Froggy the Fish, Tap Water Quality, and Dyeing Yarn Thoughts

Sometimes you learn things a little too late. For Lucky's birthday we got him a fish, "Froggy."  After being home a few days, Foggy got a little sick and was having trouble swimming.  It turns out that the tap water in my area is high in nitrites, and if you're a fish owner that is BAD for fish.  The pet store was very nice, but said that the swim bladder issues the fish was experiencing could have been underlying before the fish came home with us.

It broke my heart, but the store gave Lucky a choice.  1) we could try to treat Froggy at home (which could be hard because he has other strange symptoms) or 2) we could bring Froggy to the "fish hospital" and bring home Froggy's brother.  Lucas chose option 2.  I know that I'm naive, but I honestly can't tell if they are going to try to treat Froggy or if they are going to help ease his suffering.

Froggy II (aka just Froggy after this blog post) 

Anyway, this makes me really curious about my tap water when it comes to yarn dyeing.  I know that sometimes you get different results as me with a similar set up, and little differences in the water could absolutely affect the final pH and other conditions for dyeing yarn.  Next time we get the water report from the city, I'm going to pay closer attention and maybe then do a bottled water vs tap water video to see if there are any differences.  I'll try to share some of the information with you since I use tap water for my dyeing videos. I've been meaning to do a video on pH and yarn dyeing for a long time anyway, but now I am hoping to take a closer look at it sooner rather than later.  Maybe there will be a difference in results when we compare tap versus bottled water.

Froggy I started showing symptoms within a day of being home.  Froggy II was thriving after multiple days in the tank created with purified water and betta fish conditioner.  His fins are open, he loves to flare at a mirror, and he is frequently swimming and exploring the whole tank.  Froggy II has a lot of personality.  He loves to hang out in the fake leaves, but sometimes wedges himself behind the filter or under the back of the Triceratop's frill.  He knows I am a source of food, and will come out to say hi when I come by the tank.

I have dyed some yarn inspired by Froggy I (stay tuned!), and now I need to think about dyeing some inspired by Froggy II!  I love that his fins are a warm blue with some flashes of red.  He is a Half Moon Double Tail Male and his colors almost feel iridescent.

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Reflection of a reflection! Does Froggy look a little different? Stay tuned for a new blog post on our lessons as a new fish family and the quality of our tap water. #bettafish #reflection #halfmoondoubletail #fishnamedfroggy #petfish

A post shared by ChemKnits (@chemknits) on Oct 25, 2018 at 3:33pm PDT

After this blog posts, all references to Froggy II will just be "Froggy." 

A Blast from a Birthday Past

How is my little Lucky 3 years old?  Lucky had a great birthday party last month, even if our playground party got rained out and we had to move it indoors. We did a number of fun birthday pictures with our newly minted 3 year old (is he still a toddler?) and I realized that there was something silly we could try.

For Lucky's first birthday cake smash, I made him a turtle butt diaper cover and a party hat with a crochet whale and pompom.  We have the party hats I made sitting on a floating shelf in Lucky's bedroom.  I have been going through the clothing I knit for Lucky so Rowdy can have a chance to wear it (he'll probably wear the same turtle butt at his birthday party).  I realized that Lucky might still fit in this diaper cover!

2016

2014

Most kids clothes change in length, not width.  The turtle butt cover is a little short, but Lucky had a blast trying on his First Birthday Suit.  (I realized later that I chose the wrong hat for him.  Whoops!)

Before I decided to make the turtle butt for Lucky's smash cake, I made a wool turtle butt before he was even born.  (The smash cake outfit is acrylic so it is machine washable.  Most diaper soakers are 100% wool so they can soak up any diaper leaks.)  I never really needed a diaper soaker for either boy.  They never leaked in the daytime.  However, since I had a small and a large turtle butt in the house this means that BOTH Lucky and Rowdy could wear them!

A certain big boy loves his baby brother so much!

I think that Indy was glad that I didn't have a turtle butt for him, too.

It is only the beginning of November but I'm already thinking a lot about Rowdy's first birthday party and smash cake.  I don't think I'll be able to have as much DIY at Rowdy's first birthday party, Lucky's first birthday was sure a whale of a party!

Spinning Broken Violet

4 years ago today* I started spinning on a drop spindle.  This was really my second attempt at spinning but the first attempt didn't work out so well.  I've come a long way since then and since I had just recently published a few dyeing roving videos I thought it was time to try to create a spinning video.

*March 28, 2016

This is not a how to spin video, but a look at how I spun this particular yarn.  My followers frequently ask to see what I made with a particular yarn or fiber, and to be honest I haven't had a chance to knit or spin many of the fibers I've dyed.  They are in my queue of projects but end up being pushed backwards each time a new baby is born or another winter comes around.  Today, in honor of my 4 year spinnaversary I decided that I would take the most recent fiber I dyed and spin it up.  I broke Wilton's violet food coloring on braided roving which gave some really awesome speckles of color.

This spinning video is not a tutorial.  I am not trying to teach you HOW to spin on a Kromski Fantasia like my trusty Sandry, but really more showing the decisions that I made when spinning.  If you gave the same fiber to 20 different spinners you would get 20 different yarns.

