Michael Phelps and Me - Part 1

Maureen here. What does an AARP-eligible non-swimmer from Rockport have in common with Michael Phelps? We both got 8 gold medals. His you know about. Mine were from the Ravelympics. Ravelry is a website for knitters and crocheters. The Ravelympics were held during the actual Olympics. We were to begin our projects during the actual Opening Ceremonies and finish them by the end of the actual Closing Ceremonies. We posted our planned projects on Ravelry, and the idea was that the project(s) were to be a challenge.

Medal #1: Boy, was my tote bag a challenge. I decided to Kool-Aid dye yarn, crochet a large tote bag, knit the I-cord handle, and felt the whole shebang, all during the 17 days of the Olympics. Mind you, I had only Kool-Aid dyed yarn once before. I found information about the color orange being used as a protest against China's continuing repression of human rights. So I decided on orange. First I had to skein all my yarn (Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool) on a yarn swift so that it would dye evenly. This was permissible before the Opening Ceremonies, so off I went to Roseann Hunter's inn to use her swift. I spent 3 and a half hours doing it and came away with my first event injury - muscle spasms in my back. Good thing Advil is not considered a performance enhancing drug by the Ravelympics Testing Lab.

Next, I completed my dyeing research with the help of some very nice people on Ravelry and started my Kool-Aid dyeing in the crockpot as Leslie had previously blogged.

I used the Mandarina-Tangerine Kool-Aid and my yarn came out construction cone orange. That was NOT going to go with the pale peach and coral I had planned. After I let it dry for a day, the color did not mellow at all. I then tried overdyeing the orange with some Tamarindo Kool-Aid, a Latin flavor that I could only get on ebay. It's a brownish color with an odd odor when combined with the water and white vinegar in the crockpot. Alas, it didn't have much effect. So bright orange I had.

Plan B: I decided to do orange, brown and red. I still had the orange as my blue state, liberal protest and the colors would be nicely autumnal. Ha! That's what I thought.

Part 2 of this story tomorrow.