Getting Ready for the Ganseys

I'm nearly done with my Nanners and it's nearly August...so naturally I'm looking forward to the Diamond Gansey Socks for the Socks from the Toe Up KAL on Ravelry! All my stash sock yarn is self-striping and I knew that wouldn't do for gansey socks. Let's face it, I'm a cheapskate and even though I wanted a kettle-dyed yarn, I didn't want to go to the LYS to get it.

So last week was Coupon Commotion week at JoAnn. Armed with six 40% off coupons, I came away with 2 balls of Sensations Bamboo & Ewe in red and Red Heart Heart & Sole; 2 balls of Spring Stripe and 4 balls of Ivory - bring out the Crock Pot and the Wiltons!

I knew I wanted a kettle-dyed look and that was about all I was sure of. I didn't wait for the water to be hot before adding the yarn. It's superwash so I figured it could handle sitting in there. I let it soak some more in the plain water with some vinegar (I don't measure) because I didn't want the dye to have time to soak in all over the place and make solid yarn.

As for color, I pulled out Wiltons brown and burgundy hoping for something resembling fall leaves. I got orange. To make it a little more golden, I added several drops of McCormick's yellow. After I'd mixed the dye in my 4 cup measuring up, I dumped it in. I dumped it fairly evenly over all the yarn, but I didn't touch it at all or take too much care to get it all covered. I never stirred it, never disturbed it once. It soaked in extraordinarily fast so I let it cool, rinsed it, and hung it out on the plant hooks to dry. I think it looks how a kettle-dyed yarn ought to look.

I'm so excited to start the Diamond Gansey Socks!

A better shot...

See? It's a little better. First one is with the flash - a little flashed out, but it shows the color variation.



This one is without the flash and a more accurate representation of what it looks like to me.



As I went through the 3rd iteration of this yarn dyeing adventure, I decided to check out Knitty's tutorial on hand dyeing yarn...again. She let her yarn soak in the vinegar/water all night long. Hear that, Jen??? All night! Not 15 minutes until you've decided you can't wait any longer. ALL NIGHT!

Next time I'll soak it all night first. Think first, then act. I might just end up with something I love.

In the meantime, I'm going on a hunt this evening for Malabrigo Chunky in Stonechat. Must make a hat.

I just can't give it up!

The blog, that is! It's just plain ol' good clean fun to have a place that's all mine to talk about my stuff. And, I got a very nice comment asking me to please not stop. Even if you're the only one reading this, that's enough for me. Thank you so very very much!

Plus, I can't talk about dyeing yarn on Ravelry. At least not how I'd like to.

Today was busy. Heck, I've been busy for about 3 weeks. All 3 kids are in school now, 2 in soccer, and other little odd things too numerous to count. Work has been coming at me full speed too. Instead of my regular morning hours, I was spending most of every day at the computer working. I think every sock we own collectively as a family of 5 was in my room unfolded. Half the room was covered in clean laundry. I finally bit the bullet a couple days ago and COMPLETELY CAUGHT UP. Yes, you heard right. Go ahead and hate me. I'm caught up on laundry.

If it makes you feel any better, I'll have 5 loads to do by tomorrow evening. That's usually how it goes around here.

Work today got so irritating that I decided to dump out all my Wiltons Icing Dyes and throw some yarn in a pot. I crashed the stash and came up with one of the 6 skeins of Patons Classic Wool in Natural Marl that I've have for nearly a year and one lone skein of Winter White. So I went for it.



There wasn't much science involved here. I was hoping for brown with bits of burgundy. I ended up with something very similar to a result I've acheived before.



But I like it. The marl gives it an effect that I really like and the fact that I did not stir the yarn left areas with less dye. I like that too. Plus, one can never miss an opportunity to embarrass the middle school daughter when she comes home from school!



My second attempt with the Winter White is not achieving anything near the results I was hoping for. I wanted to make a medium-ish brown with bits of purple and teal. The brown diluted and the purple and teal both spread and diluted. I added more brown, then added more purple and teal. Then I gave up and started randomly dotting the surface with regular dropper style food coloring. Who knows what this one will look like, but I still have fun with the process. This is pretty accurate to what I'm seeing in the pot right now.



This is with the flash. Oh boy.



