#hank has severe alpaca

[madmaudlingoes]

How to Dye Wool with Kool Aid

I live tweeted this a while ago, but since Twitter is now on life support, and in the spirit of making crafts more accessible, here are my adventures in Kool Aid Dyeing.

WTF Kool Aid?

Yep! The powdered drink mix (without any sugar) functions as an acid dye -- the citric acid flavoring binds the pigment to the fiber. This can dye any protein based fiber (eg wool, silk, alpaca, cashmere) but won’t work on cellulose (eg cotton, linen, Tencel) or synthetics. If you have a wool blend, which a lot of sock yarn is, the synthetic portion may get hidden by the dyed wool -- or you may get a cool stripey effect from the mix of dyed/undyed fibers.

No really, why Kool Aid?

I mean, any powdered drink mix could work here -- the point is that it’s very cheap, easily accessible, and food safe. That last bit matters because if your dye isn’t food safe, you have to acquire pots/cups/pyrex that is Only For Dye if you don’t wanna get poisoned. So this is an accessible way to try dyeing your own materials with minimal upfront costs.

Adding a cut bc this gets image heavy.

[image ID: four clear plastic jars with yellow screw-on lids. In front of them are several packets of Kool-Aid.]

Here are my supplies: packets of Kool Aid in Mixed Berry, Grape, and Sharkleberry Finn. What's a sharkleberry? Do not ask, friend. Do not ask.

The jars in the background are breast milk containers because they have volume markings and I have a lot laying around. Measuring cups and old jars or Tupperware would work just as well.

[image ID: four jars of brightly colored liquids, with the torn-off tops of Kool-Aid packets to identify the colors. Mixed Berry is dark blue, Grape is almost black, and Sharkleberry Fin is a salmon pink.]

Here's what my "stock solutions" look like, dissolved in four oz of tap water. The color you get is based on the ratio of powder to fiber, and I'm aiming for 1 packet per ounce of wool. Dissolving it like this just lets me mix colors without going off that ratio or messing around with partial packets.

[image ID: on a stovetop, two hanks of white yarn each sit in a clear Pyrex bowl of water. Next to each bowl is a clear plastic jar with some amount of Kool-Aid mix in it. The jar on the left is very dark blue; the jar on the right is muted purple.)

(Please ignore my gross stove.)

While i was mixing the kool aid, my fiber was soaking to get it really, really wet, which helps to get an even color. The jars next to each bowl are my mixed colors - 1:1 blue to purple on the left, and 1:3 blue to pink on the right. I've got another bowl that's going to be just blue.

[image ID:three Pyrex bowls of yarn and dye arranged on a stove top. Two of the bowls are full of blue dye and one is full of purple dye.]

Here is what the bowls of dye look like when it's first added. I'm using microwave safe containers (pyrex) because besides the acid, this method also requires heat - courtesy of my microwave, which is not pictured because it's even grosser than the stove. I take turns zapping each bowl for two minutes at a time, checking in between to see whether the dye has exhausted.

[image ID: purple yarn in a Pyrex bowl full of water. The water is slightly milky but contains no trace of purple.]

This is what I mean by "exhausted". All the color has been absorbed by the yarn, and the water that was purple now looks milky/clear. If you use too much dye (=too many packets of Kool Aid at once) the bath will never exhaust. The blues took longer than the purple to exhaust, but they all were done after about 5-7 microwave rides.

[image ID: a Pyrex bowl of blue yarn sitting in water. The water is still faintly blue, but far less so than it started out.]

Here's the almost exhausted blue mix. Notice how the cotton twine I used to tie up my hanks is still white? I let this one cool with a bit of color still in the water just because I didn't want to boil it (that gets you felt).

[image ID: three hanks of yarn arranged in a metal colander. The one on the right appears vivid turquoise; the one on the left is a more muted teal; the one in the middle is a dull pinkish purple.]

Once they cooled, I transferred the yarns to a colander to rinse out any kool-aid residue and drip dry. At this point, my kitchen smelled like hot kool-aid, or possibly hair-flavored Twizzlers.

