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!