I think I've added so much dye that it isn't really going to exhaust anymore. I turned it off. I might turn it back on for a little bit more. Whatev'

I find the process of dyeing my own yarn mind-clearing and creative-juice-flow inducing. I like it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Yarn Eradication is a Goooooooood Thing!

Evil grins abound today as I make stash yarn disappear! It's great! The best part? I finally get to use the Sam-eaten skein of my beloved hand dye!

This was the stuff I dyed with Wilton Icing Colors. Loved it! Then one day Sam got bored inside his crate and picked through the bars until he caught hold of one of the skeins. By the time I found it, it had been slightly peed on and chewed into itty bitty bits. I couldn't bear to throw it away so I washed it, untangled it, wound it back up, and wondered what the heck I could ever do with it.

Turns out Baby's Got a Brand New Big Bag is the perfect pattern! My hand dye looks great paired with leftover purple and brown and a felted bag is ideal for using up little yard-or-so-long bits of yarn without worrying about hiding ends. It's moving along super fast - I just started it last night - and I'm so excited about having a new bag. The bag has only a slit-type handle at the top so I might add a purchased shoulder strap when all is said and done. We'll see.

Wanna see the Fun in the Sun Hat?

I used two almost-complete skeins of TLC Cotton Plus (love that stuff!) that I had leftover from the crocheted bunnies. Yeah, I could have used the skeins to make 3 more washcloths EACH, but I was in a crochet mood and I'd just found a couple back issues of Interweave Crochet - Spring and Fall 2007 to be exact. Whee! Love them! I fell in love with the hat and had to give it a try. It is a little small for me but I'm sure I could will it into size if I wore it enough. Perhaps A. would wear it? One never can tell.

Burp cloths are moving along swimmingly. Here's the 4 I've finished so far.

The green one on top is my favorite. Each one is better than the last and I just love making these. The 5th one is even better than any of these, but I'll wait to post a photo until it's done. My friend's due date is T-minus 19 days so I'm gonna keep plugging away on these.

Next, the Mason-Dixon Washcloth frenzy. One ball of red TLC Cotton Plus made 3 washcloths and they're just so soft and nice! I had just enough yellow left over from the hat to make another. I also have enough Cotton Ease for at least one more. I have a lot of Peaches/Sugar n' Creme, but I'm hesitant to use it for these cloths because I don't want them to shrink and get goofy looking - at least not right away. These are going to be for teachers who don't get the blankets. Don't make me think of the blankets yet!

Lastly, Annette Petavy's Pillow from CrochetMe. I'm using worsted weight acrylic from the stash and an I hook, but following the pattern exactly. I stopped after 15 strips for the one on the right and still have a few more strips to go on the left one. I'll crochet backs, stuff, and toss on our sofa. My family room is looking dark and bland lately and I'm hoping these will help to brighten things up a bit.

This is a lot of stuff. What's gotten into me, you ask? I'm doing my usual thing of "I have something I have to do but I really don't want to do it so instead I'm going to enter a stage of profound yarn catharsis and produce so much that I delude myself into thinking I'm actually using my time productively."

The thing I have to do is make my niece's 1st Communion dress. I'm ready to start and I know I can do it, but it's a big and quite important project so I'm waiting for the planets to align just right before I start and that is NOT this week. It's spring break, A. has been at WI Dells with the neighbors so it's just the boys and I. Now really people, can you see the logic in laying out mounds of white (WHITE) satin, lining, tulle, and organza with two boys running rampant and just waiting for the opportunity to strike? Me neither. I'll start after they go back to school next week.

So in the meantime, I'm trying to make yarn go away. There's nothing more satisfying than throwing away bits of yarn too small to make anything with and watching the pile lessen. Plus, when I'm all done, I can buy new yarn guilt-free!

6th Avenue Heartache

I realize I'm probably dating myself here by quoting The Wallflowers, but if you don't know them and are into hip acousitc-y alternative-y Bob Dylan-y sound, check them out. In the meantime, we have a real heartache going on here.

This morning, L's county case manager stopped in for the annual signing of the paperwork fun fest. Prior to her arrival, I took the dog out and put him in his crate so he wouldn't be all bothersome and hairy. About 20 minutes into the visit, Sam starts to stir upstairs. I told her it was the dog just wishing he was down here. Sam starts to bark - and bark repeatedly. I laugh - ha ha! - he just hates knowing there are people down here when he's not. Ha ha ha!