[image ID: three hanks of yarn hanging from hooks on a towel rack. They are turquoise, teal, and purple from left to right.]

Here's what the dried hanks look like hanging up in my bathroom. The one in the middle was the blue-purple mix, while the one on the left was a whole packet of blue on .7 ounces of yarn, so slight more saturated. The purple doesn't photograph well, especially next to the other two, but it’s a muted violet-gray shade.

So that's kool aid dying! You can use this to dye white yarn or fabric, or to overdye other colors. This page from the Wayback Machine gives a lot of good tips on how to combine colors, though some of the flavors are out of date. (No sharkleberry, for instance.)

#crafts #dyeing #kool aid dye #fiber arts

[couldntbedamned]

Starker Super Soft Boyfriends AU


“So let me get this straight. Your pick for date night is a yarn shop because you want to look into crochet lessons?” Tony is walking around, observing the shelves. He reaches out to feel the material of a dark red offering that catches his eye.


“Yeah. See, Mr. and Mrs. Leeds are having another baby, and I want to make something. But first I have to learn how to do it.” Peter looks kind of embarrassed, flushing a pretty pink. It’s cute. 


“You could skip the lessons here and just have me teach you.” Tony grabs a few hanks of the yarn and decides to find a suitable gold in the same weight and texture.


“You know how to crochet? Seriously?” Peter looks shocked, and the look quickly melts into one of admiration, as if Tony’s just told him he was the inventor of all science.


“And knit. I was raised by a nanny. She had very nanny-like hobbies and decided I needed a way to keep my hands busy so I didn’t destroy things when I wasn’t building circuit boards.” She’d been one of the few patient adults in his childhood.


"And you still do it?” Peter’s stroking a mint green swatch, and for a moment, Tony wishes he had the guy’s enhanced senses. Peter adds several skeins to his basket, snapping a picture of the color and lot number.


"When I get some alone time and need to de-stress. Some people cook. I build tech and play with yarn.” He’s found a beautiful blue yarn of 100% alpaca and adds it to the basket Peter’s carrying. It will look stunning wrapped around Pepper’s neck and Tony makes a note to himself to find a suitable scarf pattern. He might as well get started on her Christmas gift.


“Why keep it secret?” Peter takes the hook set that Tony hands him and adds it to the basket of yarn.


“Because if I hadn’t, my father wouldn’t have let me sit for a week once he learned about it. What about you? Any hobbies you keep on the down-low?” Tony takes a picture of a lot of purple cashmere yarn, picturing exactly what he’ll make for Peter after he goes back to MIT for the semester.


“I used to take ballet lessons. I still do the stretching, but I outgrew my ballet slippers and the really good ones are expensive to replace. And the classes, we couldn’t afford them after Uncle Ben was laid off back then.”


Tony has a vision of Peter leaping around a stage, leg extended high in the air. He must look magnificent when he dances. “You should pick it back up,” he encourages. “It’s not like we don’t have space for a studio in the tower.”


“Maybe,” Peter considers. “But first I need to focus on making this for Ned’s future brother or sister.”


Tony pretends to let the subject drop, as if he’s not already planning the renovation of an empty floor in the tower. It’ll be fun. Teach Peter to crochet, watching those gorgeous fingers of his create something soft for a family friend; and at the same time creating a space where Peter can be himself and dance his worries away. It’ll be nice.


“So, are you serious about teaching me?” Peter asks, after they leave the store with supplies in hand and nary a conversation with the manager about lessons.


“Of course,” Tony assures him, putting their purchases in the back of the Audi. “You’ll be going like a pro in no time.” It’ll be nice, domestic in a way that has Tony smiling.


“Cool,” Peter says, buckling himself in as Tony joins him.

“So… since it’s still my go on deciding the date stuff, we’re going to that French bakery.”


“Works for me,” Tony agrees. He puts the car in gear and reaches over to take Peter’s hand. “Here’s to another successful Out of the Lab Date Night.”


They hold hands the rest of the drive.

