”. Please. Hi would be nice, but I won’t push my luck 😉
Twinky had her stitches out this evening, and was proclaimed to be healthy and well. This was after she did her best to pulverise the vet and his assistant. 🙂 She is most unhappy with us now and is sitting in a corner, refusing all bribes.

Hmmm… maybe I should give Twinky a Kool Aid bath 😉

I finished Cloverleaf number one and made a good start on number two!

I’ll have to try to remember to take a better picture in better light.
I discovered a reason why I don’t do socks cuff down. I don’t know how to do the kitchener stitch. I grabbed my nifty new “Knitters Guide To Finishing Techniques”, but I just couldn’t get my head around it today. So I cheated and did a three needle bind off for the sake of my sanity. I honestly do intend to go back and fix it at some point, because I really like this sock, but I don’t think I’m going to like that cast off bit at my toe. Is there any other way to finish a sock? Maybe I should have knit it toe up. I hope someone works out a toe up version for the new one! 😉

The cloverleaf sock number one is progressing nicely – the toe is in sight, probably finish it tomorrow.
With this in mind, and the fact that the second sock is due to be started, I evaluated the sock stash again, and again decided that nothing in there was appropriate. The sock has a lovely cable pattern, and I didn’t want a patterned yarn that might be distracting. Aha! I shall dye my own.
I perused my kool aid stash that Jill sent me, and decided that it should be green – I have no green socks, and the bright green sock yarn that I bought a few weeks ago has been soundly claimed by my DH.
So I went off to the local craft shop and got some Patons Patonyle in cream. (Which I believe to be the Australian equivalent of Kroy, and the only locally available sock yarn)

Then I dumped it all in a saucepan with some water and cooked it for a bit.

Then after all was done and cooled, I rinsed it off.

I can’t say I’m overly happy with the finished results. It’s a little too bright and patchy. Normally I would love it, I love variegated yarn, but the point was that I wanted solid colour for a change. Oh well, I’ll let it dry and start the socks, and see what I think then. Maybe I’ll love it after all. Maybe I’ll need to buy more 😉