Northern Sunset

My lastest hand dyed yarn, with Wilton Icing colour in pink and yellow I had on hand, reminds me of some of our northern sunsets.

I had not yet tried Wilton as a dye (not for icing either !) I was eager to see how they would look. I have a lot of bluky yarn on hand so I thought it would be fun to use it for this.

I ended up having to play around with it a lot because I had too much yarn in a too small pot. I kept ending up with too much white sections. After a while, I then decided to sprinkle some orange Kool Aid powder where I could still see white spots.

The results are okay. I find the colours a bit too bright for my taste. Mind you, I shouldn't say that cause it reminds me of a sweater I bought last summer.

Wow, till I got it out of the closet, I did not realize how similar they are! Maybe I don't mind it so much. What looks good in the summer as summer colours, should look good in the winter as well, right?

I might use it to make another cowl. I might also add it to my etsy shop..we'll see.

I will have to do some experimenting to see how to tone down those Wilton colours a bit though.

I have also been working on another fun project combining two things I love to do...soap making and knitting. I'll be back with pictures this weekend!

Till them, do something nice for yourself, you deserve it!

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.

Energized!

What do you do with boring black, grey and white yarn that has no life and no hope of ever being knitted?
I could give it away or trade it or ignore it for a while longer. But the most fun solution is to overdye it.
This yarn is a wool and angora blend. I have almost 5 ounces of it.



I had several leftover KoolAid colours and Easter dye colours in jars from my last dye job. I figured I might as well put those to good use.

So I handpainted it and microwaved the yarn to set the colours. And VOILÀ!

Lots of life and energy. Now it looks like a lot more fun to knit up.

I might use this energized yarn to knit up a pair of mittens. It would be nice to match it up with a solid black.

What would you knit with it?

Apple greens

Allready mid-february! How time flies.

I love this time of the year. You can feel that the sun is getting warmer and the days are a little longer. Don't get me wrong, I do not wish for winter to be over with as it's my favorite time of the year. I just love to see the sun shinning on that white snow!

I have been meaning to knit a cowl or scarf to go with my green coat for some time now. I bought a 100% baby alpaca hand dyed yarn by Misty Alpaca just after Christmas in shades of greens and blues specifically for that.

It's a simple cowl, alternating rows of knits and purls. A quick knit actually. I made the cowl wider on the last three inches so that it would fit lower on the shoulders and not just cover the neck area. I really love it.

Pattern: Simple yet effective by Alexa Ludeman. You can find it here on Ravelry.

I have enough yarn left over to make a matching pair of mitts.

So I casted on last night. The first mitt is moving along quite well even though I had to rip back a few rows on three occasions. The pattern leaves a lot for the knitter to figure out. The second mitt, will move along much faster.Pattern: Cruiser by Cailyn Meyer (available here on Ravelry). I plan on doing some major knitting today so I might have a picture of a completed pair by tomorrow!

Enjoy your day!

All about socks

I love to visit a few thrift shops in my area. I usually check out the dishes (I collect pottery and have come across some unbelievable finds) and the linens (I love nice linens!). I do not often check out the books, clothes and shoes.
When I went to my favorites thrift shop last week, for some reason, I started to check out the craft books they had. I got this wonderful sock knitting book!
I was really excited about it.
The book is written in such a way to teach loads of techniques on making great socks.

I started reading Chapter one and the first pattern teaches a different way of doing the gusset increases. The little sock is called Little Sky. Clic on the name to see it's Ravelry page.

I could not only make one of these practice socks, so I got extra practice by making the second too! After all, a pair of socks is much better than a single!!

Notice how the increases are done on the front of the sock and not on the side.

It has really nice explanation of how to pick up the wrap and turn stitches on the short row heal.

The little socks will most likely be a little bit big for bébé O but they will fit her later.

Now on to the next chapter that calls for toe up socks called Little Coriolis. I've never done that kind of cast on yet. So it should be interesting!

Just in

I am just so glad that it's Friday today. Allthough, it's quite cold, the sky is blue and the sun is shinning. I just love winter...my favorite time of the year.

But the best part of today is I just received a package with my online order from KnitPicks. It's the first time I order from them and I have to say the service was wonderful and the shipping fast enough.

Want to see what I ordered?

I decided to start with some yarn, Natural Bare Peruvian Wool Worsted yarn. Why bare? So that I can play around with more colours and dye again.

And to take it one step further, I also ordered a sock blank. This is a knittted piece that you dye then unknit to knit your socks. Since the blank is double knitted, you use one strand for one sock and the other for the second sock. That way both socks are identical in colour. This should definetly be fun.

This little gadget is a yarn cutter. You simply pull the yarn through one of the little dents on the medallion to cut your yarn. The great thing about this is there is no sharp edges in your knitting bag and the big bonus for me is that I can take it on the plane with me. I travel a fair bit and I like to carry my knitting with me. I had bought a similar yarn cutter at Michael's for $12 and this one was only $4.99. A good buy!!

I have dyed with Kool Aid and Easter Egg dyes but I wanted to try the Jacquard dyes. Now I will have a good selection of colours to give this a good try!

But where to start when you learn things by yourself??

I ordered these two books to guide me along! I have quickly leafed through them and they look wonderful!!!

The great thing is that both of these books were at 40% off. Even with the shipping, they were a whole lot cheaper than if I had bought them in a bookstore in Canada.


I also ordered one other thing but it was shipped seperately, so I will tell you about that later on.

Guess what I will be doing this weekend?

I'll be back with pictures to show you.

Better get your sunglasses for this one!

After using KoolAid dyes to dye my yarn, I decided to try using the Easter egg dye I bought last April. I was curious to see what each colour would give. So I mix vinegar and water with each of the five colours that came in the box and decided to 'paint' sections of my skein

With gloves on, I worked the colour in the yarn section by section. I liked seeing the new colour produced when two colours overlapped (ie: the purple between the pink and blue)

I then rolled it all up in plastic wrap and set it in a glass container.

I heated it in the microwave for 2 minutes at a time, about 4 times. (Let it rest 5 minutes between each time.)

Once cooled, I proceeded to rinse it and the colours ran way too much. So back into vinegar and water to set the dye. This time I placed it in a low oven for 30 minutes.

That did it, the colours were set and no more bleeding. Once dried, the colours are vibrant and wild!

Very happy colours indeed.

This yarn is a bulky yarn. It would work really well for a felted project or for a child's item. At 8.5 ounces (242 g), there is plenty.

I will add it to my Etsy shop.

I must try my Jacquard dyes next time!! I'll keep you posted