FO: Child’s Feather and Fan Keyhole Scarf

Thanks to Knitty’s tutorial, I finally grafted the two pieces of the Feather & Fan Scarf together!  It ended up being simpler than I thought thanks to their method of holding the pieces back to back instead of laying them flat, one on bottom and one on top (like my knitting books showed).  I apparently grabbed a couple of stitches from the wrong direction, but all in all it looks very nice.

My daughter loves the scarf.  I have to admit, the yarn we dyed is so pretty.  The color changes are subtle and beautiful.  However, she tried it on this morning and said it was itchy.  I love the keyhole feature for keeping the scarf on my little one’s neck.

Mulitdirectional Scarf

With my Fall-colored hand-dyed yarn, I’ve decided to knit the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf by Karen Baumer.  I really like the simple pattern, it’s nice and easy to bring with me or knit while I’m watching Criminal Minds (our new obsession).  The short rows really show off the variegation in the yarn and the colors are so vibrant, I know the wearer (possibly me?) will be lifted from the winter doldrums.  I’ve been working on it for about a week now, and it’s a little over a yard long.

Dyeing, Again

We seem to be addicted to yarn dyeing in my house.  I decided to try for some colors I’ve seen while shopping for spring clothes: a deep navy blue with dusty rose and light lemon-yellow.  I decided to use the Wilton’s dyes.  The navy was tricky, as I kept adding more and more blue because I wanted to be sure to get a saturated color.  I added some of the black as well, and a few drops of blue food coloring.  I used food coloring for the yellow, and Wilton’s paste in burgundy for the pink.  I didn’t want a bubblegum pink, and since that’s what the pink paste looked like, I decided to go for a lighter concentration of the burgundy.

I think it ended up being very pretty.  I’m having trouble finding a pattern I’d like to use it for.  I want it to be a more serious, grown-up something (maybe a scarf?) with some multidirectional elements or something to show off the variegation.  I’ve been scouring Ravelry, and have some options.  I’ll probably just have to cast on a few and decide which I like the best.

My daughter chose four Kool-Aid colors for her yarn, which turned out vibrant and very nice.

Dyeing, Third Attempt

My mother made me promise I would teach her how to dye yarn.  So when my family visited recently, we spent an evening with messy hands dyeing yarn in the kitchen.  The whole house smelled pleasantly fruity!

After skeining out the yarn on the backs of two chairs, we presoaked the yarn in water and vinegar the night before.  I used 2/3 cup of vinegar for each 100 g of yarn, and just enough water to cover the yarn.

When we’re ready to start, we first lay out pieces of plastic wrap in an oval or circle big enough to lay the yarn on.  This catches drips and is what we wrap the yarn in to heat it.  Then we removed the yarn from the vinegar soak, squeezing out enough of the moisture so that it doesn’t drip, but not so much that it’s very dry.

Next we mix our dyes!  This is the fun part.  We used Kool-Aid, Wilton’s Icing Dyes and Food Coloring.  About a quart of water is enough for 100 g of yarn, so if we’re using two colors I try to divide the quart of water between the colors.  It’s just a rule of thumb.  The Wilton’s paste has to be mixed in boiling water or it won’t dissolve, but the other colors can be mixed in warm or even cool water (though I find the Kool-Aid dissolves better if the water is warm).  As I mix, I put little drops of the mixture on a white paper towel to see about what color it will be once it’s on the yarn.  You could even cut small lengths of yarn to test dye if you wanted to be sure of the color.

Then it’s time to dye!  We decide where we want the colors and pour a small amount of dye at a time on the yarn.  Then we “smoosh” it to make sure the dye saturates all the yarn, and continue until we’ve got the results we wanted.

Dyeing in progress!

We didn’t use gloves, so our fingers and fingernails turned funny colors.

The yarn fully dyed and ready to be heated and set.

Then we wrap the plastic wrap as tightly as possible around the yarn.  You can use different methods of heating, such as placing on a baking sheet, covering with foil and placing in the oven.  We set the skein in a glass baking dish and microwaved for two minutes, let it sit for two minutes, the microwaved for two more.  If the water you can see through the plastic wrap is still colored, you can microwave for more two-minute segments.  Let the yarn sit until it has cooled to room temperature.

My mom’s citrus-y yarn cooling.

Once the yarn has cooled, we soak it in water the same temperature as the yarn.  Soak until the water and yarn have completely cooled off, then squeeze as much of the moisture out as possible and hang to dry.  We use a hanger in the shower.

After drying overnight, it’s time to wind into a ball!

My daughter’s yarn, dyed with various Kool-Aid colors.

My fall-colored yarn, dyed with Wilton’s Icing Pastes.

Keyhole Scarf

My daughter requested a scarf with the yarn she dyed with Kool-Aid.  I scoured Ravelry, and finally settled on the Child’s Feather and Fan Keyhole Scarf by Ellen Mallett.  It’s a delightful pattern and really shows of the lovely variegations in the yarn.  I love the keyhole feature, as scarves are always coming unwrapped from my little one’s neck.  It’s an easy use of the feather and fan pattern, simple enough to take along and knit on my lunch break.  (My new nickname at work is Martha, as in Stewart, since I’m crafty enough to dye my own yarn and make things by hand I could simply buy at Walmart.)  My daughter loves the scarf, but it’s not quite finished.

