Friday, August 28, 2009

Dyeing ain't easy

My first attempt at dyeing yarn did not go too well. I had a skein of Paton's Classic Merino Wool in Aran, and attempted to dye it. It did not take the color very well, so I ended up with a light grey-purple (not a bad color but I wanted it a little darker, and I was hoping to get some of that kettle-dyed variation like Malabrigo has) and also, a huge tangle of yarn. My self-wound hanks are now a mess. Also, when I was stirring, the yarn caught the drain stopper (I dyed it in the sink), and pulled out the stopper, letting all my dye water go, so I couldn't leave the yarn longer. Not fun.

Sorry - no pics this time. I'll probably edit later to include pics of the yarn I dyed, once it's dry and no longer tangled. I just wanted to leave myself a note that changes definitely need to be made in the process next time I try to dye yarn.

Edited to add: I used the leftover RIT dye in Navy that I used to dye my Corpse Bride costume.

Edited to add: Picture - as you can see, untangling the yarn required some cutting. I now have 4 smaller skeins instead of the larger 1.

Monday, August 24, 2009

New painting - Lycoris radiata

I've finished another painting... at least, I think it's finished. I'm not really quite sure. Right now, I've left the background white, because I like the contrast of the white against the red, but I'm also worried that it makes the painting look unfinished. I was considering doing a light, warm-tones color gradient radiating from the flower. Should I go for it?



On the knitting front, I'm working on Sylvi. Lots of mods, let's see if I can actually finish this one! Usually when I try modifying a knit, I get frustrated or bored, and forget about finishing it. This time, I am determined - I so want to have my very own lovely Sylvi!

Also, I finally can wear my Noble Collection Arwen Butterfly ring again. I know it's nerdy, but really I wanted this ring because it's just lovely, not because it's LotR-related (although, of course, I do LOVE LotR). My mom got it for my birthday one year. Unfortunately, the quality was not so great - not long after I received it, the clear stone fell out - there are no prongs on this ring, and I guess it was just glued in. I super-glued it back in, but it fell out again, and I couldn't find it the second time. It had been too long for it to be replaced by the company, and I searched for a replacement stone, but couldn't find one. So for a long time, I couldn't wear it. A couple of days ago, I had an idea. I had an old ring that was too large for me, with an lab-grown opal in it. The opal was nice but the ring itself was blah, and I couldn't wear it anyway since it was too large. So, I loosened a prong, took the opal out, and, since the shape of the bottom was off and I knew glue wouldn't hold anyway, I green-stuffed it to the ring. I was able to do it so only a teeny bit of the green stuff showed, and that I painted silver, which happens to match the sterling silver almost precisely. It looks great, and now I can wear my ring again, yay! I'd post a picture but I couldn't manage a good, non-blurry one. I don't know how people take pictures of jewelry.

Soon, I'll post photos of the dress I decorated for Ornament Premiere, as Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. I don't have the photos right now.

And, is it terribly nerdy that, I bought makeup from EyesLipsFace partially because they abbreviate it as ELF and I thought that was awesome? I mean, yes, I mostly decided to try it because it is inexpensive (although it would be easy to over-spend on that site!), but the name totally makes me happy.

Finally, I thought the Blogger tab that says "Monetize" meant you could make your blog Monet-ish. I was excited. Alas, it is not so.