After she left, I went upstairs to release Sam from prison only to find that he'd somehow pulled THREE skeins of my lovely Delphinium Blue hand dyed yarn into his crate. He'd peed a little on two of them (when he saw me and got an incredibly guilty look on his face) so those got a soaking in the sink and are drying (again). The third skein got the worst of it. What used to be 223 continuous yards of bluish-purple dream fiber - is now what you see below:


Rotton dog. Oh well. I guess I can designate this as the swatch and seam skein, though I had a completely different and unscathed skein all set aside for that purpose.

On a happier note, the back is done for Oblique and it's blocking to what I think are the correct measurements. I followed the directions for the medium size but I was knitting it at a tighter gauge than called for so I hope to have it more close to the small size. I'll probably block it again after assembly so I'm not too worried.


I started the sleeves and once I get through this tedious twisted rib, I'll be off and running on those. I'm fighting off the urge to buy another skein of yarn. I *think* I'll have enough, so I'm going to take a leap of faith and see how far I get with what I have. I've impressed myself with this project - I've stuck to it and never strayed once except for the staff meeting, which called for mindless knitting. I'll redo the raglan decreases on the fronts tonight and have the whole thing blocking before bed. Yay!

Giddy Biddy?

No no noooo! Niddy Noddy!

Until a few months ago, I'd never even heard of a niddy noddy, let alone knew what it was supposed to do. Thus, I obviously never would have thought I needed something I didn't know existed.

Recently I've sold several knitting books that I no longer use on eBay and now have a small stash of cash in Paypal waiting for some unsuspecting knitting object to catch my fancy. I was browsing the swifts when I happened upon some niddy noddies. They were very pretty and I even found one for under $15 with shipping. I instantly knew that this could be my alternative to winding my yarn around the overhang of my kitchen island to create skeins for hand-dyeing. But I wanted one now!

Through the magic of Google, I stumbled upon Doctor Dirt's instructions on how to make your own niddy noddy out of PVC pipe. Score! I had to do it! I bought a mini hacksaw at Walmart while L. was at occupational therapy and after dinner , went to Home Depot for the rest of my supplies. 10 feet of 1/2" PVC was only $1.29 so what the heck, I'll have extra. Two T-connectors totaled $.54 and my own contribution to the design - rubber chair leg tips - were $1.98. Whee!

I cut four 6" lengths and one 18" length of the pipe. The mini hacksaw worked great and the stuff cuts super easily. I connected them all to the T-connectors and voila! A little sandpaper to get rid of the printing and I was in business.

It was not difficult for me to figure out how to wind it, but I felt somewhat like an overgrown majorette while winding the yarn. One ball (223 yards) of Patons Classic Merino was on the contraption completely in 2 minutes (I took baton twirling lessons as a kid - muscle memory, baby!). Another couple minutes to tie it off and that was that! So much nicer than winding the yarn around my island!

The little rubber chair leg tips were my little flash of genius. The 7/8" size fit perfectly over the ends of the 1/2" PVC. When I'm ready to remove the yarn, I just remove one tip, slide the yarn off and it will fall off the other ends very easily. No snags, no yarn slipping while you're twirling around like a flag girl, and no difficulty getting it off in the end. Perfect! Another great thing about this PVC version is that it can be completely disassembled if you want or twisted so it will lay flat for storage. Yay!

I wound all six of my balls of Natural Mix last night during the Lost recap show and season premiere. I let my arm rest a few minutes between each because it is a little bit of work to coordinate all your movements just right. And, duh, I had to pay attention to the show?!?!?!?!

I bought another ball this morning just to be safe and wound it while my lunch heated in the microwave. Everything is soaking in the sink right now as I get ready for the Great Sweater's Worth Dye Experiment. Let's just hope it all fits in my canning pot!

Dyes and dye lots...the Good and the Bad

Aren't they pretty? Each color shown was dyed over Patons Classic Merino in Winter White on the left, and Natural Mix on the right. My second try at the green - this time remembering to add the acid! - was a great success. The colors were (from left to right and all Wilton Icing Dyes) Pink, Delphinium Blue, and Leaf Green. My favorite is the D. Blue over the Natural Mix. The yarn came out subtley variegated with purples and blues.