#starker #starker au #super soft starker #starker moodboard #couldntbedamned edits

[xtruss]

Alpaca nanobodies can neutralize coronavirus variants

— By Alison Bosman, Earth.Com Staff Writer | March 25, 2022

After more than two years of dealing with and adapting to life with COVID-19, the virus that causes this disease is still with us. And it looks set to be with us long into the future. Despite the use of vaccines and antiviral treatments, people are still suffering and even dying from serious COVID infection.

In addition, millions of people in poorer countries have not yet received access to vaccines, making them more susceptible to the effects of serious COVID. With this in mind, any effective treatment that may increase the chances of surviving severe infection is a high priority.

One area of interest has been the use of nanobodies, or miniature antibodies. Nanobodies are like small fragments of an antibody that bind only to a specific section (domain) of an antigen, such as the spike protein. They can immobilize a virus in this way, with their small and nimble structure making them able to get into folds and crannies in a viral spike protein. Nanobodies are produced in members of the camel family, including llamas, alpacas and camels, in response to infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have recently developed a novel strategy for identifying potent nanobodies from alpacas, in particular, that are effective against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. They have identified multiple different nanobodies and tested them in cell cultures, and in live mice, to find out whether they blocked infection by different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The findings are reported in two publications – one in the recent past in Nature Communications and the other, today, in Science Advances.

“With the help of advanced laboratory techniques, we were able to identify a panel of nanobodies that very effectively neutralized several variants of SARS-CoV-2,” said Professor Gerald McInerney, joint senior author of both studies.

Despite the roll-out of vaccines and antivirals, people in many countries still don’t have the access to COVID treatments that they need. Nanobodies from alpacas can be adapted for use in humans and carry several advantages over conventional treatments and antibodies. For example, they are cheap to produce on a mass scale and have favorable biochemical properties that make them effective in the treatment of different viruses.

The first report in Nature Communications describes a single nanobody, Fu2 (named after the alpaca Funny), that significantly reduced the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in cell cultures and live mice. Using electron cryo-microscopy, the researchers found that Fu2 binds to two separate sites on the viral spike protein, thus inhibiting the virus’ ability to enter the host cells. This part of the study was conducted in collaboration with Hrishikesh Das and Martin Hällberg at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Karolinska Institutet.

In the next phase of the study, the researchers combined a range of advanced laboratory techniques and computational methods, to assess the diversity of alpaca nanobodies and find out whether they would be effective against different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The results, presented today in Science Advances, revealed several additional nanobodies that effectively neutralized both the initial and beta variant of SARS-CoV-2 and even the more distantly related SARS-CoV-1.

“These nanobodies represent promising therapeutic candidates against several SARS-CoV-2 variants,” said study first author Leo Hanke, a postdoctoral researcher who established the nanobody technology in the McInerney group.

The researchers are currently applying the same techniques to identify which nanobodies from this set are best able to neutralize omicron, the variant of SARS-CoV-2 that is currently dominant in many countries worldwide.

“Once established, these libraries can be expanded and mined for nanobodies that neutralize new emerging variants,” said Professor Ben Murrell, also joint senior author of both studies.

[mistressofdivinity]

Image one: Day 6 #tourdefleece21 has me with 3 large hanks double spun corriedale in soft blend of whites, creams and taupe (prepared by me), a bobbin full of the same to wind off, a lovely hank of 3 ply silk merino blend with a half bobbin to be plied yet. Image 2 is today's offering. The remainder of #sunflower in merino by @bahbahfibers and some lovely goldenrod, dyer unknown. Image 3 and 4, my plans for tomorrow and saturday: baskets of Shetland wool and complementary alpaca in greys to spin and ply together (makes a yummy tonal yarn!) So far I am managing to spin and ply about 4-6 oz a day. After I do up these I will do several bulky, some fantastic rainbow, and will close out with as much lace weight shetland as I can. (at Visalia, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQy94vCBVsv/?utm_medium=tumblr

#tourdefleece21 #sunflower

[knitcrate]

Indie Dyers to Watch

It seems like every time I turn around, there's a new dyer to follow on my Instagram, recommended to me through Ravelry, or showing up on my Pinterest feed. With stripes, speckles, variegated tones, and semi-solids that seem to glow through my screen, there are plenty of new yarns out there I'd love to be knitting. Here are a few I'm watching right now. 

