Hijacked By Facecrack

Sorry I have been ignoring this blog. It's been about a month and I blame it on the the biggest time sucker of all time, Facebook. I have been avoiding joining Facebook for years because I knew it would play on my addictive personality. But there was peer pressure involved, and now I have to work on self discipline. I'll try to be better in the future.

Spring has sprung here in South Texas and everything is in full bloom. I snapped this photo of bluebonnets from a vacant lot by the base carwash. They're the prettiest wildflowers. Mother Nature is awesome!

I have been spinning lately. My latest yarn is from a Blue Faced Leister (BFL) roving purchased from Lisa Souza's booth at Stitches West. The colorway is called fuerte and it is quite luminous.

It spun up easily into almost a fingering weight yarn. I plan to make this Heart to Heart scarf designed by Sivia Harding. I might blow off adding the beads. They are a little too blingy for this yarn (and a pain in the ass to work with).

The girls turned fifteen last week. They celebrated by having a pajama party. Jerry and Will did the wise thing by getting the heck out of town and RVing to Del Rio. Smart guys. The gurlies were in full fiesta mode.

Stephanie came out of her shell and had some fun too. She's usually very serious and matter of fact, so when she loosens up it's a big thrill!

I went to a Pizza Hut for a few pizzas for the party girls. While waiting for my order, I noticed this vending machine. What a find.



Here's my Sacred Mary of the Pizza Hut ring. Katherine swiped it and broke it already. I must get back there and secure a bunch of these. Too fun!

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I also have a dye experiment to share. I once saw this French craft blog where the artist was dyeing yarn with crepe paper. I cannot read French too well but I got the gist of the project, thank goodness she had lots of photos. Since the girls used a bunch of crepe paper streamers for their party, I thought why not try this with some wool roving. So follow along with the pictures:

Gather up your materials: Wool roving (presoak it in a solution of 3 quarts water, 4 cups vinegar, and 2 teaspoons of basic hand dishwashing liquid), Party streamers, Plastic wrap, and something to cover your work surface with.

Roll out a generous amount of plastic wrap. Place layers of crepe paper streamers on top in a
criss cross fashion. Allow a little space to be free on either edge, for rolling up.

Squeeze excess soaking solution out of the roving. It should be wet but not dripping wet. Lay the roving on top of the streamers in a zig zag fashion.

Lay more of the crepe paper on top sandwiching the roving.




Cover all of these layer with a final layer of plastic wrap. Roll up all of the edges so that the liquid stays sealed inside. Take an old rolling pin (not your good one!) and roll across making sure that the dry streamers get saturated with the soaking liquid.



Roll the whole thing up burrito style and steam. You can either use a roaster (as shown), crockpot, or microwave. I have the roving elevated and there is a layer of water on the bottom of the roaster. When the packet blows up like a balloon check to see if the color is absorbed into the wool.

Here's how it looks once dried. It looks a bit like the Pink Panther's home insulation minus the fiberglass slivers. I can't wait to see how it spins up.