mood swings

wildfire

A great wind is dispersing smoke from a wildfire outside of Espanola and Los Alamos and sending it here. Although it's 40 or more miles away, there are no barriers. If we step outside we can smell it and feel the irritation in our eyes. As I sit here writing, the smokey smell has seeped into the house under doors and through slightly opened windows - my throat feels scratchy and I have a headache. The sky is white, mountains can barely be seen behind opaque veils. It's spring. It's windy. The danger of wildfires recurs every year at this time. Fortunately, no towns or residences are in danger from this one. It's in the central region of Valle Canyon in the Santa Fe National Forest and firefighters are trying to deal with it. The wind is worrisome though and a Red Alert warning has been issued. 

the color of taste

After the crock pot posting, a couple of people asked about the Kool Aid dye recipe that I'd bought the pot for in the first place.  As I cleared out my workspace this morning, I found it and subsequently tracked down an old picture of a pair of socks I made with the resulting yarn. 

The yarn pictured was actually dyed with Kool Aid in a microwave oven. It was a bit more complicated as measuring cups, gloves and bottles were involved. I can't find those directions, but I'm sure they're online somewhere. Several flavors can be used so it allows for more color flexibility. Meanwhile here is the simple, tried and true one I've used several times with the aid of my 2 quart Crock pot. The original recipe came from Anne Carroll in a 1990's booklet and I've tweaked it a bit since then. I didn't keep any of the resulting socks, but they were really nice (and smelled good too)! This recipe dyes about 400 yards of yarn. For more yardage, use a larger pot and double (or triple) the recipe.

kool crocksox
2 pkgs unsweetened Kool-Aid
3 cups warm water
1 T white vinegar
pinch of salt
undyed, unbleached yarn (I used KnitPicks Bare merino fingering weight)

Pour water into pot (do not turn on yet), stir in vinegar, salt, KoolAid packets, stir to dissolve
If using balls, remove labels. If using skeins, mark off end with paper clip and carefully place in pot. In either case, do not squoosh together or crowd. Leave room for liquid to flow through and around. Immerse gently and completely for semi-solid color or, if you want a tie-dye effect, keep the top half of the yarn balls/skeins out of the liquid. Cover pot, turn on low setting, simmer for 8 hours. Turn off, un-plug, leave to cool overnight. Gently remove yarn, carefully squeeze out excess water. Place on rack or hang on hook until dry. This may take several hours depending on where you live. Can also be dried outside on a warm day with  a gentle breeze (if it's windy, forget it, you'll have an impossible pile of tangled string to deal with!).

Kool-Aid dyed yarns have a faded stone-washed  look to them and I think they'd make a pretty shawl or scarf. There is a shawl on Ravelry by Janel Laidman called eiki (strength in Japanese). All proceeds from the sale of her pattern are going to the Red Cross in Japan. I bought mine last night.

Great mood swings of weather seem, in their constant variety,
fierce reminders of our own natural turbulence
                                                                 Jennifer Lash ("on pilgrimage")