A Steaming Pot of....

No, that is not my dinner - it's 2 pounds of yarn - split into four packages....dyed with KoolAid and Gel food dye.

In case you're wondering why it doesn't look like 2 pounds of yarn, the first reason is because you're looking at the top of 4 packages of yarn...the second is because the pot is monstrous. I bought it ages ago for vat dying...it's 18 inches in diameter...and I could probably put 2 more pounds of yarn in there.

I have to admit, it certainly took a lot longer to handpaint these than I thought it would - first, the winding of the yarn onto an extra large niddy noddy took a long time, and provided all kinds of entertainment for the cats. Then the tying of the yarn at semi-frequent segments (I think I settled on 16 ties per skein of yarn) - I had a little accident with one where I was not paying attention and snipped the actual yarn in addition to trimming the ties *sigh*. Then the soaking - in case you're wondering, two pounds of yarn just barely fits into my kitchen sink. And then there was the mixing of dye - I was going for 1 packet of drink mix per ounce of fiber, - it turned out that wasn't quite enough (ran out of dye mix as I was dying) so in some cases I had to mix more...either that or perhaps I didn't dilute it enough *shrug*. Then there was the matter of handpainting - or in my case, hand syringing (I used a 10cc syringe to inject dye all over the skein that was draped over yards of plastic wrap on my kitchen counter). Then the wrapping and transferring to the dyepot...

Stay tuned for the results - all I can say for now is that the house smells of a fruity wet sheep.