I don't know if that was just a happy coincidence or if it was because I stirred it without first wiping the pink off my spoon - but I don't think enough of the pink would've been still on the spoon to cause such variation. It's wonderful though and I hope I can replicate it when I do it on a larger - 6 skein - scale. This is the only one I've swatched so far. I think this would make a nice Oblique, but I might make a vest instead. Decisions, decisions.

Ms. Purplejeans, as she is known on Ravelry, is ready for her ribbed edging. I'm disappointed in myself for not trying to match dyelots. I knew that two of my skeins were of a different dye lot - heck, I could even see the difference - but I went ahead. It's pretty obvious. The photo above was taken without the flash and it's harder to tell, but with the flash, it is glaring.

I think I'll pack it up and take it to Michael's tomorrow and try to get another ball to match better. As it is, I don't think I have enough for the edging - at least not of the same dyelot. I'd like to be able to do it as a continuous piece and not have to join a new ball.

I've enjoyed making this sweater so far. The pattern is straightforward and easy to follow and it was super easy to do the cables without a cable needle. I don't think the dyelot issue will deter me from wearing it, but I have a backup plan should I find it too irritating to look at. I have enough of each dyelot leftover to run some overdye tests. If I have to, I'll see if I can't overdye them to be reasonably consistent. It's already so dark though that I don't want to do too much to it. We'll cross that bridge if/when we come to it.

As I ponder the fate of the 6 balls of yarn next to me, I've decided I need a niddy noddy. I'd love a swift, but at the moment, a niddy noddy is of a more pressing need. I usually wind my yarn into skeins over one end of my kitchen island, but that's starting to wear on my nerves. Plus, let's face it, I want to be one of the cool kids and niddy noddies are cool! I have some money floating around in Paypal after my recent sales and could definitely treat myself, however I just found some instructions for making a PVC niddy noddy. This could accomplish several things.

First, it's cheap. Second, it's immediate. Third, it's doggone resourceful....and fourth, the cold weather killed my van's battery yesterday and I need a good excuse to take a short drive to help build up the charge. B. has rounded the corner of his cold so perhaps after he's had his daily Wii fix, we'll go for a little drive.

In the meantime, I'd better quit daydreaming about yarn and get back to work!

Where am I?

That's how I feel today. I made a little bit of knitting progress yesterday. The first sleeve of Mr. Greenjeans is done and the second one started. The dye experiments were a roaring success. I'll have to add pictures another time because my computer is rebelling against 3 days of no sleep.


I'd hoped to have sleeve #2 done today, but sick children and temperatures approaching absolute zero have kept me mentally and physically away from my knitting.


What do you get when you cross an absent-minded-when-coming-home-from-work husband and a mom who didn't follow up on the contents of a certain 5 year old's backpack at the end of the week? A kid who missed out on his special day being Child of the Week at preschool...yay! On Monday morning when I brought B. into the classroom, the teachers asked if I had his pictures. What pictures? Nothing came home about Child of the Week so how would I know? Turned out that last Friday, when Mr. T was home early from work, he opened B's backpack, took out the contents, and put them in the laundry room - a place where I never place or think to look for schoolwork. The poor kid has been waiting to be child of the week ever since the start of school. It wasn't a total loss, he still gets to be line leader for the week - he just didn't have any photos to talk about yet.

We prepared all the Child of the Week stuff only to wake up on Wednesday (the next day of school for B) to -41 windchills and an air temp of -20. What gives? It was 43 on Monday! The elementary school was 2 hours late and preschool was flat out cancelled. Probably for the best, because B woke up with a raging cold and cough and wouldn't have been able to go to school anyway. Oh well, he'll get to bring his pictures tomorrow.

We were woken up at 2 a.m. Wednesday by L who complained that his ear hurt. Sheesh! What's next? B was coughing when I put L back to bed so I gave him some water. He continued to cough until he threw up. I gave up trying to sleep and started working.

I don't think much will happen in the knitting department today.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Today I come to you from my humble kitchen, where my Frankenstein-y dye experiments continue. But first, the weekend progress on Mr. Greenjeans.

I finished the body last night. It looks great, yet I'm hopefull that a good blocking will improve the fit. I went with the small size because a) I thought the model looked to be about my size and b) I'm trying to step away from making garments too large or too un-fitted. Also, there is a rather significant dye lot incident at work here, but I have only myself to blame. I knew there was a difference in the colors, but I went ahead anyway because I really wanted to use up the yarn in my stash rather than buy more. I hope it's not too glaring, but if it is, I may attempt a full sweater over-dye with some additional purple. The outcome is uncertain.

