Violet Green Socks

I finished another pair of socks yesterday, I used the yarn I dyed for the February DAL details can be found here.

They fit wonderfully, Violet Green's sock calculator pattern works like a charm and so fast to knit. I used 4ply sock yarn with 2.5mm DPNs made to fit a UK size 3 shoe. I'll have to ask Kevin if he can make me a sock blocker in that size.

Then of course because I had nothing to mindlessly knit whilst watching the TV I just had to cast on another pair of socks (can we say 'new obsession'?). This time I used the new yarn I dyed, the Limed Carnation (pink & green) and the same pattern.I hope to eventually have enough hand knit socks to last a fortnight :-) They're just so much nicer/better than shop bought.

February DAL (Dye-a-long)

They say patiance is a virtue, well I never claimed to be virtuous. There was mention of a DAL on Ravelry for February, the theme: Passionate Pink.

So, I ordered some dyes (Kool Aid and Procion MX) and a skein of yarn from DT Craft & Design. As usual their service is wonderful and my yarn and dyes arrived the next day.

Not being able to wait until February I had to have a play, well I've never used Procion MX before and dyeing is just too much fun not to mess around with it.

My base yarn is 75% Blue Faced Leicester/25% Nylon sock yarn and I used 2 sachets of Kool Aid Lemon-Lime and a quarter teaspoon of Procion MX dye powder in Brilliant Pink. I used the dip dye and microwave method.
I'm really pleased with how well the Procion MX dye worked, gave a good colour saturation throughout the skein.

Pah!

Well (cough), remeber that resolution I was pratteling on about the other day? Yes, yes the one where I don't cast on anything new unless I finish 2 WIPs.

Well, err, I kind of broke it already. Okay, I didn't break it as much as I threw it on the ground and stomped all over it.

On Saturday (3rd January) I cast on for the Back To School U neck Vest by Stefanie Japel from Fitted Knits, I justified this by telling myself that I had just finished two jumpers and a pair of fingerless gloves.I'm using King Cole Fashion Aran in colour 162 Heather, that I got from Abakhan in Manchester and I'm using my Harmony options size 4.5mm and 3.75mm.

But then yesterday I decided I'd do a DAL (dye-a-long) that I found on Ravelry, the theme January Blues. I got out my one last undyed hank of BFL/Nylon sock yarn and set to dying.
I used 1 sachet of Grape kool Aid, 1 sachet of Black Cherry Kool Aid and half a bottle of Dr. Oetker blue food colouring. Rather than dip dying I decided I'd be clever and actually hand paint the yarn this time (yay, go me.) I finished it off in the microwave instead of the slow cooker to ensure the colours didn't bleed into each other.

Then I was so excited about how well it turned out I wanted to see how it knitted up, so I cast on a pair of socks, I'm using Violet Green's sock calculator pattern and size 2.5mmDPNsSo I haven't really broken my resolution as badly as it seems (or at least that's what I'm telling myself) and hopefully I'll have a lovely vest and pair of socks by next week.

Victorian Lace Today Scarf

As usual life got in the way and I ended up having to do a rush job on this, although I still really like it, it’s not what I originally planned.

I did do the Stripes and Torchon lace on page 158 for the center panel, just didn’t use the border from that pattern. I only cast on 41 stitches as I did two of the stripes and repeated the pattern 12 times. After blocking the scarf turned out 10.5 inches wide by 60 inches long.

Instead I chose the wide Clarence border on page 82.

I used a superwash sock yarn that I hand dyed in the slow cooker. Also, as I didn't have anywhere to block the scarf I doubled it over and blocked on the ironing board seemed to work fine.

It’s mum’s birthday today and I’m meeting her at lunchtime for a coffee and will give her the scarf then. I'll try and get some pictures of her wearing the scarf and upload them later.

Small update

Seems to have been ages since I last updated my blog, I do have a few things to share.

I've been working on Goddessknits mystery shawl #10, as usual with Renee's patterns it's turning out to be a beautiful shawl. I've just started clue 4.

I've also been dying again, this time a yellow/green combo I've decided to call 'Harvest'. the base yarn is 75/25 superwash/nylon, it's a 4 ply fingering weight yarn. It was also done with food colouring and the slow cooker. I swear, my slow cooker has never been used as much as it is now that I'm dying yarn.

I crocheted some new headphone covers as our old foam ones had split and they had become uncomfortable, now they're wonderfully soft and cosy on the ears.

I'm also working on something for my mum's birthday but don't want to say to much as I know she sometimes reads this blog. Suffice to say, it's something from Victorian Lace today. I also had to dye the yarn for this as the yarn I wanted to use just didn't do the pattern justice, once it's been gifted I'll let you now more about it.

Hmm. seems it wasn't such a small update after all.

I dyed again.

I've been at it again, dyeing it's addictive! My yarn base was different this time, 75% Superwash and 25% nylon sock yarn (4ply).

This time rather than Kool Aid I used Supercook food colourings from Tesco, really cheap, 15p for a 38ml bottle. I just bunged the colouring into the water with some white vinegar and let the slow cooker do the rest. The blue/wine worked out better than anticipated and is by far my favourite dye job. I dyed it all blue to begin with, then dipped half into red dye and ended up with a wonderful colour I've decided to call Aqua Bordeaux.

