kool-eggs

In the 90s, I dyed my hair with Kool-Aid. Last year, I dyed yarn with Kool-Aid. And this year, we're dyeing Easter eggs with Kool-Aid. I mean, why not? It smells fruity and awesome. It makes me nostalgic for hot summer days at the pool. Time to make some Kool-Eggs.

Not only will the Kool-Aid make your kitchen smell super sweet, you'll get some fantastically vivid results. You can usually pick up five Kool-Aid packets for $1.00, so this is a fun and inexpensive way to change up your annual egg dyeing adventures. Kids will find this soooo exciting.

So let's start with the eggs. Every year, I seem to forget exactly how long to boil them, so here are the directions I use. To make things extra simple for you.  

After your eggs are ready to go, it's time to find some small containers and get your Kool-Aid packets ready to go.

This is really all you need, because Kool-Aid has citric acid in it. No need for vinegar! Add one packet of Kool-Aid to 2/3 cup of water and stir. That's it. I used both lukewarm and cold water and it didn't really make a difference with how our eggs turned out. Keep in mind that Kool-Aid powder is pretty messy, so you should do all of the mixing over your sink to prevent your counter tops from turning different colors the next time you wipe them off. (Not that this happened to me or anything.)

Finally, you'll need to round up a willing helper or two to do the dipping.

You don't have to leave the eggs in the dye cups very long before you'll see them become quite brightly colored. The eggs will smell fruity at first but after they dry, they smell and taste like normal hard-boiled eggs.

I will warn you about a couple of colors/flavors that had less than desirable results. Lemonade on its own comes out too light (as does the Pink Lemonade) and Grape will quickly turn dark gray-ish. I remedied this by mixing things up a bit. To get a nice yellow, use one packet of Lemonade mixed with a quarter to half packet of Orange. To get light pink, use one packet of Pink Lemonade and add a little bit of Cherry or Strawberry. To turn the gray/brown Grape egg into an indigo color, add some Berry Blue to the mix.

Here's what your Kool-Eggs will look like.

Hope you have a super cool time making your own rainbow of Kool-Eggs.   :)

pepperoni

Yup, it's a slice of pizza. A pizza scarf. I know, I know ... it's really cool.

I spent the past couple of days crocheting this slice of happiness. It has been so fun to watch it come together. What can be more fun than sewing pepperonis onto a cheese triangle!? Truth be told, I am not very good at crochet but I had to make this scarf. I was going to do whatever it took to bust this thing out.

The first time I saw a pizza scarf was on Twinkie Chan's website, back in 2008. I think. She's an extremely talented crocheter and has designed a ton of original food-related accessories. She's also quite funny, has some pretty rad tattoos and I love her blog, so I started following her there and on Twitter. Last winter, I found out she was going to release a book filled with her most popular designs and patterns. I was super stoked ... but a little bit frightened. I'm a knitter with hardly any crochet experience, but I had to make this pizza scarf. I had to figure it out. If anything was going to make me jump into crochet, this was it.

 

I bought Twinkie's book and some Malabrigo in Cadmium yellow. And by the way, if cheese could be a yarn, it would be this exact yarn. The crust, pepperonis and sauce were made with Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in honey, cranberry and scarlet. 

I was so pleased to discover that I could totally do this. Twinkie's instructions and diagrams and explanations were really clear and easy to follow. Even for a knitter like me. This was the first time I had ever done a half double crochet. Or a triple crochet. Or a shell. Or a bubble stitch. You can tell she really knows her stuff and knows how to explain the construction of these creations. I'm excited to make more projects from her book soon. (Lo has been asking for the cupcake scarf.)

So yes, I'm extremely happy with how this turned out. I can't wait to wear it everywhere. More specifically, I can't wait to wear it to a pizza place. Like Fong's. I don't care if it's almost summer. If you see a girl about town wearing a pizza scarf, yes, that will be me.

missoni

I'm a sucker for color, so I'm completely infatuated with the knitwear in the Missoni 2011 resort collection. (Isn't it so good?!) 

And call me crazy, but I love these wacky neon clunky-heeled shoes, too. (photo from vogue.com)

So, while I won't likely be wearing any of these splendidly colorful garments, I have become motivated to finally knit this Missoni chevron blanket (pattern and photo by Kelly Kingston.)

I've got a rainbow of yarn all ready to go. I wanted to keep this blanket economical and also wanted to use natural fibers, so I knew I had to find yarn that came in 100% wool in lots of different colors. And that's why it was a no-brainer to go with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes.

I ordered 18 skeins in wonderland heather, grass, avocado, mist, orange, williamsburg, fairy tale, rouge, cranberry, caution, white and coal. Quite a few of the colors I wanted were on sale, and my total (with shipping) was only $35! (Proving that the DIY version of Missoni is a little bit more affordable than buying it at Neiman Marcus.)

shelter

When I started knitting (and reading about knitting,) one of the first people I remember hearing about was Jared Flood/Brooklyn Tweed. I love so many of his knitwear designs, and his photography is pretty gorgeous, too. Plus, I think boy knitters are the best. Practically all of the knitting blogs I read are written by dudes. So, last fall I discovered that he had launched Shelter, his own Brooklyn Tweed wool yarn. I have no idea why I waited so long to order some, especially when you consider the number of times I've gone back to the website to look at the colorways just one more time to pick out my favorites. (I had hoped to pick some up in NYC when I was there last October, but that was the sad day PurlSoho was closed.)

Lucky for me, last Friday this neat little paper package arrived. With it's cleanly designed BT sticker and little square-with-rounded-corners 'thank-you for supporting American' textiles note. So yes, I may have geeked out a little bit over the packaging details because I love that stuff. Presentation really makes all the difference.

