Chiller for Octorer

The weather outside is frightful. TOO HOT for October 6th, in my opinion at least. I am tired of 80s. I am ready for fall. I am so afraid of climate change, I am terrified that all my unknitted wool yarn stash will languish forever as we all melt from the the heat.

Meantime, if you can't get cold weather, you can get chilling stories.
Here is one.
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King


I am currently listening to this book on audio, having downloaded it from my library. So in a way that isn't the same thing as reading it, more like having it read to me. I listen to it while I am knitting in my craft room.

First of all let me say that Will Patten, the reader, is fantastic! His voice is similar to Stephen King's, so the experience is very like having the author read his own work. And Mr. Patten's acting chops shine through in his reading of the tale. He is perfect, his voice a little raspy, but sinuous, sensuous. This voice gets into your head, and you want to return to his little warm circle of light, in a dark library, inside of an even darker house, to listen again to the next installment of the tale. He has you wrapped around his finger, the reader. And the author, as always Mr. King, he dares you to put the book down.

The tale is spine-tingling to say the least, and I am only into the 2nd chapter. I think this is going to be at least a 4 star experience. :)


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I love scary stories and this is right up my alley. Today I am sewing and knitting, so Will has been invited in, to read to me, and chill me to my soul. A nice antidote to too hot.

Starting my crafts with the makeup bag, because I need one!

I am a Dork, or I Am Too Young To Dye!

I am easily amused, and I love crafting. It doesn't take much to get me excited. So here is what I am excited about today:

This is my new ball of hand-dyed yarn, yes dyed by ME! I call it Jolly Ranchers because it is the colorway of my favorite Jolly Ranchers original flavors, Green Apple, Blue Raspberry and Grape.

Here is what it looked like after overdying in an attempt to get a better purple, which really didn't happen.

I used Kool-aid for my dyeing experiment. 2nd time I have ever hand dyed. I used Grape, Lemon-Lime and Berry Blue, unmixed. Is used Hannahhats Self-Striping method here Self-Striping Yarn.

The plastic bag method was so easy for doing a 3 color stripe, perfect because I could easily fit my microwaveable mugs into a larger casserole dish for heating the entire hank at once and not have the colors bleed.

Next dying project will be hand-paint, directly onto the hank, which I will lay out on plastic wrap, and paint using a paintbrush or foam brush. This I will do after I purchase Wilton's Icing Gel for my dye, as the colors appear to be more true and easier to work with.

I am really excited with the way this yarn turned out! I am thinking it will make a lovely pair of fingerless mitts or even socks, along with the rest of the white sock yarn I didn't dye. Self-striping stripes. The yarn is amazingly soft.  Will keep posting progress as I cast on.

Meantime, in other craft experiments, today I am going to sew a cotton + vinyl makeup bag and a few cotton, drawstring knitting project bags. Here are most of the fabrics I have on hand to play with. 

To be fair, the blue/green print, the solid lime green and the autumn floral prints belong to my DD (in Ravelry-speak that's Darling Daughter). She bought those fabrics for projects she never got around to making. So I am going to make things for her out of them. A skirt from the floral print and a surprise from the other 2 fabrics. All the rest is for me to play with as I see fit! I love having the time to play with craft stuff and I am smart enough to know I am very lucky to get to do this.  I am so excited because I will be getting some Giftmas presents made in the next month! 

Craft for today, Baby, 'cause tomorrow may never come!