Lanaset/Sabraset Dye Instructions

Lanaset/Sabraset dyes are super easy to use.  They are also very safe, assuming you follow a few basic safety precautions:

1. When working with dye powder (this goes for all dyes) you don't want to inhale the dust.  Wear a dust mask (you can get them cheap at hardware stores).  To keep the dust from contaminating my house, I always mix my dye stock outside.

2. Dye pots and utensils are for dye only.  Never use pots, measuring spoons, cups, etc. for food once they have been used for dye.

3. Work with your dyes in a well ventilated area.  The dye pot vapors are acidic (and sometimes smelly) and can irritate your nasal passageways.

3. Wear gloves.  This isn't really so much a safety thing, more of a "I don't want purple hands" thing

4. Clean up after yourself.  Preparing food on a dye covered counter is bad news.

Preparing Dye Stock

I always work with dye stock for two reasons:
1. Powdered dye is a pain
2. It allows me to easily reproduce colors, if I so choose

I use an approximately 1% dye stock, which I store in mason jars.  It is not essential that your dye stock is exactly 1%.  It's more important that you mix it the same way every time.  This will allow you to reproduce your colors easily.


Instructions from the late Julie Owens of Sheep Hollow Farm:

To make 1% stock solutions (which make later arithmetic easier), weigh out the amount of dye you want (depending on how many pounds of fiber you want to dye to what depth of shade). Do this for each color you need (the amounts need not be the same). The object now is to dissolve each pile in exactly 100 times its weight of water. Multiply the weight of each pile, in grams, by 100 to get the weight of water you need—which is also the volume of water in cubic centimeters or in milliliters (thanks to the metric system)

Paste the dye with hot (boiling) water, a known amount, in a small cup or beaker. Thin with 2-3 times the first volume of water to get a liquid, pour into a larger container (be sure no powder is left behind, pour back and forth if necessary) then add the rest of the water (warm is okay), stir thoroughly. Your stock solutions are ready. Each cc of solution holds .01 gram of dye. If you want half a gram of dye, you just dispense 50 cc of stock solution. 1% solutions are fairly standard, but you can make a 1.5% or 3% or 5% if you wish to: 20 times the weight of water, for instance, gives a 5% solution.

How I mix my dye stock (less technical):
I mix 2 level teaspoons of most Lanaset dyes in a quart of water.  For Sun Yellow, I use 4 teaspoons per quart.  For Scarlet, I use 3.  This was suggested in Lynne Vogel's Twisted Sisters Yarn Book.  I'm not sure how much this actually affects the results.  It's just the way I've always done it since these colors are a bit weaker.  You may want to increase the amount of dye for black dye stock as well.

1. Add the dye to a quart sized mason jar
2. Pour in a little bit of nearly boiling water (like 1/4 jar)
3. Put on the cap and shake like a mad woman
4. Add more water, put on the cap, shake like a mad woman
5. Repeat step 4 until you have added a full quart of water and the dye is fully dissolved.

Store your dye stock in a cool, dark place.  Make sure and mix it up before using.  Even properly dissolved dye will separate after sitting for a while.  According to most sources, dye stock is good for 6 months.

Small victories

I broke the big toe on my right foot.  I broke the hell out of it.  The first doc who looked at my xrays said that it's "ugly".  So, I'm in a boot for a month while we wait to see if the chunk of bone I broke off reattaches itself or if I get a pin in my toe.  Because of this, my wool is still in disarray.  I only have 4 days left of winter break, so I think I'm going to fail, once again, at getting my yarn organized prior to going back to school.  At least it's not really my fault this time.

Because of my stupid foot, I can't work out like I planned, can't get to the eye doctor (probably not my foot's fault, but I'm sticking with the excuse), and can't get my house under control.  I can, however, type, so I finally wrote an article about spinning that I've been trying to put together for several years.  It's not much, but it's my small victory.

Freaking moths.

I'm still dealing with the drama of the moths.  Out of paranoia, I decided to empty the bedroom completely in order to make sure that every speck of dust was eradicated.  First, I packed up all of the yarn and wool.  Luckily, I'm not a complete slacker/idiot and I had two 30 gallon bins that were properly stored and therefore not affected.  All other yarn in the room was packed into trash bags and put on the back porch until I could deal with it.  I think I pulled about 50 lbs of wool out of the room.

At this point, I began freaking out.  The best way I knew of to kill moths was to do the freeze, thaw, repeat process, and my freezer is tiny.  If I wanted to keep ice and food in my freezer, it would take me months to treat all of this crap.    Fortunately, I turned to Ravelry where I was told that you can use dry ice to kill the evil little bugs. 

