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.