KoolAid Dyeing 101

Mom and I decided to dye some mini skeins of yarn with KoolAid. I've never done this before but it turned out really, really easy! And we had a blast. First, we wound about 20 yards of undyed sock yarn and placed them into a shallow bowl of warm water with a dab of dishwashing liquid . Let that sit for about 30 minutes to 'open' the yarn. While the yarn was soaking, we added one pouch of sugarless KoolAid to 8 oz. of water and stirred till it was dissolved.

We are now ready to experiment!

We put plastic wrap in a shallow microwave plate (I used a pie plate) and made a 'bumper' along the center so I could do two sections of yarn at a time. Squeeze (gently) the soaked yarn and place in the well of the plastic wrap. We spooned dye randomly onto the yarn using whatever colours we wanted. Place the pie plate into the microwave and nuke it on high for 2 minutes. Let it sit for 2 minutes and nuke again if the liquid in the plate hasn't turned clear or slightly 'foggy'. I only nuked this set for 2 minutes and decided it was done. Let it cool entirely - there must be no heat left in the yarn OR the plate. Rinse with tap water the same temperature as the yarn - heat or cold will shock the yarn and cause it to begin felting.

After squeezing out as much liquid as you can, without twisting -it causes felting - hang the hanks up to dry - our hanks were so small that they dried overnight.

Here you have my 4 mini skeins of 20 yards - we used orange, blue, green, and orange. I totally forgot to buy red or yellow KoolAid.

And here are Mom's 4 skeins. They turned out so entirely cool! This is one easy, fast, and fun method to dye your own yarns...it can be done with larger skeins, you might need more than 1 package of KoolAid for each colour, though.

Thanks for stopping by.

Crafty Ladies

Mom and I spent this morning working on some folded iris cards. She'd never heard of them and said she'd try them for me. This is the one she made....her very first iris folded card. I think she's hooked! Then she made the card on the left....using grosgrain ribbons as her paper strips and paper punching the dots on the planter. It's too cute! I made the card on the right - using various ribbons and alternating the colors so it stripes. I'm quite pleased with that one, too.

Finally, here is a Halloween cauldron whose pattern I got from the internet. I'm going to use this card as a giveaway for my class tomorrow.

More soon. Thanks for stopping by.

Utah Visits Missouri

The Utah family visited us for a week recently. What a wonderful experience for us all. My mom flew in from Arizona for a 3 week visit right after the kids got here and she got to meet her newest great-grandson, Hewston.

Emily did some homework in my studio while I knitted, then we made dessert together.

We went to Silver Dollar City for the day and then spent the night at one of the timeshares in Branson. Had dinner at Mel's Hard Luck Diner. If you even get a chance to go there, don't hesitate. The wait staff all sing and the food is awesome. We got there 5 minutes before they closed the doors (didn't realize they were getting ready to close and they never told us). We were the last to leave, of course. But the staff was gracious and the service was superb! The kids loved it. One of the waiters sang a lovely song and Charlotte was mesmerized! He saw that she was focused on him and began to sing directly to her - I think she's in love!

The next day we left Branson and began making our way home...stopping at my friend's farm so the kids could ride her horses. William was happy to sit on the horse and let Papa lead Summer around the paddock, and Charlotte and Emily took turns on Sydney, with their dad leading the horse. Mom, Jill, Hewston, and I sat in the shade of the barn watching....what a delightful afternoon we had!

And Papa John spent quite a bit of time holding that lovely little bundle. We all did, actually.

On their last day here, William asked Papa, "Will you take me for a ride on your Grasshopper, Papa?". They got their shoes on and spent an hour outside, riding with Papa....Everybody took a turn. What fun!

The kids loaded up the rental van and headed back to finish the day in St. Louis, then flew home early the next day. We surely do miss them, but we will spend Christmas with them in Utah so that will sustain us.

That's about all for now. Thanks for stopping by.

Roosters

Ha! You thought I meant chickens, didn't you! Nope, these turkeys have decided to roost on top of the fencing near the barn. That's where John finds them each night, waiting for him to put them in the barn for the night. We had one turkey lost due to an incident with a feral cat, but the rest of them are faring quite well. They sure can fly, too. That grey-ish white one on the right flew over 200 feet the other day when I let the dogs out into the run and didn't see the turkeys were out there. They scattered like the wind.

Autumn has arrived here. The temperature has fallen to the mid 70's during the day and the humidity is no higher than my age. Temps at night are into the 50's. Looking forward to some lovely days ahead.

Stay tuned. I'll have some grandkid pics soon - they are coming for a visit in a bit over a week....yeah!

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Grandparents Day!

Today is Grandparents Day in the U.S. I have only one grandparent left, my grandfather's wife, Carol. I only met Carol once, in the summer of 1959 when my mom, my brothers and I spent most of the summer at my maternal grandparents' farm in Ohio. We went up to Michigan for a week and saw my paternal grandfather and his wife. Carol was a librarian and she must have inspired my love for books. She gave my grandfather another 4 boys in addition to my own father. All of my grandparents are gone except Carol. I hear from her every year at Christmastime. And a couple of years ago, we had a tornado set down here in Marshfield and evidently it made the news cause I got a call from her to make sure we were ok. Although I've not seen her in over 50 years, Carol is still in my life. Happy Grandparents Day, Carol!





When our son was small, I had made Christmas stockings for each of us - felted, beaded, sequins galore. Those stockings have been used for over 30 years. Mine was eaten by one of the previous dogs a couple of years ago and I made a new one for me but John and John both still use their original ones.


When John III became engaged to Jill, he called me and asked me to make a stocking for Jill and one for her daughter, Emily. He picked out the patterns and sent them to me. The one for Emily had 137 pieces ! And he asked me to make them in - get this - October! In time for THIS Christmas? Yes, Mom, please??? Well, I got them done and they are still used. And for each of the grandchildren, as they come along, I make a Christmas stocking as well.


I spent yesterday putting the finishing touches to a Christmas stocking for our newest grandson. Hewston was born at the end of May. This one is blue and white, mostly, with touches of purple. There are a ton of sequins on this one. It finally was finished yesterday. Happy First Christmas, Hewston!



Thanks for stopping by.

Baby Turkey Talk

They don't exactly cluck, and they don't exactly gobble, and they don't exactly whistle....just baby turkey talk....cute, huh?

Why Did the Turkeys Cross the Driveway?

I recently told you about our turkeys....they are now old enough to be let out during the day to roam the property and they then, all by themselves, go back to the barn for the night. John shuts the door so no nighttime critters can get the birds. This is what I came home to this afternoon. I'm not sure they've ventured this far before.

The first picture was taken just after I pulled into the left wing of the circle drive...they were going from the far western side of our property, across the driveway and heading over in front of the house. The second picture was taken just outside the front door, in the shade of the old elm tree in front of my studio windows. They were all working their way toward the barn. They were quietly making little turkey noises - not quite clucks, not quite gobbles...will try to get a video up (if I can figure out how to do it) for later.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend, all of you, whether you celebrate Labor Day as we do in the USA or not.

Thanks for stopping by.