Photo from Plank & Stella

Plank & Stella

I am obsessed – obsessed – with the bright, cheery tones from Plank & Stella. Each skein seems optimistic, excited, and fresh. I couldn't resist pulling the plug earlier this year on a single skein of sock yarn (I'm working on a design for it), but this speckle-dyed chunky weight is just begging to become the happiest of hats. The label is also an adorable illustration, featuring a man and his cat. 

Photo from Quing Fiber

Qing Fiber

Maybe you've already seen this indie dyer's drool-worthy yarns in your Instagram feed, where she frequently shares gorgeous colorways headed into her (sold out in minutes) shop updates. If you haven't been lucky enough to score your own skein of Qing's unique bases (brushed baby Suri alpaca, anyone?) You're not alone on missing out. Nab a skein and then spend the next six months wondering what sock could possibly be special enough to show it off... 

Photo from Chasing Rabbits Fiber Co.

Chasing Rabbits Fiber Co.

If you were a member of our November 2017 Sock Crate, you already know how talented this dyer is – and how drop-dead gorgeous her colorways are! We fell in love with the Forager's Harvest colorway she created for our box: a riot of greens, purples, touches of orange and brown, and it seems like every one of her skeins has beautiful, subtle color changes and tones. Shown here is the Castle colorway, which I think would make a lovely sweater! 

Photo from Woolly Mammoth Fibre Company

Woolly Mammoth Fibre Company

It's no secret that I love the simple pleasure of naturally dyed yarn, especially when the dyes are applied to unusual heritage breed wools, like Wensleydale. I recently received a hank of this longwool lace-weight in the mail, and the lightness, shine, and slight halo are pretty irresistable (even though I have no idea what I'm making yet)! With soft tones dyed using organic materials, these yarns have a soothing quality only enhanced by the beautiful branding.

Photo from Lambstrings Yarn

Lambstrings Yarn

Okay, how cute is this company's name? This indie dyer experiments with a range of dyeing techniques and color applications, from speckles to heavily variegated tones, and everything in between, as evidenced by the rich range on her site. She also dyes to order on several delicious bases – I know I have my eye on that Tibetan Sock, a yak-blended sock yarn that has got to be the perfect recipe for extra-cozy toes!

Photo from Knitty and Color

Knitty and Color

If you've ever wanted to knit the rainbow, colorways by Knitty and Color have got your back. I picked up some of this dyer's fiber at the Super Summer Knit Together in Nashville earlier this year, and it's on the wheel right now becoming a vibrant, surprising yarn. It seems to me that any socks knit with these rainbow, bespeckled, brilliantly colored skeins would be equally exciting to make and wear.

We explore so many exciting indie dyers through the Artisan Crate and Sock Crate each month – don't miss out on your chance to discover new talent in our industry by subscribing to one of these and getting a surprise in your mailbox!

Written by Hannah Thiessen, Creative Director of Knitcrate. Hannah is also the author of Slow Knitting, and blogs at  Knitting Vividly.

#knitting tips #crochet tips #indie dyers #indiedyer #indie yarn #indieyarn #knitty and color #lambstrings #woolly mammoth fiber co. #chasing rabbits fiber co. #qing fiber #plank & stella

[blue-ridge-mountians]