I bought a few more Rubbermaid tubs at Target and dry ice at the grocery store.  The article with the information on fumigation suggested that you need 1-1/2 lbs of dry ice to fumigate a 30 gallon bag of wool.  I started with 1/2 lb per 18 gallon tub of wool.  I wasn't able to find many reports of dry ice use from other knitters, so I was somewhat concerned that the wool might be damaged if it touched the ice.  I decided to put yarn that I'm not in love with directly on top of the ice just to be safe.

After a few hours, there didn't seem to be enough in the way of CO2, so I threw another 1/2 lb in each tub.  The ice wasn't melting much either.  I dragged all of the tubs into the living room so the ice would melt faster and duct tapped around the tubs to seal them better (the lids on these things suck more than I thought).

Then, on Wednesday, Mother Nature gave us a bit of a cold front.  The temperature dropped down to 10 below, so I put the tubs back outside just in case.  There is no such thing as overkill when it comes to moths.

I've began unpacking the wool this evening.  I planned to rewash everything in Kookaburra wool wash, but now I'm starting to rethink that.  Washing all of this wool is going to be a massive pain in the ass and it doesn't seem entirely necessary.  The wool wasn't harmed by the dry ice at all, so I think I'll be fine if I just start packing everything up into freezer bags.

Unfortunately, I won't know if this method was effective until some time has passed.  I'm going to be cautious with how the wool is packed and inspect it pretty regularly to make sure things still look ok.  If I'm still moth free in a few months, I guess it worked.  I really hope it does because the dry ice seems like the easiest way to deal with this much wool.

There's no motivation like a moth infestation.

I've spent the last few days cleaning out my bedroom.  Everything, regardless of whether it is edible by moths, has been removed and will be carefully inspected and cleaned before returning.  Well, the furniture actually stayed in the room, but it was moved, dusted, cleaned with the Method lavender stuff, vacuumed behind, mopped under, etc.  You get the drift.

Cleaning gives you a lot of time to think, so I offer the following excuses perfectly valid reasons why my house is in a constant state of chaos:

1.  I live in a friggin' shoe box.  I'm serious.  It's like 950 sqft without a basement, closets, or any real opportunity to be organized.  In my home there are 3 humans, 3 kitties, 2 pug dogs, 2 bedrooms and 3 closets. 'nuff said.

2.  I am supremely ADD.  I'm sure that there are people with ADD out there who are organized, but I am not one of them.  I regularly find things in places that I do not remember putting them such as car keys in the freezer, math books in with the pots and pans, Girl Scout cookies in the garage, etc.  I lose things a lot.  For example, today I was sweeping something in the hall and used the new dustpan that I bought on Thursday.  10 mins later, it was lost.  I have no freaking idea what I did with it.
Because of my ability to rapidly lose things (IN A 950 SQFT HOUSE!!!), I buy replacements.   I'm sure that this adds to the level of chaos, although I will never manage to find the other 2 dustpans, 10 tape measurers, 5 or 6 tweezers, countless scissors, etc.

3. I am overly sentimental.  I can not possibly part with that fugly snowman because Grams bought it for me.

4. I am eternally optimistic.  I will, someday soon, fit into that skirt.  It doesn't matter that I have been saying that since before I moved in here or that I am not confident enough to wear something that short even if I could.  I will fit into it someday and cannot part with it.

5. I have been, and currently am, flat broke.  I am constantly afraid that I will need something and not be able to replace it.  This instinct to horde household objects came in quite handy last week when one of my remaining new(ish) dinner plates broke.  Thanks to my stockpile of old dishes in the garage, my family was able to have dinner at the same time.

6. My husband.  I know that he believes that I am the sole reason that our house is in a constant state of disarray, but he lacks proof.  I, on the other hand, have plenty of proof that he is a contributing factor.  Observe the following:

• In his dresser drawer I found gate schedules and bag tags from an airline he hasn't worked for in the last 3 years.
• There are currently seven glass coke bottles on top of the filing cabinet because he thinks they are cute.
• He has stacks of notes from D&D games that he was playing when the 2nd edition rules were new.
• He doesn't screw the lids onto bottles.  He just sets them on top and puts them in the fridge or cabinets.
• I found several pair of pants that he has purchased and forgotten (that fit).  They all still have the tags.
• He won't let me toss his Christian Death t-shirt even though it's more holes than shirt.
• He has stacks of disks for computer games that are so old they can't run in Vista and won't run in Wine.
• He bought a new Yule tree this year because he couldn't find, or forgot that we still have, the old one (it's in the shed) 

For these reasons, I do not believe that I should be held solely accountable for the chaos that is my home. 