On to the dyeing. Remember, last week I bought Wilton Icing Dyes in Pink, Leaf Green, and Delphinium Blue. I thought it best to dye some samples prior to attempting to dye a complete sweater's worth of yarn. I decided to do 3 dye jobs using each of my 3 colors on two different yarns, to see how they look with no doctoring. First, I made 3 mini-skeins each of Patons Classic Merino Wool in Natural Mix and Winter White.

I soaked the skeins in some water with a dab of 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner. While that soaked, I prepared my dye. I used two loaf pans and a plastic container. I filled them 1/2 full with tepid water. Then I dissolved 1/16 tsp. of each dye in 1 cup hot water, stirring to dissolve completely; then I poured that into the pan. Here's the green dye bath.

I added the rinsed yarn, one of each variety to each container. I let them soak for about 10 minutes, microwaved for 6 minutes at 2 minute intervals, then added a small glug of vinegar, making sure not to pour directly on my yarn. I lined up the pans on my stove and rotated them through the microwave at 2 minute intervals on high so each got a 4-5 minute rest between shots in the 'wave.

The pink exhausted the fastest. The Winter White sample is rather shockingly pink, though we must wait until it's dry to really see what it is. However the Natural Mix sample is a really nice darker rose tone that I think has some real possibilities!

The blue is looking stunning! The photos just don't do it justice. Both came out as shades of periwinkle blue with shots of purple running through them. The Natural Mix sample has a little more variation (naturally!), but both are amazing and exactly what I'd hoped for!

The green looked like it would be wonderful...but I wondered why the heck it wasn't taking up the dye. I nuked it within an inch of it's life, then decided to rinse. All my color ran down the drain and it was then I realized that indeed, I had forgotten to add the vinegar! Yes, vinegar really is needed for color-fastness, as I learned firsthand. That's what I was left with. I'm trying it again right now - with vinegar - and gee whiz, the color is soaking in! Fancy that!

I didn't actually keep track of how long it took me to get to the point of dye exhaustion. The pink was definitely the fastest. The blue took longer and never completely exhausted. The green...well you know about the green, but it's probably going to be much like the blue. Could be because those are stronger colors than the pink or perhaps I used a bit more than I needed. I think I was able to get a good representation of the colors though and now I can better judge what will be best for what project. The green is still stewing, but here's the pink and D.blue.

Moral of the story...Kids, always use your vinegar!

Two Tone Shrug Pics

It's the Two Tone Shrug from Fitted Knits. Yay!



I love it! It took just over 1 skein of Patons Classic Wool in Brown and one skein of Lion Wool that I hand-dyed with Wilton Icing Dyes. If I'd chosen two colors of the Patons, it would have only taken two skeins, one of each color.

I followed the numbers for the 15" size but since my gauge was a little larger than the pattern called for, it ended up being about 16". I was unsure of how exactly to measure - should I measure the area between the shoulders or from the edge of one shoulder to the edge of another? Ravelry came to the rescue, as usual, because I was able to not only look at pictures of everyone's finished shrugs but also read comments on the sizing, yarns, etc. Love it!

The whole project breezed along wonderfully and I've worn it 3 times now. The only thing that I notice as a slight problem is that I neglected to knit one round in the contrast color before beginning the ribbing on the sleeves. Thus, there is a color blip that I could do without. I'm still trying to decide if it bothers me enough to redo it or if I'll just make another. My daughter even said how cute it was, but of course when I asked her if she'd like one, she promptly said no, thank you. Kinda sad, because I love to knit for other people...but I also love to knit for myself so I'm doing quite well.

My contrasting color was a skein of Lion Wool that I'd hand-painted with Wilton Icing Dyes. I wound it around my kitchen island, tied it in several places, and laid it in a 13x9 pan with a little water in the bottom. I mixed my colors in squirty bottles - kinda like those picnic ketchup bottles - and dotted it around the pan. I was originally going for more of a brown mixture, but it ended up a beautiful autumn-y mix of oranges, pinks and light browns and beiges.



