Nothing ventured, nothing gained

Buffy, I wanted to take my mostly "too white" yarns and tint them a bit for the china jugs background. The answer seemed simple. I dissolved some Wilton's pink food dye in a quart jar almost full of water, tossed in some yarn and heated the jar in the microwave for two minutes. The yarn seemed quite pink but the dye was not exhausted, so I stuffed in some more yarn with a slosh of white vinegar and cooked it in the microwave again. Then I did the same with some Wilton's violet dye and more white yarn. Here's the result.

The pinks are nearly identical, and the violets are different -- sort of blue-green and lavender. The lavender broke a bit and you can set tiny spots of blue here and there. That's really OK for such a marbled project. But these colors are way to strong for the light china background, and too bright I think for the colors in the rectangles. I hate to waste yarn so I might be able to salvage it by toning down these Easter egg colors with a soak in black tea.  That might work.

On a roll, I got out the crockpot and cooked up a batch of light brown yarn with two packets of Tropical Punch Kool-Aid and a bit of vinegar.  This will certainly do for a touch of rust in the Jug Coat. Right now these "new" yarns are airing on the door of my coat cupboard.  I'll finish this job when I get back from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Fest.

Hey, Buffy, guess how you can brighten up your Color Surprise kit! See you soon.

Should I or should I not?

Buffy, before I cast on, I've got to decide whether or not to put the striped cuff at the bottom edge of this coat. If not, I will knit a solid turned hem instead. I love the neck cuffs and those at the sleeves. But the bottom?  I've looked at a pictures of some of Kaffe Fassett's other long coats with cuffs. I can't decide. Maybe the cuff makes the coat look more casual--a good thing. Maybe the cuff pulls in the bottom of the coat and makes one's butt look bigger--a very bad thing.


Maybe the answer is a provisional cast on and a diet.

When coffee was a dime

Buffy, you're no doubt correct about the amount of light used for the Juliet Coat book photograph. I've noticed how difficult it is to get the same color results when taking pictures at different times of day in natural light. I bought some grape-colored yarn and only once saw it's true color when I put it into direct sunlight but I could never get my camera to "see" that same grape color.  And color next to color can change the look of each.

I'm sure that adding greys to the Jug Coat will help blend the colors and make the coat warm to skin tones. We'll both look terrific in our coats in any light!

By the way, I've discovered another "almost" Jug Coat by closely reading a post on the Ravelry site.  Raveler NaLM near Haarlem, Netherlands referred to a "pots and kettles blanket" that she made many years ago. I PMed her and asked if she was referring to the blue-and-white-china "pots and kettles" of the Jug Coat. She was! And she has just now posted that project on Ravelry:  NaLM's pots and kettles blanket.  (She also mentions that the yarn for the blanket cost her only a dime...) I'm still searching. Someday a Jug Coat is going to show up, probably on Ravelry. There must be a dozen around, maybe in England, because it's soooo good looking.

The Juliet Coat might be Kaffe Fassett's most popular — although none is listed on Ravelry yet. Maybe we can smoke some out of hiding!

The color surprise

LuLu, one quick post before I head east to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.

The big surprise was the color. The photo in the book "Glorious Color" shows a coat of intense, bright reds and purples. But the predominant color in the package of yarn is burgundy. I'm not disappointed...exactly. Well, yes, maybe a little. In truth, it may be a much more wearable and flattering garment, and it'll still be an absolute knock-out. But what a surprise.

Perhaps a third of the yarn is the color of the ball that's center front. I have a couple of theories: One is that the coat in the book is intensely lit, and between the lighting, the camera and the printing, perhaps the photo in the book isn't true. Or, gulp, perhaps the coat of the photo isn't actually the coat of the pattern. After all, there are pictures of several versions of the coat scattered throughout Glorious Color -- including two with bejeweled yokes.
But who cares? I have glorious yarns and an exciting project -- and finally, a little time to knit. Speaking of lighting that distorts colors, here's a poorly lit photo of the color card. I'll replace this with something better ASAP.

The Package arrives

LuLu, you wouldn't believe my self-discipline: the package of yarn arrived about April 5, and I managed to keep my nose to the tax-return grindstone and my fingers off the wrapping for FIVE WHOLE DAYS without opening it. And it was right there, leaning against the wall of my office, surrounded by tax files... By Saturday, I could stand it no longer.

So are we journalists?