Just one Weekend And Three Chickens Equals Stunning Eggs For Years To come

A powerful Amish hen house is definitely powerful and is especially constructed with sturdy lumber. It's to make sure that it might probably carry enormous cargo and could additionally resist gusts of wind and storms. Writer: Mary Marshall How do you be certain that your chickens are getting a great food plan? Do you want to provide them grit? Why not strive a movable hen ark to allow them to graze new ground daily, be protected from predators AND get a healthy and different food plan. Writer: phil There are numerous reasons that raising chickens has become a popular hobby to have. One in all the reasons is as a result of raising chickens may be cheap and it can be fun. Writer: Hank Dodson I wish to discuss hen ark plans and the free vary chicken alternate. I remember the old motion pictures with a sky view trying over the prairies and seeing hundreds of cattle grazing with cowboys sitting on their horses watching over them. Then in the next scene you see them driving them into city. Publisher: Paul Cernay Discover out the best chicken breeds in three classes: Pets, Meat, and Egg Production. The brief record of chickens who win for seems, disposition, and value in meat and eggs. Publisher: John Locke Raising chickens might be a good amount of work, however is very fun and rewarding. There's one thing that you should not worry about in relation to taking good care of your chickens, and that is figure out what to feed them. Chickens will eat just about every little thing you throw at them from meat to vegetables to pet food.

Holding chickens is a fun and rewarding exercise for the entire family. Merely making sure that they are fed day by day, their eggs are often collected and that the hen home is kept clear, will ensure that you get an ideal deal from your chickens. It is important to make sure that the housing you may have is correct for the number of chickens you want to keep and how ‘free range’ you need them to be. A hen house measuring 1.2m x 1.8m ought to be adequate for six hens, providing they've ample outdoors house too. Chicken arks and coops vary in measurement, so remember that the chickens need to have enough house in which to run round and peck, with safety from the elements, predators, harm and theft. When you find yourself first beginning out, a small but moveable picket construction is normally greatest. Ideally houses ought to be moved usually to forestall disease and to maintain the grass fresh. Housing should be water proof, rat proof and fox proof, but still present good ventilation. Your chickens should have enough area for all of them to entry the food and water.

This depends on what type of business you run for instance you'll be able to ship pet animals and also the zoo animals. Delivery private effects and shipping Haiti by AmeriJET.com. Log in or Create Account to publish a remark. Publisher: Brainwork As a result of discovery of a wide range of user-pleasant methods, flash websites now loads at higher speed and can be optimized from Seo viewpoint. Publisher: mike grant S0ftware for Animation success is the software program, case closed! Writer: noor AA: The place did your love of animation come from and the way old had been you when you determined you wanted to develop into an animator? BB: My love for animation got here from my passion for exciting particular results films like Star Wars. When I used to be young my mother used to take me out of faculty when a cool new movie was popping out so we could be the first to see it. That basically helped create a "special magic" around films for me from an early age. Once i determined I wished to be an animator I was 23 years previous. Writer: lihhui These bonuses make them merely irreplaceable within the fleet, the place they'll heal other ships. Given the right dwelling environments, arachnids make a great family pet to guys and males alike. Many arachnid lessons really feel secure close to human beings consequently there is not any motive for mothers and wives or girlfriends to worry as quickly because the gentlemen commence to spend playtime with these eight-legged animals. Examples of spiders which are acceptable as pets would be the tarantula spiders as well because the wolf spiders. Exactly like varied different creatures and bugs which people determine to domesticate, preserving crawlers as household pets additionally presents its very own benefits and disadvantages. In contrast to another companions that need high maintenance, spiders are tidy beings. They would merely sit silently inside their specific cages, clearly, should they be sufficiently given food. Several home animals necessitate vast living spaces. For instance, canines have to wander around to workout or rabbits must go to and fro. All Alpacas for Sale (https://alpacas-hampshire.co.uk/alpaca-adoption-rocky-silver.htm) But spiders do not want a lot place.

On the best way house from the Romsey show yesterday Gus asked me what had been my favourite second of the day. Without much hesitation I said that it had been watching him within the ring with Woody. I then turned the tables and requested him the identical query. So we took three alpacas to the present and we got here away with four rosettes for which we must be pleased. We did very well final 12 months with two reserve Champions however this 12 months things had modified. The massive boys have been right here. Not simply huge boys however the very huge boys had been right here. The Alpaca Stud was here, Bozedown have been here, Inca had been here and these guys don't turn up with a load of donkeys of their trailers, no they do not. It would not make issues any simpler for somebody with simply 38 alpacas. It doesn't make things any simpler at all but that is high quality, if you are not prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with the large boys you shouldn't be there. So what happened, the small print? Well Sue and Gus took Sultan and Woody into a category of 9 intermediate brown males (it seems browns are everywhere now!).