The next lot was just red with a tiny drop of blue mixed in, I'm calling it Coralistic. Again it was done in the slow cooker.

I'd dye for you.

Okay, I've had another go at this dyeing malarky. I've used the same base yarn but a different method.

My dye stock was 2x black cherry 2x grape and 1x ghoul aid. This yarn was done in the slow cooker (crockpot). The dye was sucked up by the yarn so fast I was really quite worried. I'm not sure if I want to overdye with some bright red or not, not sure how that would look.

I've also included a picture of my previous attempt now that the yarn has dried.

Of course England being how it is, there is hardly any sunlight this morning to take the shots in, so it's quite dark and the true colours aren't quite right, I'm hoping it'll brighten up later and I can take some better pictures. These pictures were taken outside and are as good as it's going to get really.

Another dye job!

I tried my hand at dyeing yarn again today, using Kool Aid. Christ alive I couldn't drink the stuff as it smells so over-powering, but drink it I didn't, I did what any sensible person would do and bunged it on some undyed yarn.

My base yarn was 100g (400m/437yds) DT Craft & Design sock yarn (75%BFL/25%nylon) and I used 3 colours/flavours of Kool Aid in the following amounts:

1 sachet Ghoul Aid
2 sachet Black Cherry
2 sachet Grape

First of all I soaked my yarn, whilst doing that I set up my prep area by laying out strips of cling film, then I mixed the Kool Aid in 3 plastic cups with some water. After squeezing out the excess water I laid the yarn on the clingfilm in a large loop.

That's where it got fun :-) I mentally sectioned the yarn and got down to it, first I used the Ghoul Aid and just slowly poured the liquid on to the smallest section of yarn mopping up any excess with kitchen paper. I was wearing rubber gloves so was able to massage the liquid through the yarn, I did the same with the Black Cherry and Grape. The yarn really soaked it up but I was carefull to mop up anything that seemed to be going astray.

I gently wrapped the clingfilm over the yarn and gently lifted it to be put in a pyrex bowl, then I put it in the microwave and nuked it for 1 minute, took it out checked that it was getting hot and then shoved it back in for another minute. I did that a total of four times. Afterwards I set the bowl beside the sink and pulled the yarn out to speed up the cooling process.

Once it was cool enough I filled the sink with some warm water and put in a splash of wool wash and rinced the yarn, there was practically no dye comming out of the yarn so I squeezed out the excess water and it's currently hanging on the maiden to dry.

Having had a good old look at it, the yarn is very tie-dye like, I kind of like that effect (well I do now LOL). bearing in mind it's still wet I can't really tell the difference between the Ghoul Aid and the Grape so I can't wait for it to dry, I'm certainly not brave enough to risk putting the hair dryer on it.

If you're interested in giving it a go there are some tutorials here and here, go on, give it a go it's loads of fun. The best thing is, if I don't like the yarn when it's dry I can give it another go.

My Ravelympic Medals.

Well, the Ravelympics are now over and I managed six medals and six finished projects during the Beijing Olympics.

My first finished item was for Hand Spun Heptathlon and Hand Dyed Hurdles:

My next medal was for WIP Wrestling:


Next came the Hat Dash:

Shawl Relay:


Scarf Stroke:

Finally, to late for the finish line but still get a medal Cowl Jump:I had so much fun whilst doing this and look forward to the next time, hopefully I'll get all my projects over the finish line in time for medals.

My first handspun.

I've now got 34yards of handspun and hand dyed thick and thin yarn, that's all I got from my 50g Shropshire wool top. I'm assuming the better I get at spinning I'll get better yardage.

The dyeing was easier than I thought, it was just a Dylon cold water dye in colour Sea Green. After spinning the yarn I set the twist by putting it in very hot water for about 15 minutes, I think you're supposed to let it dry before the dyeing process but I didn't. Seen how it was already wet I decided to just go ahead and give it a go.

With an old bowl I added enough really hot water to cover the yarn, I added 13floz of vinegar and dropped in the dye tablet, very gently I swooshed it around and then left it for about an hour. I gave it another swoosh and again left it for an hour. Then I just rinsed it in the sink until no more dye was coming from it and dried it with a towel then hung it from the banana tree to dry, this morning I had a lovely pale coloured yarn.

I was hoping to get enough yarn to make Urchin a hat from thick and thin yarn that only requires 77-109yards of yarn but that obviously wasn't to be. Now I'm on the hunt for a pattern that only requires my 34yards hehe.

I've got a 100g English wool top that has yet to be spun, I'm hoping I'll get a much more even yarn and enough yarn to actually make a hat or something. I've also got my eye on a new spindle from here, not only are they really pretty but from what I've been reading are highly recommended. The price is also really good.

The spindle I've got is great, but it's probably better for laceweight yarn (when I'm even and consistent enough to actually start spinning laceweight LOL) and I want to do more sock/dk weighted yarns so think I'm going to go for a spindle in the 35-40g weight.

No matter the outcome, it's just so much fun, plus the pleasure from seeing my own little mini hanks of spun yarn is too good to pass up. yes, a new passion as been aquired.