Back to School and More Crafting

Wyatt's school had a picnic to get everyone together before class started.  He was very excited to get back to school.

Arlo is in it for the playground!

First day of 2nd grade!

We went school supply shopping..I had to capture Arlo's "California Boy" look...flip flops and swim trunks-and we're not at the pool.

With a nephew on the way, I decided to undertake yet another project.  I got inspiration from this blog post. This is two skeins of Fisherman's Wool from Lion Brand Yarn.  (about 900 yards).   I wound them into hanks and  soaked them overnight in a 50/50 water and white vinegar mix.   

Wyatt and I used one package of McCormick food coloring.  After re-reading the inspiration post, we should have purchased two...but for a fist try, I'm really happy.  Wyatt squirted the food coloring in a stripe pattern along the width of the hanks.  We alternated colors so that red was next to blue to make purple and so on.  Wyatt squirted water on the yarn and I used my hands to work the dye into the yarn.   I then put the yarn in a bowl, covered with saran wrap and microwaved it for 5 minutes.  I let it cool, and microwaved again for 5 more minutes. 

I only had one glove...this isn't a one-handed project!

After the yarn cooled, I rinsed it in cold water and hung it to dry.  It took 2 days in the garage to dry.  Seeing it hung, I was a little concerned that this would look too much like a tye dye t-shirt, but it doesn't!

I wound the first hank into a center - pull ball based on some tutorials I found on line.  It took a long time to wind it and my arms hurt!  I had a 50% off coupon to Michael's, so I treated myself to an electric winder.   I'm glad I didn't pay full price, though.  It certainly was much faster to wind, a lot less labor on my part, and much neater (I'm guessing I'll have a lot less tangles) but I wish it had a larger capacity as I had to cut the 2nd skein into three balls.  I started an afghan for soon-to-be baby Nordwall, which you can see on my hooks.   

Last night I made this recipe from French's.  This was a success at our house and it was nice to add something new to the menu!  It took about 30 min to make and was delicious.