Buffy, the San Mateo, California police department obtained a search warrant, broke down the door of a Gizmodo blogger and seized his computers, phones, bank records, hard drives, etc., yesterday. He had blogged about the "lost" Apple iPhone (complete with video pictures) before Gizmodo returned the phone to Apple. Gizmodo sent letter to police department demanding the return of all confiscated items saying blogger, who works from his home, is a journalist for Gizmodo (even if perhaps Gizmodo or the blogger had purchased what might have been stolen property) and therefore information about his sources of information were protected from search and seizure by the First Amendment.

Are all are bloggers journalists? Are we now journalists with special First Amendment protection (protection of our sources)? Will this question rise to the Supreme Court? Isn't it great to be a blogger?

Who's on first?

Buffy, you've got that all wrong. YOU were the one who first said, Have you seen the Juliet Coat? I didn't even own Glorious Color and had to track down a copy at the library. That's when I first noticed the blue-and-white-china Jug Coat. So put the blame where it belongs!

I'll locate you by cell phone when I get to the Maryland sheep show. I'll have a cousin in tow who lives near the fairgound.  You'll like her. Maybe we can all find something other than lamb to eat for lunch.

Well begun is half done!

Buffy, you didn't! 
I saw that kit on eBay. Wowzer. There's a long thread on Ravelry about the Juliet Coat and that kit: Big beautiful long red coat.  Such a fling (and I won't call it frivolous). Must have been a real thrill for you. Can't wait to see the pictures.


I've gathered all the yarn stashed here and there about the house for Kaffe's Blue-and-White China Jug Coat.

 It's a lot of needlepoint yarn, some crewel yarn, leftovers from decades of Christmas sweaters, even new projects that were planned and just never executed, though I hate to admit it. And a few eBay bargins. I save everything. You should see my ball of string ;-).


I've sorted out the colors I want for my coat. Kaffe's directions are a bit sketchy:  a pound of lights for china background, a pound of darks (blues) for china pattern, 5 pounds of mediums for the marbled squares. That's it. So I looked at the pictures in Glorious Colors and decided that I really like that colorway. Except for the greens and tans. I'll use medium reds, pinks, blues, lavenders, blue-greens and greys--maybe rusts. I bet the secret of blending all into a workable whole is in the use of greys. (For a split second, when I squinted, all the leftover yarns looked like Kaffe's fabulous green and orange long leaf coat, and I thought I might be doing the wrong project. But that went away.) Here's my "coat cupboard" now, and it looks like I've enough yarn for two coats.

I'm in a rush here getting ready to drive to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I can't imagine 50,000 woolly shoppers all in one place. I'll be staying in the loft of an Amish barn -- how appropriate! Did you really buy a whole fleece and take it home on the plane last year? How are you going to top that this year? You won't have any money to spend at the show now that you've bought that kit!  See you there soon.

Hits?

Lulu, did you say we have HITS already? And we haven't even started? Well, here goes.

Post-April 15 depression is a problem for tax accountants, but this year was different because you lured me into this blog, LuLu, and into an incredible project. I have been lusting after the Romeo & Juliet coat ever since I found Kaffe Fassett's "Glorious Colors" at our local library. (I thought his name was pronounced like "coffee" in Danish: KA-feh. No, LuLu explains: it's Kafe. Like Safe.)

If I were really patient, I could hunt down all the yarns called out in the book. They aren't manufactured anymore, but maybe hidden away one could find all SEVEN POUNDS of yarn needed... (Seven pounds!!!) Or, if I were very imaginative and carefree, I'd just start knitting with whatever yarns I found and let the colors emerge... But I'm an accountant, after all and brain-dead on April 15. I need someone to hand me the pattern and the yarn and just let me knit.

So, for about the price of three days in Cabo (this IS my post-tax-season fling, after all), I let LuLu dare me into ordering up the package of original yarns for the Romeo & Juliet coat, as advertised on e-Bay.

Was this one of the dumbest things I've ever done? Most extravagant? There's not one item of clothing in my closet that costs even a quarter of what I just blew on a bunch of balls of yarn that might, MIGHT someday be a coat. A coat that will weigh SEVEN POUNDS if I make the sleeves to full KF specs. Maybe on the East Coast where you live, LuLu, a SEVEN POUND coat would make sense in the dead of winter. But here on the West Coast???

Maybe tomorrow I can figure out how to post photos -- of the day the package arrived, and The Color Surprise.

And so we begin

Buffy, you've started?  Did you swatch?