Spring dyeing

Spring break means time to do some experimenting with dyeing. And this wonderful mild weather does not feel like March but more like late April! The snow is just about gone and the sun is warming things up nicely.

So with spring around the corner, I decided to take out my pots to do some immersion dyeing.

According to the book Teach yourself Visually Hand-dyeing, Immersion dyeing is the process of creating a dye bath in a large pot, adding fiber, and heating it over a period of time...Heating the dye bath triggers the chemical bond between fiber and dye. Because large pots are used, this process is sometimes called kettle-dyeing.

I had a worsted weight lambswool yarn in a shade of yellow that did not appeal to me too much. Since the yellow was so light, it would make a good yarn to overdye.

The first skein of yellow was overdyed with teal and chartreuse. It produced a yarn with shades of yellows and greens that remind me of budding trees in the spring.

The second skein was overdyed with teal, ans saphire blue. It reminds me of a sunny spring sky.

The yarns are now listed in my shop.

No way I'm keeping it like this!

Good morning!

Today is the first saturday of my one week of holidays. The sun is allready shinning and temperatures are so mild.

I showed you the wonderful blue yarns from Sheepstings earlier. I promised to come back with pictures of my shrawl (shawl + shrug) as soon as the sleeves were sewed.

Well it's done! It feels great. I love all of the different textures each yarn has to offer. And those blues! oh those blues! Beautiful!

But that's where it ends. I wore the shrawl around the house for a couple of hours....and it grew and grew and grew some more. It's fairly heavy, so I am not surprised it grew so much. It's much too long now. I feel like I'm wearing an afghan and that's not what I want to wear!

So last night, I started to take it apart and I'm reknitting again as I go. I am shortening it by 10 stitches, I know it does not sound like much but had only 48 stitches to start with. So it's enough, I hope!

I had about half of it reknitted by the time I went to bed last night (after quite a few hours of knitting). Yes, it's a fast knit.

I hope so much that this time it will be just perfect !!!!!

So once again, I promise to come back with pictures of my shrawl, this time quite a bit shorter!

Do leave me a comment if you happen to come by. It makes my day to read them.

Transformation

I love picking up older pieces of furniture, I always look for them and intend on painting them. I do not have any unpainted furniture in our house, except for our bedroom furniture...and that will change soon.
But I needed something for the front entrance of the house. I was looking for some storage also. You know, a place to put away mittens, and purses, and a few candles.

I picked up this dresser for a song. I loved the legs on it. It was in pretty bad shape. It needed a good sanding and new handles. But the furniture was solid and the curves on the front gave it some interest.

Here is the dresser after a first sanding and when the handle holes are filled up. You can see one of the pups having a peek at what I am doing.

After a coat of primer tinted black, I painted the dresser with a colour called Black bean soup. It's not a pure black, it has a touch of brown in it. But from a distance, it looks very black.

Here it is:

We picked up brushed nickle handles and they do add a nice touch. I will be painting the red mirror above it in the same shade of black. Quite the transformation, right?


How do you like my Eiffel tower lamp? That was the pièce de résistance for me. I loved the lamp as soon as I saw it and knew it would have a great spot on that dresser.

I am quite happy with the results.

Loving the blues!

Blue...one of my all time favorite colors.

These beautiful yarns are all handdyed by Karen Lawrence.

Bought at Sheepstings yarn shop last spring. Unfortunately, Sheepstrings is now closed but Karen says on her website that she will pursue with her dyeing and designing, which is great news because she does such a fantasting job!

Just before the shop closed last spring, I purchased a kit from her. The kit has 4 different types of yarns all dyed in several shades of blue. The yarns have wonderful names like Algonquin Dew, Tanglewood, Muskoka Forest Vine and Rainbow worsted. The kit is to make a wonderful shrawl (shrug + shawl)

Karen had two made up samples in her store and once I saw the samples, I could not resist.

I started the shrawl right away on #12 mm needles. I was halfway done and concluded that there was no way that the shrawl would fit me. It was much too short. I put it away to ponder on the next step. I put it away for almost 9 months!

I took it out again last month and decided to take it apart and start over on #15mm needles. But I could not find # 15mm anywhere in town.

I had a conference in Ottawa and hubby came with me. Guess what he did when I was in conference all day?? He went to a yarn shop downtown and purchased a #15mm circular needle for me! I was so impressed!

So as soon as I got home I had it on the needles again. It took only a week to complete. I only need to do sleeve seams and I will have pictures of it to show you.