Here are some of the questions that I think about before I start spinning:

• How many ply's do you want?  (1, 2, 3, N-ply etc)
• What direction will you spin the wool (S or Z)?
• How thin will you spin the yarn?
• When drafting the fiber, how will you divide it up?  You could pull the fiber apart to do a gradient, or create long or short stripes depending on how you start.  
• Do you want to create a specialty yarn by introducing beads, different thicknesses, thread or anything else you could imagine?

To be honest, I don't always think VERY hard about these questions.  I try to let the fiber speak to me and as I start spinning I decide how thick or thin to spin it.  I usually make a decision about the number of plys and the direction before I start, but sometimes even that can change as I go along.  

Today I'm going to make a 2 ply yarn.  I will spin it traditionally with Z-twist singles (spinning the wheel clockwise) and plied with an S-twist (counterclockwise).  Sometimes I weigh the fiber after separating it to adjust, but my singles aren't perfectly regular so I frequently with have a few extra yards on one bobbin even if I start out dividing the fiber evenly.  

I'm not that good at planning out the thickness of my yarn  yet.  I sort of let the fiber speak to me and try to stay consistent with how I'm drafting it.

I wish that I measured the WPI of these singles.  Maybe they are fingering weight?   

Spinning is a lot harder to finish up these days between Lucky, Rowdy and Indy.  Sometimes I'll sit down to start spinning and someone will wake up, start barking or need a snack.  I can't spin while Lucky is awake because he will want to play on the wheel, too.  

Time to ply!  I never know how even the bobbins will be.  In the past I've weighted them but really it doesn't matter too much.  I just try to start with as even an amount of yarn as I can and then try to spin consistently.  

After I finished plying the yarn there wasn't very much left on the second bobbin.  Wow!  I didn't even weigh the fiber this time.  Normally I'd use my ball winder to create a center pull ball and then ply from both ends, but the remaining yarn is short enough that I just wound it around my hand.  I plied the yarn from this little ball.

I wound the 2 ply yarn onto my PVC pipe niddy noddy.

81 wraps =324  feet = 108 yards

If I measured the WPI I didn't write it down.  I think the yarn is probably a heavy worsted but I will need to update this once I can confirm it.

The little skein was not set on the niddy noddy. I wrapped it around my yarn and hung it up to dry.  The skein looks a little fuller and bouncier to me, but it is also possible that the original singles were thicker.

Broken violet food coloring is one of my favorite things to dye and then to spin.  I love the way the colors break into multiple tones.  The depth of color is amazing!  

Make sure you check out the video of my spinning this yarn!  Let me know if you think I should make other spinning videos.

Spinning started and completed 3/28/16.  Plying completed 3/29/16.

Cardboard Airplane!

When I crocheted the baby aviator hat, I loved the way the Repeat Crafter Me designer photographed the hat on a 6 month old baby in an airplane box - and she shared the pattern to the box plane, too!  This was so cute that I knew that I wanted to make the box as soon as possible for my boys to play with.

Rowdy at 2 months old, Lucky at 2.5 years

I LOVE the Repeat Crafter Me blog.  The designer has fantastic crochet hats and I was thrilled to not only make the aviator hat but the cardboard airplane that was used as a photography prop.

At the end of February, while both boys were napping, Keith and I thought that this would be a fun project to do together.  Keith was on board (cardboard, haha) to be a part of this project.  We wanted to make a plain big enough to photograph Ryder in the hat while sleeping and for Lucas to play in.

The box we selected is huge, big enough for both boys at around 16" x 26" (measured by Keith's hand and feet) and around a foot deep.  The main reason for selecting this box is that it had good proportions and was plain on the outside.

It is hard to cut a curve in cardboard without bending it.  Scoring it along the curve with a scissor edge made it MUCH easier to cut around.

We traced the second curve the wrong way to have symmetrical swoops, but it turns out that the piece I cut out was symmetrical.  YAY!

I trusted Keith to draw the curves, he has a good graphic eye and is much better at free hand stuff than I am.  

Pieces cut according to directions by Repeat Crafter Me

The first wing was MUCH too long, so we needed to cut it down.

I used a sharpie to create markings similar to the ones in the original post.  Eventually I plan to let Lucas and Keith go to town decorating the plane, but I wanted it to be simple for some initial photography.

Can you believe that this box plane is made out of only packing tape and a single cardboard box?

The wings are still removable but the tail and propeller are pretty secure.  Lucky hasn't broken this box and it has been accessible to him for months now.

Rowdy at 6 weeks old

Rowdy's picture of the day on Leap Day was him dressed up in the box plane.  How cute is he?  

Rowdy at 6 weeks old, Lucky at 2.5 years

Rowdy at 6 weeks old, Lucky at 2.5 years

Shortly there after I put both boys in the box plane for the first time.  Lucky loves getting a chance to snuggle his brother and back when Rowdy was so tiny he needed some extra support.  Snuggle time inside a box was perfect to keep them both safe.  

Rowdy at 2 months old

Indy is such a trooper!  He is happy to snuggle with his boys, too.  This box is turning into quite the photography prop in addition to being great for imaginary play.

Rowdy at 2 months old, Lucky at 2.5 years

Do you have any suggestions for other box related crafts we should try?