I had the hardest time picking colors but I went with Sap and Sweatshirt, to start off with. I must say, this yarn is so much cooler in person than on the web. I'm sort of infatuated with it. Now I just have to decide what I'm going to knit with these two. I think a Habitat would definitely make a lot of sense, or the Lotus Hat, or maybe a Windschief. I don't care if summer is on the way. Give me wool.

in the bag

I just found out that this week was Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. KCBW or something like that.

There was an official list of topics that you could cover each day, but I thought I'd pick just one now and go with it.

Knitting organization. This is a topic that I love to ask other people about, so I'd be really interested to hear how you manage your supplies.

My main knitting bag is this tote from the Liberty of London line at Target last year. To me, this bag just looked like it really wanted to be a knitting bag. I always keep one current project in there, along with most of my needles and tools. The rest of my yarn stash is stowed away in plastic bins to keep it clean and protected.

Here's what's in my bag. I compartmentalize with tons of small zippered bags, and it makes me feel more organized. (Even if I'm not.) I have always been in the habit of doing this with my messenger bag that I carry every day, and even with the diaper bag that I used to carry when Lo was a baby. I'd rather grab one of five small bags than rummage around through piles of who knows what to find my chapstick. Or my size 7 dpns.

Here's what each little bag contains. I have my main knitting needle roll (top right) that holds all of my straights. (I got it here if you're interested.) The bright floral pouch is for all of my double-pointed needles and I have another small bag for my interchangeable needle set. The robot bag is just for crochet hooks and the orange and white one holds my scissors, pens, tape measure, darning needles and gauge ruler. I always carry that little kraft molskine for notes and pattern ideas. And the smallest bags hold stitch markers and point protectors.

I find this works pretty well with knitting, because if I'm working on something specific, I can just take the tiny zippered bags that contain the things I need and leave the rest at home. And nothing gets lost. Usually.

I also try to keep other projects-in-progress in their own bags so everything stays together. Seeing projects this way also inspires me to pick them up and work on them; just knowing everything is in the bag and I won't have to hunt down one tiny thing makes me less likely to leave the project sitting there. This larger canvas bag (that I picked up from the Gap a few years back) is awesome for holding bigger projects. I'll show you what I'm working on with these rainbow-colored skeins next week.  :)

FOs

Finished object no. 1: star crossed slouchy beret. Which has been in my Ravelry queue for, you know ... a couple of years.

Finished object no. 2: Murielle. This lovely was made using three skeins of Rowan Big Wool in 'glum' gray, held double. It's kind of huge. And I realize that you may be wondering ... 'Jen, isn't it spring? Why are you working on wintery things? Why are you showing us photos of you standing in snow?' Well, yeah. Technically, it is the end of March, but our back yard looked like this yesterday. Don't feel too badly for me ... the snow melted pretty quickly. And this knitter knows no season when it comes to projects. I would have totally made this scarf in July. While sitting in my living room, enjoying the AC. But it was kind of fun to wake up yesterday and see a pretty white covering on all of the trees and rooftops. Kind of fun. At the very least, it did made me feel like wearing a wool scarf was appropriate!

knitting needle + crochet hook = broomstick lace

A few months ago I was visiting my mom, an experienced crocheter, and I asked her about broomstick lace. I had seen broomstick lace baby blankets, bonnets and even some couch arm covers that she had made (is that what you call them?) from the 70s. I asked her if she could show me how to do it, so she went to her closet, retrieved a big bag of needlework stuff, and pulled out a huge wooden stick. It looked like it might have been a dowel, sharpened to a point on one end. She said that my grandpa used to make these big wooden knitting needles for her out of actual broomsticks. Aha! Broomstick lace. I made a little bracelet (above) to practice. Totally not perfect, but I'm mostly a knitter so this is new to me. (Later, I made a belt and got much better at it.)

If you haven't heard of it or tried it before, broomstick lace is a crochet technique that uses a very large knitting needle (or broomstick!) and a crochet hook. Sometimes it was called jiffy lace or peacock eye crochet. I used a US size 50 knitting needle and an H crochet hook when I was experimenting. It's fun, the stitches build up quickly and I've seen it around the web a bit more lately, so maybe it's making a comeback. (Let me know if you're interested in seeing a tutorial ... I can make a quick video if anyone is interested!)

must be springtime in Iowa

If you live anywhere in the midwest/tornado alley, you know that it's never a good thing when they day is too warm, too still, and the sky starts to look greenish.

 Or you look outside, and your back yard looks like this.

But your front yard looks like this. March is a little early for the whole tornado thing, even for us. In fact, Bo and Lotus were playing outside when the first sirens went off.  I've lived here my whole life, but sirens still give me chills.

We all just hung out on the couch with our various forms of technology until all the warnings and various waves of sirens had passed. Must be springtime in Iowa. (Like Bo said earlier today, when aren't we in a tornado watch?)

No worries though. We're fine and we're used to this. It's supposed to snow this weekend, after all.

two days!

Two more days to bid! (Well, two days and 10 hours.)

A huge thank you to everyone who has helped spread the word about this auction through Twitter, Facebook and blog posts. (Read here for more details, if you didn't catch this the first time.) Two more days! Go bid! Thank you!

** I was originally planning on donating the proceeds to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami disaster relief efforts. However, eBay has an awesome charitable listing system already in place, so now proceeds will go to GlobalGiving's Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. It's just easier and the money goes straight to GlobalGiving after the auction is over. So everything's still going to the right place, but I just thought I should make this clear.  :)

winner!

Just popping in to let you know who won the art journaling class from my sweet friend, Kara!

Random.org picked number 1 ... yup, number 1! (How often does that happen?)

Which means Jinah is the winner! 

(Just email me at jgeigley [at] gmail [dot] com.) 

Thanks so much to everyone who entered!