Lessons Learned Through Pinstrosities

Most of us have learned valuable lessons through Pinterest and our Pinstrosities. 

Kelli learned that these 2-ingredient lemon bars need a pan bigger than a 9x13:

Shannon learned that this "17 Ways to Never Have a Bad Hair Day Again" list needs a different name:

Amy learned not to walk down the street on a hot day to deliver banana split bites to a neighbor:

I think the bananas needed to be a little shorter too...

Abigail learned that the tip she saw on Pinterest about substituting mayo for eggs doesn't work in every recipe:

And Rachael learned that not all "DIY Cleaners" pins on Pinterest are safe:

"My name is Rachael and I am a military wife living in Georgia. My husband is currently deployed and I am a stay at home mom for the time being so I am a huge pinterest lover. Well, most of my projects come out great! However, last night I rescued a chihuahua from a really bad situation and after bathing it and putting it in the kitchen with my other dog I realized it had worms (icky) so I decided even though it was 2 am, I needed to disinfect my kitchen floor and separate the dogs. I had pinned a post for super disinfectant mop solution some time ago so I decided to pull it up. The recipe called for a gallon of water 1 cup of vinegar, 1 cup of bleach, and 2 tbsp of dawn dish soap. Excited to try this new thing I got out my mop bucket, products and mixing cups. I poured it all in the bucket and as soon as I added the bleach, a white cloud of chemicals started rising out of my mop bucket. I freaked and went to move my dogs out of the way and she knocked over the bucket. So I sopped it all up and proceeded to call poison control because my eyes were burning and some got on my feet and it was burning and my whole house had an awful smell. I was told to open all the windows in my home, run fans and get myself and the two dogs and my toddler out of the house immediately. By this time is was three am. I woke up my two year old and me and the two dogs and her sat outside from 3-4 am in the freezing cold waiting for the fumes to dissipate. I tried to find the pin to attach it, but it has been deleted due to my actions of reporting it! My family got a good laugh and I'm trying to find the humor in the awful night, lol. I love your site and blog. Thanks for bringing lots of smiles to my face during the hard third deployment."

And then sometimes we have lessons that we learn completely free and clear of Pinterest. They end up being more of Lifestrosities. We had a recent one in our house. I had a huge chunk of work to do one week and was barely staying afloat, so my sweet husband worked on cleaning the house for me. I was in the zone and not paying much attention as he was straightening the kitchen and loading the dishwasher. It wasn't until I saw something white moving across the floor than I looked over and chuckled. 

Cameron learned that when you're out of dishwasher detergent...you can't pour in regular dish soap. 

Teehee...he hadn't noticed yet. I grabbed the camera and snapped a photo just before he turned and discovered the adventure pouring out of the dishwasher. Poor guy had no idea this would happen. Here he was thinking he was the most awesome husband in the world as he cleaned the kitchen and rocked out to The Pogues, only to look up and discover the never ending spew of bubbles. So what do you do at this point? You mop. And Mop. And Mop. And Mop. Our floor is cleaner than it's been in a long time! 

It took 3 full runs of the dishwasher before it quit looking like this inside:

We laughed about this all day. And that brings me to my final "lesson learned" of the day. Don't let these "life lessons" (be they Pinstrosities or Lifestrosities) get you mad or down. Life is too full of stress and dumb things to be mad all the time. I'm glad we have the bubble mess as a funny memory to look back on rather than one where we got mad and made a huge deal over nothing. Life happens. There will be ups and downs. Just breathe (well...unless you're Rachael...then breathe once you're out of the fuming house), smile, take a picture, and try to find something funny or good about the situation. As Eleanor Hodgman Porter wrote in her book Polyanna, "You see, when you're hunting for the glad things, you sort of forget the other kind." Find the glad in life. It'll make thing much more bearable. 

Kool-Aide Yarn Dye

Hello all!

This semester has been a busy one, and it isn't showing any signs of slowing for at least another month! I am blogging where and I can and props to Marquette for keeping the show running while I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off haha She rocks!

I will happily be back to blogging three days a week when the semester ends :) Hallelujah!

 

You know what else rocks?! Kool-Aide :)

 

Nothing says summer is here more than a big glass of cold Kool-Aide and a Kool-Aide mustache to go with :)

 

Willow sent this to us the other day from when she was in our neck of the woods (Yay New Mexico!) and I have to say I think people are very creative! Check it out!

