There's a new lys in homberg called Loops.  They're really sweet!  http://www.loopsyarn.com/

We were using meetup.com but they have starting charging $19 a month per group!  That's just ridiculous, so we've moved to Yahoo Groups.  I think a lot of other groups are leaving meetup.com too.

Make sure that isn't sweetened Kool-Aid -- if it's sweetened, you don't want it. Unsweetened only.

My curiousity is killing me - why don't you want the sweetened kind?

great experiment! but wouldn't you have to use a whooooole lot of kool-aid to dye any significant amount of yarn to match these colors?

Guessica - It seems so based on the amount I used, but according to other posts, I'm not so sure.   Some of the lighter colors that soaked up the color really fast would probably need more, but the deeper / richer colors never soaked in all the color from the water, so they will need less.  I guess - buy more than you expect to use just in case.  You can always drink your leftovers.  :-)

Thank you, babyduck!!!!!! I've been looking for a drink mix that produces a magenta or deep raspberry color. Which do you think fits that description? I've got to find Drink Aid! I hope you had fun with your experiments.

Sewer Rat - I think #7 (Raspberry) will probably be what you're looking for.  It's worth spending 20 cents to try it and make sure.  Just do the same sort of experiment I did on one or two colors to make sure before you dye a whole butt load of yarn.  It was fun.   

Hey everybody -

I did some experimenting with colors to see exactly what results I would get.  Here's a pic and a link to my blog with all the details.

http://knitsmartt.blogspot.com/2005/03/wool-dyeing-experiment.html

I count on my toes.
It sounds weird, I'm sure, but it really works for me. I'm very bad about remembering what row I'm on, so this helps...

I don't think it's crazy, I think it's thinking on your feet.     Ha, I crack myself up.  I do like the idea though.  I use a pen, remote or something else near by when I have to do an every other row kind of thing (like on socks where you decrease one row then knit one plain row).  If the pen is pointing toward me, I decrease, if it's pointing left to right, then it's knit row.  I knit while I'm watching TV, so I tend to get very distracted. 

I put the circular needles (always with bamboo tips) or short bamboo needles in my pocket.

Oh, oh, you could use some straight bamboo needles as hair sticks and put your hair up.   

So I think it goes both ways.

I agree - when I go to the LYS, most of the ladies that work there give me a hard time for being continental, but the few who knit continental praise me for it.  I guess knitters are very loyal to their methods. 

I have a friend from England (has been in the US now for about 6 years) and she has been knitting her whole life, she's always telling me that the yarn here bites big time in comparison to what you can get in the UK.  I'm not sure how the prices compare, but most skeins of good yarn are at least $7 dollars per 50 grams, so that's about 5 Euro or 4 pounds.  We do have some discount yarn places like Elann.com - where you can get most yarns at about 50% off.  But yeah - from what we hear you have way better yarn.  I think it's mostly because knitting is such an established past time there and here it seems that knitting is picking up in popularity.

I wonder how many people knit here vs in the UK or even Europe.  I bet per capita it's way higher there.

I learned to knit English method, but could not get my gauge right and the whole process just felt very awkward to me.  I knit for about a year in English method (only doing beginner stuff), then I picked up a how to knit phamplet and it showed both methods.  The continental method just looked more doable to me, so I tried it and picked it up pretty quickly.  I still find situations where knowing the English method is an advantage, but I will never go back.  I knit super fast in Continental, plus my guage is spot on.  It can take a while to get it, but just be patient and allow your fingers to feel awkward - remember how awkward it was when you learned how to knit? 

Oh - one of the biggest speed increases I've seen is doing a rib stitch or a seed stitch where your yarn has to travel front to back a lot.  In fact - this might be a good thing to start on because it forces you to do both and I always think if you start with something challenging the easy stuff will be.. well, easy.

Good luck!