KOOL AID DYEING

In December of last year I joined the Random Acts of Kindness group on Ravelry. I posted my wish list and sent out various bits and pieces to other people - all arrived safely to their various destinations over a period of time (well it was approaching Christmas). I was amazed at the response to my wish list - I received one of my requests within a matter of hours by email - I then started to receive little packages through the post - of Kool Aid Woohoo - I also was given some by a friend in our newly started knitting group - so I ended up with a large and fabulous selection of different colours to play with.

My first play day resulted in this selection

When I went over to Hilary's I took some blue, green and yellow and did this

Here it all is ready to go to the next phase - which is the admire and fondle phase

The first spinning I did was with some Blue Faced Leicester that I'd dyed with left over liquid - one batch grape and one batch mixed reds and pinks - I spun them separately and then plied them together - and was then terribly disappointed as I didn't feel they worked particularly well together. I then spent some time humming and hahing and came up with a plan to make a scarf in broomstick crochet - and, actually, it really works with the yarn, bringing out the best of it.

I have also spun some of the red/yellow/pink mix and that is on it's way to being (hopefully) a hat, scarf and gloves set.

I'm daydreaming at present about spinning the turquoisey mix into a lace weight yarn and knitting a nice shawl - but by the time I get to it my plans may change!

Having added my mosaic picture to one of the Ravelry forums I received a good offer for some more Kool Aid - 18 packs hee hee - off to play now :-)

SOCK YARN DYEING WORKSHOP

My brain is scrambled and I'm all overexcited having just arrived home from a workshop at the Middle Essex Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers. It was run by Elizabeth Kendrick & Sarah Howard - it was so much fun.

The idea was to dye sock yarn in order to be able to knit two matching socks - being slow on the uptake I read the list of items and where it said 150gm of wool I took 150gm of roving instead of woollen sock yarn - ho hum!

The idea is to wind out a 40ft hank which is well tied, then to fill various jam jars with acid dyes, poke the yarn into the jars (which are sitting in a pan of simmering water) and then at the end of the dyeing process to re-stretch the hank as it was at the start, and divide it into two - both lots having the same dye repeats - obviously I didn't wind my roving into a hank, I just poked it into my jars, heated it, rinsed it and brought it home - I suspect that a similar repeat effect could be achieved this way as with the yarn, if one was careful enough (I wasn't).

Winding the yarn

Jars of dye ready to be filled with yarn

Yarn in jars dyeing

I'm quite excited about this method as the protection the jars offered from the bubbling water in the pan meant that the roving didn't felt at all (of course the fact that you can't prod and poke at it when it's tucked away in a jar might also help).

It occurred to me on the way home that this would be a good way to approach natural dyeing in order to get space dyed yarn/fibre with natural dyes. I am now plotting this as a project for the (hopefully near) future.

My dyed roving

LLAMA, SILK & WOOL BLEND & LOGWOOD

Whilst on hols in Norfolk I spun my pre-prepared rolags of llama, silk & wool blend fibre - this was the stuff that went into the accidental dye bath - the one where I brewed up my bag of madder (to over-dye something else in red) only to find that the solution was the wrong colour - logwood not madder - "um" thought I "what now?" - well I dyed some alpaca (from Charlie the alpaca) which came up a pretty lilac (not the purple I was hoping for - disappointing as I don't wear lilac and wanted a tank top). So, in went the llama blend...... hoorah a good purple. Anyway, long story short, I spun this on hols and it came up in a very pleasing way - much like a linen yarn but with extra sheen from the silk.

Next I knitted up a couple of tension squares, inspired by an article I'd read in Smallholder Magazine. I knitted one on size 11 needles (3mm) this I did 30 stitches by 30 rows, then I did another on size 12 needles (2.75mm) 20 by 20 - I'm having difficulty deciding which is better - maybe once I have a pattern in mind it will become clear - the larger swatch is definitely nicer to handle but the other seems to have more boing. Either way it's become clear that there's not enough for a tank top - unless it's a very small one! So yet another rethink is in order. Time to trawl Ravelry (not that I need much excuse here)

TOUR DE FLEECE - END OF FIRST WEEK

Well I'm pleased to say that I have spun every day so far - by Wednesday I'd finished the Carnivale yarn and on the same day received a little wrist distaff that I'd ordered in my last Etsy frenzy. So, obviously I had to have a little fiddle with that - more about that later.

Yesterday I started spinning some Persian cat fibre that I've had lurking about the place for a while. It starts off looking not much better than a fur ball and ends up looking and feeling wonderful - in fact I wish you all could feel it because it's indescribably soft and lovely. I've decided to carry on with this for a while, as I've some vague plan of making a scarf from it (yes I know I always make scarves - I like making scarves - in fact I like wearing scarves)!

Tomorrow will be exciting - we have a guild meeting at one of the members houses where we're going to be mordanting and dyeing ... stuff - whatever we bring. There'll be plenty of chat - also I'm going to be having a sock making lesson and hopefully spinning a bit too. We're all praying for decent weather - it's so much nicer when these things can happen in the garden.

COOL AID & OTHER USEFUL LINKS

I've been rambling through various blog rings and such like and have come across some fun and useful stuff to look at - see below:



This links to a blog with some good instructions on how to use cool aid



http://www.thepiper.com/fiberart/koolaid/basic-howto.html


This is a blog with some excellent instructions on space dyeing




http://www.helloyarn.com/crockpot_dyeing.htm


more dyeing instructions




http://www.knitty.com/issuespring07/FEATdyeyourown.html


a useful page showing how to estimate yarn length based on wraps/inch plus recommended needle guage




http://www.fibergypsy.com/common/yarnsize.shtml

another useful page from the same website on needle sizes english/american etc - this website also has all sorts of other useful information in the same vein

http://www.fibergypsy.com/common/needles.shtml