my pretty dyed yarns...

member these pretty little skeins?
well, they were not wound and put away quickly enough!
I thought it was bad enough that the Bean took them to be necklaces, but then...

I discovered D, using them to "catch" aliens!

and then I looked back, and the Bean had MORE!

she's so pleased with herself!

I have rescued and wound them all up now, so no more toy skeins for babies... but I had to share...

better pictures...

Here's my stack of finished 1/2 square triangles...

I made 18 pairs of solids/prints, 4 of each block, for 2 different (but the same) baby quilts...

(I started with 4.5" squares, but am not bothering to measure beyond that...

here're the blues-greens-yellows...

the pinks-purples-reds-oranges-yellows...

I made my husband help me choose the block order... we both loved the layout of diagonal light to dark, as judged in terms of saturation of the solids...

so here they are, ready to go....

and here's another shot of the yarns I dyed last night, because they make me so happy.

fun with food coloring.

this makes me sooooo happy.

I LOVE PLAYING WITH COLOR!

painting, sewing, dyeing, all sooooo fun!

I mentioned before that I've started an afghan... I am using Pattons Pure Wool, (because it's easy and cheap), but I want more colors...

I've played with kool aid before, and that's super fun, but I also have lots of old bottles of random supermarket food coloring (from before I found the Wiltons ones, which are awesomely superior in every way)...

I need/want more greens and teals, so I took some natural and some heather yarns, made small loose skeins (guestimating the amount I would need to do one square per), and mixed up some dye...

I did the vinegar/water bath for the time it took to watch project runway on tivo, then popped them in the dye baths and microwaved the heck outa them!

don't you like my pretty greens!

I'm soooo excited to play with more bits! these have to dry, then I'm going to make a block to see how accurate I was in my estimation.... I'd like to have lots and lots of similar but different shades of greens, teals, and blues (NOT variegated, that's not the look I want for this afghan!), so I'm carefully NOT recording the shades/recipes. I don't want to make them look the same.

Some kiddo Xmas presents

I don't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but a few weeks back the Urban Craft Center celebrated their 1st anniversary with a RIDICULOUS sale. The Weir doll kits were 75% off, which made them all under $10 (some were like $3... I wish I'd gotten more, they would make awesome b-day presents... )

I got the woodsman/maiden kit of fairytale folk, b/c my 3yo son LOVES robin hood... I know waldorf means that its supposed to be neutral, but right now, D wants Robin Hood, and I want Waldorf. Hopefully we'll both be happy with this one...

These are the dolls as they came out. The dude is supposed to have a brown hat with a leaf, but the kit doesn't have enough brown to do a full hat, so I'll have to find my brown felt tomorrow. I added feet-ish bottoms to their legs; I thought the legs in the pattern looked weirdly stumpy. I hate my faces, but overall am pleased with the finished products; hopefully D will love them.

I also got this knitted dwarf kit (which I will be calling a gnome, b/c my son also loves a garden gnome down the street). My daughter just turned 1, and got lots of dolls. My son, of course, now wants to play dolls. I have NO problem with this, except that other people DO have problems with boys carrying around pink baby dolls and caring for them. I'm hoping this gnome gives him something to carry and love without being treated oddly. I love that he loves, and want to nurture that wonderful side of my little boy for as long as I possibly can.

here's the finished product. Isn't it awesome! it fully lived up to my hopes. I switched in a different yarn (scrap) that PERFECTLY matches D's eye color, instead of making blue eyes... this green-y eye color is one of the more unique things about my gorgeous son...

I have one more Weir doll to make, for the Bean this time (I've already made her a little cuddle doll that *goes* with the bigger doll, as yet unmade), and I have 4 kits from De Witte Engel that I'm going to cut out tomorrow. I wish I had more. SOOOOO amazingly beautiful/cute/wonderful.

Clearly I need to make another trip to the Urban Craft Center in January to buy more of these little darlings...