#alpacas #alpacas eating apples #alpacas fighting #alpacas funny #alpacas humming #alpacas mating #alpacas running #alpacas screaming #alpacas spitting #alpacas spitting on people #alpacas stuffed animal #alpacas t shirt #alpacas with hats #alpacas world #animals #chickens #finland #llamas #videos

[madmaudlingoes]

Further Adventures in Dyeing

See previous installments, dying wool with Kool-Aid and dying wool with Wilton’s icing colors, for more explanations + some photos of my gross stovetop. It does not get cleaner.

[Image ID: several hanks for yarn variegated in shades of purple, teal and gray laid out on a white background. On top of them is a ball of blue-gray alpaca locks.]

I’ve actually done several more experiments with Wilton’s since my last post, but I keep running into the problem of breaking. Since many of Wilton’s colors are a mix of different food dyes, and they’re not meant for dying wool, the dyes are often absorbed quite differently by the fiber - they “strike” differently, and unevenly. Which is how I ended up with the test skeins in the above photo, from WIlton’s black, when my target color was the locks in the center. Super cool effect if you’re aiming for it, frustrating when you’re not.

Fortunately, I stumbled upon this video of a woman getting a true black using Wilton’s, and tried to replicate it myself. Allons-y!

[Image ID: a stainless steel stockpot partly full of water. A hank of white yarn is soaking in it.]

First step, as always, is to soak the test yarn and get it really wet. I’m using a big pot this time, instead of tupperware, because I want to give the yarn plenty of room to spread out - and I want to gently diffuse the dye and vinegar through the bath, so all the Red 40 doesn’t get sucked up by the first bits of fiber it hits.

[Image ID: the same stock pot as above, but the water is now a dark greenish color.]

Next step, per Andi’s video, is soaking the yarn in a cold dye bath with about 1/3 the total amount of dye being used. Not much color is going to strike without heat or acid, but it ensures the dye is evenly distributed around the yarn.

[Image ID: the same yarn above, held in a pair of metal tongs. It has become very faintly pink, though the dye bath in the background still looks dark greenish.]

After ~20 minutes, here’s what I had - a not-too-uneven layer of red. So I added the next 1/3 of the dye to the bath and put the heat on.

[Image ID: Close up of the same hank of yarn, again held in metal tongs. It is a slightly darker and more even shade of pink.]

Just heat has gotten more of the dye to strike, though I haven’t added any acid yet. That’s the main reason for the switch to the big pot: a larger volume of water to start with means I can lower the pH gradually with small additions of vinegar, and I can avoid pouring vinegar directly on the yarn (which will just make a bunch of red strike that spot at once).

[Image ID: same yarn as before, but it is now a bright berry color.]

By gradually adding acid (and the last 1/3 of my dye dose) I can get all the Red 40 evenly applied to the yarn and start fixing the Blue 6 without any uneven spots. That’s why the dye bath, in the background of the photo, looks so green - it’s all Blue 6 (and a little yellow) that hasn’t struck the yarn yet.

[Image ID: multiple photos of the same yarn, as the color darkens from berry to purple to dark gray.]

It took a lot of fiddling with the temperature to keep the water hot but not boiling, and a lot of very small additions of vinegar, but eventually the dye bath ran out and I got this beautiful - and very even! - dark gray color.

[Image ID: the skein of dark gray yarn drying on a hook, with a green towel in the background.]

It! Is! Gray! All! The! Way! Round!

Now it’s just down to getting the color right so I can get to the next step of my actual project - dying some Rambouillet wool to make the alpaca locks I got from Breezy Ridge Alpacas. Then I card them together, and then I spin!

#fiber arts #dyeing #crafts