Spin and Knit: February 2012

Monday, February 13, 2012

Strawberry fields forever.

The only homespun yarn I dyed at the dyeing workshop was these very soft 440 yards of Merino.

I spun it at least a year ago and had no idea what to do with it, as I don't like white wool.

Then I did not want the risk of wasting such a gorgeous soft yarn, so I was hesitant of dyeing it.

Now that I have dyed it, I like it better. I think of strawberry fields and blue skies when I look at it. But I still am clueless as to what to use it for.

I dyed the in vinegar and water pre-soaked wool, by sprinkling red, blue and yellow dye powder on to the wool while draping it into the empty dye pot. I proceded by adding water/vinegar to the pot the pot and slowely simmering it for some time, not disturbing or stirring the wool at all.

I think the PH of the dye pot may have been too low as the dyes struck very fast without much running in some places, giving this splashy effect.

It will be quite fun to knit and could surely make a neat kids jersey or so.

And this is what it became....a Beatrice Shawl from Ravelry

I'm pleased!

Socks; a different way.

I know that the photos here don't show socks. You are right.

What they do show are sock blankets.

They were 'sock blanks' to start with. Crocheted from a plain grey (wool polyester mix) as you can see in the balls shown on the photos.

Each blanket is chrocheted with large crochet hook, to aid speed, in double thread and weighs 100gr.

Each blank was then dyed by painting on the dye in patterns and the colours set using the microwave method.

Each blanket is enough for 1 pair of socks.

As.... yes, this blanket is going to be unraveled and wound into two identical balls to produce two identically coloured socks on knitting.

As my teen son said; "Mum you are mad!!"

Fun Fun!

A girl's dream

As there was an over abundance of orange dye solution at the dyeing workshop we were each asked to use at least orange once in a dyeing effort that day.

A little skein of white wool was transformed into what I think is a pretty girl's dream colours. Excellent to use for some baby item to knit.

I painted the dye solutions (orange, hot pink and violet procion dyes) onto the presoaked (water vinegar) skein. It was wrapped in Glad wrap and then microwaved to set the colours.

Dye results

I wrote earlier about the Dartmoor Project which I took part in last month during a Creative Fibre Dyeing Workshop in Auckland. On the actual workshop day I also managed to dye some other things.

It was quite a successful dyeing day, if I say so myself. Although I did not have much in the way of spun fibre to bring along for the event.

I'll detail each result in its own post, to do it justice.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Welcome Baby!

Babies are adorable. Dolls are fun to make. If you are like me and agree with these two statements, you can understand that I could not resist when I found this pattern which simply combines the two.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/constance-7

I knitted this gorgeous baby over two weeks and am very pleased with the result.

My only regret is that I used acrylic yarn from the shop instead of home spun wool. I never buy acrylic or wool for that matter. I think that using wool for knitting as well as stuffing this baby will feel even more life like.