 

The Original

http://maiyamayhem.blogspot.com/2011/07/kool-aid-popsicle-dyeing.html?m=1

 

This fun technique of dying wool yarn to (emphasis on wool, this won't work on cotton), involves concentrated Kool-Aide ice cubes and heat from the sun, for a full tutorial go here.

Willow saw this and then happened upon some wool yarn at a gift shop here in NM, when she tried this technique it didn't work out quite the same for her.

Here are some of the steps used for this technique.

First you create your ice cubes, then place them on your white wool in a glass dish.

http://maiyamayhem.blogspot.com/2011/07/kool-aid-popsicle-dyeing.html?m=1

 

 

Next you set it in the sun, and the cubes melt and the yarn soaks up the colors! Fun!

 

 

                           

http://maiyamayhem.blogspot.com/2011/07/kool-aid-popsicle-dyeing.html?m=1

 

If you are trying this during the colder months, one blog tried this technique but instead of setting them in the sun, she tried a wood burning stove, and her oven (ingenious!) you can find her blog here.

 

 http://www.darkbluedragon.com/node/85

This is how the second bloggers (wood burning stove/oven technique) yarn turned out:

http://www.darkbluedragon.com/node/85

 

Now our reader Willow tried this and hers didn't take so well, here is her story"

 

"So, on my way back to New Mexico from my Grand Canyon trip, my new hubby and I decided to stop in all of those cheesy "Authentic Indian" tourist traps along the highway.  Imagine my surprise when I came across several skeins of nice, undyed, hand spun wool tucked back in the corner of one. Nice!  And cheap too. As a knitter and crocheter, I couldn't resist.  So, of course I bought them all (6 skeins).

In the back of my mind, I remembered this little gem that I've always wanted to try but haven't been able to for various reasons.  Now I could! Yay! So I went to the store and bought tons of Kool-aid packets and the next day I went to work freezing Kool-aid. 

I used the same ratio of Kool-aid to water that the original blog suggested. But I wasn't sure how long to soak the yarn in vinegar and water, because it doesn't really say, so I did that for about fifteen minutes. I placed the ice cubes based on the pictures in the pin.

 Of course, the weather was unseasonably cold the next day, so I couldn't set my wool outside for the ice cubes to melt so...I put them in the oven at 275 covered in aluminum foil. Now, based on the second post by the original blog I "baked" the yarn for about half an hour then turned them over and put them back in the oven for another half an hour until the water in the bottom was clear.

 I dyed them all together because I wanted to use all six of them in the same project. The grape didn't take at all, neither did the orange... But the pinks and reds did. Not a complete failure, but not the blended, smooth colors of the original pin or the Dark Blue Dragon blog either.  Mine came out spotty, not variegated. I know that I can re-dye it later, but I'm going to see how it knits up."

 

Here are her results, I think it looks like spaghetti!!

The Pinstrosity

 

So how do we fix this?!

There are a few things that come to mind, to start with Willow mentioned that she didn't know how long to soak them in vinegar because it doesn't say, but the original blogger did say to soak them for 30 minutes in the vinegar solution before you do anything else (Pinstrosity PSA, when DIY-ing, please read ALL directions before starting anything, that is the number one thing we see here...read read read!!!) . This may have had a small part in this Pinstrosity but I don't think it is the main culprit here...

Another thing is that perhaps if Willow bought on off brand of Kool-Aide that may have had something to do with it, but she didn't say so I can't be sure.

One might wonder as well that perhaps the yarn wasn't 100% wool. You never know when someone could put fillers in there, and I am willing to bet there wasn't a fancy label on the skeins either that told you exactly what was in there, the original blog specifically states that this DOES NOT WORK on cotton yarn.

The main thing I think went wrong here is that her dye didn't really spread (did her ice cubes melt funny for some odd reason?!), and perhaps her wool didn't get hot enough. The original blog says that if when you are rinsing the yarn out at the end if you see ANY color running out to stop and let it continue to soak in the sun/oven. I am wondering if her yarn just didn't soak up enough?!

 

I am calling on you Pinstrosipeeps!

All my crocheters and knitters out there, this is an SOS! What can we do to help Willow, anyone have any other ideas as to what is needed to make this Pinstrosity a Pin Win?!

Let us know! I am sure Willow would be more than happy to hear your two cents and help us figure this one out!
Happy Wednesday Pinstrosipeeps!