Reviving the blog/FRAKING MOTHS!!!!

Since I've converted to Facebook, I've somewhat abandoned blogging. Ok, I abandoned it altogether. Facebook just isn't the correct format for sharing more than a tidbit of information at a time, so I am reviving this blog. Be afraid, be very afraid.

And now, the drama of the m*ths.

So, I started the annual attempt to get the stash under control and I found evidence of moths. OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!!! I live in freaking COLORADO!!!!!! We don't have a major moth issue here. I've never even seen moth eaten garments! I've even been extra careful and stored my wool with cedar chips and lavender. But still, FREAKING MOTHS!!!!!!!

Luckily, the moths only seem to have damaged a small portion of my unspun wool, most of which sould be salvageable. Unfortunately, I appear to have 60+ lbs of wool and yarn in my bedroom alone which I must now quarantine and deal with. Add to that the epic sty that my bedroom is, and we have a serious issue.

All wool and yarn is getting bagged and put on the back porch. All cloths, books, and random crap must be removed. Everything must be washed. Everything must be vacuumed. I'm panicked and overwhelmed.

Of course, my loving husband thought I was completely overreacting until I informed him that his Doctor Who scarf is made of wool and, therefore, in danger. "They can't have my scarf!" he said. "I love it more than anything else in this room. Well, except you." Now he shares my horror. He has come to the dark side. MUAHAHAHA!!!

I never thought I would be hoping for some seriously cold weather, but I could really use some right now. If I could use my back porch as a freezer, that would seriously speed up the de-mothing process. This is going to be a royal pain in the arse. Wish me luck.

Doin' the happy FO dance!

I finished the replacement kitty hat today. I'm happy with how it turned out, not that it's a very challenging pattern or anything. The first kitty hat (seen on your right) had a very good life. It went to college in New York for 3 years, and even visited Ireland for a few months, but it has seen the end of it's days. Well, the end of it's days as my sister's hat since she washed it and it's about the right size for a six year old child. Not that she didn't continue to wear it, it just looked pretty silly. When I was out there in November, she was wearing the poor old kitty had around, and it doesn't even cover her ears now.

Fortunately, I had 3 more skeins of kitty hat yarn in my stash, so I was able to kint a replacement for my sis. I'm a much better knitter now, so I think it turned out better. I had to modify it a bit, but I think it's better than the original. I think my sis is going to give the original kitty hat to one of the elementary school kids that she reads to every week. They are in 3rd grade, so the shrunken hat should fit perfectly.

My sister looks totally thrilled about the hat, I know, but she really does dig it. We are just the opposite of photogenic most of the time. That and very very sarcastic.

The pattern I used for this hat can be found at http://www.kittyville.com/knit/kitty_hat.html

Modifications (that I remember):
Used Mauch Chunky yarn on size 8 needles
CO 72 stiches (so it was aprox 18" around rather than 22" or whatever)
Pick up 14 stiches rather than 12 for the ears because everyone thought they were too small
Forget the pom-poms because I'm lazy and I don't think the first one had them

Changes I would make in the next one: I think the ears could be double knit so they stand up better. Maybe decrease the ear flap CO along with the original CO because the ear flaps are friggin' huge!

And I just remembered that I left a stitch marker in the darn thing. I wonder how long it will be in there before she notices? It kind of blends in, so it could be a while.... maybe I won't say anything just to see if it's still there at graduation.

New years resolutions

I never do this, but I feel the need to make some resolutions for 2009. Here goes nothing:

In 2009, I resolve to:
1. Spend less time on Warcraft than I do on wool related activities or school. This means I probably ought to keep it under 20 hours a week. (The fact that I'm trying to limit myself to 20 hours a week is pretty darn sad, but we'll address this at a later date)
2. Keep the stash organized. No more leaving half finished projects in the living room if they aren't actively being worked on. No more wool in the dining room. No more wool in the kitchen unless it's in the process of being dyed.
3. Photograph my work,. Seriously, how the heck am I supposed to sell things if I don't photograph them? This is just plain lazy.
4. Sell the Ashford and the mystery wheel. I haven't spun on the Ashford in over a year, and I've never spun on the mystery wheel. They must go.
5. Cull the stash. It's out of control and currently dominates the bedroom. If I've had it a year and I haven't spun it yet, it needs to go.

6. Work on my fake hair business. I'm talented with the whole fake hair thing (seriously, here's me with green hair) and I really need to focus more on it. I love making hair, and it's why I started spinning in the first place.

Ok, I think this is a pretty good start, now for some WoW ;-)