After painting the yarn, I cooked it in the microwave until the dye had exhausted, then hung it outside on my planter hangers to dry. My daughter really loves this when her bus goes right by our house and yarn is draped all over the place! I wound it up and stared at it for about a month and a half before the idea came to me to use it in the shrug.

I'd seen the pattern in the book, obviously, but never considered making it because I didn't know how to fit it. Then after seeing it on Ravelry, I was convinced. I held the brown Patons wool from my stash against my hand-dye and it was perfect. This is a great pattern for stash crashing!

The yarn really does talk, you sometimes just have to wait until it has something to say!

The last of the dyes...for now...

Ok, time for a retrospective of my yarn dyeing to date. I left out the overdyed Wool-Ease, but if you really want to see it, it's a few posts back. It's peachy and not inspiring at the moment.

In the picture on the top left (counter-clockwise) we have the grape-y Dashing fingerless mitts (because that yarn couldn't wait to be knitted up), a black cherry/cherry Kool-Aid concoction, a test in tea-dyeing and Kool Aid together, a purple/blue achieved through the hot-pour method (my favorite!), and another hot-pour trial that didn't work as well as I'd hoped. The top right photo is a close-up of the bad hot-pour and the bottom is a close-up of the good hot-pour. I really shouldn't say "bad" though. The yarn does look good. There are subtle shades of green with bits of blue turquoise here and there; I just need to perfect my technique. I was going for something a little lighter and less solid.

This is the one-cable scarf from One Skein. I started this the other night with the first green yarn I dyed. I'm torn between Kool-Aid and Wilton Icing Dyes - I like Kool Aid because I seem to have a better chance at getting the semi-solids I love so much, but Wilton gives more vibrant, clear colors. That settles it, I simply have to get more yarn so that I can continue experimenting!

Right after I finish one of the 6 projects I have on the needles...

Kool-Aid Dyeing...Ohhhhh Yeeeaaahhh!

I learned a new trick over spring break!!! My daughter and I (well, mostly me) Kool Aid dyed some Lion Wool! I was inspired by The Dye Pot and the instructions for crock pot dyeing at The Yarn Path. It was soooo slick! Oh, and when I went to Walmart for some white wool (it's the closest thing to a yarn store near me), they had all the Lion Wool on clearance for $3.50! Might not be the best wool ever, but it's going to be great to play with. I bought 6 balls.

I won't go into the specifics of what I did because a) it would take too long and b) just go the The Dye Pot and look through the yarns on the front page. Those are the basic instructions I followed. You need 1 packet of regular Kool Aid per ounce of yarn. A ball of Lion Wool is 3 oz. and for this one, I used two packages of grape and one of black cherry. These pictures are a pretty good representation of the color. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting but I absolutely love it! I've been coveting the semi-solid quality of hand-dyed yarns and this gave me exactly what I was looking for! As soon as it was dry, I knit it up into the Dashing fingerless mitts from the Spring Knitty. I made the swatch out of the leftovers. I love these mitts! They fit great and they really show off the hand-dyed yarn.

But wait, there's more!

As I read about Kool Aid dyeing, I ran across a tutorial on dyeing with Wilton Icing Dyes. Well, I have a 12 pack of Wilton dyes in the cupboard and thought I might as well give it a try. I followed the same general directions to use the crock pot, but you have to dissolve your Wilton dye in boiling water - or it just won't dissolve. I was going for a turquoise and tried 1/2 tsp. leaf green and 1/4 tsp. royal blue. The color is kelly green with a fleck of purple here and there because the dye must not have completely dissolved. I like it a lot, but have no clue what I'll make with it. Time will tell.

My most recent try at dyeing was an experiment with some Wool-Ease. I had two partial skeins in Fisherman and just knew that I'd never use them as is. I decided to use icing dyes and see if I couldn't color up the wool portion of the fiber. I used 1/2 tsp. Wilton Copper and 1/4 tsp. pink for 5 oz. of yarn. The water never fully became clear, but I expected it because the acrylic part wasn't going to pick up color. It turned out a nice heathered peach color. I'll have to make this up into some kind of spring accessory. I'd like to be more creative than fingerless mitts (I do soooo love those!), but that's all that's jumping out at me right now. Maybe a cowl or a short scarf?

I've got a cupboard full of Kool-Aid, 4 more balls of Lion Wool, and a rainy dreary day....might just have to do some more dyeing!