See, I’m stuck on the grafting.  I looked in my knitting books but was quite disappointed at the complicated instructions.  A quick search on Ravelry turned up this nice grafting tutorial from Knitty that I plan to use when I have a few quiet moments to finish concentrate fully on it.

FO: Pot Holder

I’m pretty proud of this lovely little pot holder from Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Lacy Crochet.  The pattern was simple, but interesting enough to keep me engaged.  Getting the hang of crocheting the contrasting color parts through the two layers of fabric was a trick, but easy enough once you get the hang of it.  It was a trick to find a contrasting color that I liked in the right size crochet thread, but I’m pleased with the results.

Dyeing, Second Attempt

On Friday my daughter and I made another go at dyeing our own yarn.  We each had a skein of Patons Classic Wool and were ready to go.  I decided to try a method I vaguely remembered seeing somewhere online: laying yarn over plastic wrap, “painting” it with the dye, then wrapping it up and heating by some means.  After we went through all the trouble, I unearthed Knitty’s detailed instructions.  Ah well, such is life. We’ll have them for next time.

My daughter (who is three) decided she wanted purple, blue and green yarn.  I used quart-size jars filled with water and a melange of Kool-Aid and food coloring.  The purple we made with a packet of Blue Raspberry and a packet of Strawberry.  The green and blue were made with food coloring and a few tablespoons of vinegar (I know now this isn’t enough to get a saturated color).  We ended up having much too much water, nonetheless hers turned out pastel, muted - and really beautiful.

Feeling pretty pleased with myself, I set out with my own skein.  I decided I wanted watermelon-y colors: a nice deep red, a fruity pink, a lime green and maybe a lemonade yellow.  I  mixed (with much less water this time), began to pour - and was horrified as the red ran and bled and turned my yarn into a bloody mess.  Actually, I exaggerate.  It looked alright except for the green parts.  They looked greenish brown and not at all lovely.We hung our yarns in the bathroom to dry.  I sighed as I looked at my preschool-aged daughter’s lovely yarn and my messy, ugly stuff.  Disgusted, I took it back into the kitchen.  Time to overdye it.  I mixed a pot of water, red food coloring and plenty of vinegar.  Plopped the yarn in, let it almost come to a boil then let it sit, covered for about half an hour.  After letting it cool and hang to dry, I still wasn’t very pleased with the results.  It wasn’t until I wound it into a ball that I realized it did, in fact, turn out pretty nicely - for an almost-disaster.

It’s hard to tell here, but it’s red, pink, purple (those are the green sections), yellow and light orange.

Some things I’ve learned:

1.  Wet wool smells like wet dog.
2. Red dye almost never will remove itself from your fingernails.
3. I need a ball winder and swift.

Dishcloth Crazy!

At the request of my husband, I’ve been attempting to use up the odds & ends of yarn in my stash.  When he opens the extra closet and sees yarn everywhere, he sees dollar signs.  In my defense, most of the yarn was purchased for a specific project, however those projects eventually got frogged.  So I pulled out all my leftover Sugar ‘n Cream Cotton and searched Ravelry for dishcloth patterns.

 

This is the Hexagon Washcloth by Catherine Lindsay.  I took out the last round of the pattern to make it a little smaller, and added the color change in rounds 4 through 6.

 

This is the Crochet Hexagon Dishcloth by Mary Ellen Meath.  Since I didn’t have enough of one color to finish it, I alternated a variegated and solid.  The yarns looked like they coordinated a little better before I crocheted them.  Still, it’s pretty.  I modified the last round a bit so the scallops would be spaced evenly.

 

This is the Lacy Honeycomb Dishcloth by Julie A. Bolduc.  I liked the color changes shown on the picture in Ravelry, so I followed that general idea. 

I think these will make excellent little gifts.  Now I might actually get to buy some new yarn! 

Kool-Aid Dyeing, First Attempt

I attempted to dye a skein of white yarn with Kool-Aid yesterday.  It was a fun experiment, even if it didn’t turn out as well as I hoped.  But that’s my fault.  I thought I had a skein of Lion Wool, and it turned out to be Wool-Ease.  As we know, acrylic doesn’t take dye, so the colors are muted - but still pretty.

I looked up several different methods of dyeing and combined them.  For instructions, check out:
Knitty’s Instructions
More Instructions from Knitty
Wool Festival’s Instructions
Color Chart 

I used Mandarina Tangerine, Lemon Lime, and Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade.  I wanted a variegated skein of yarn, and getting this using the microwave method was a little tricky.

I unwound the skein around the backs of two chairs to form a long loop.  I tied the skein in three places so it wouldn’t tangle.  After soaking in a little soap, I rinsed the yarn in cool water.  I used one packet of Kool-Aid per jar of water, but next time I think I will try two packets for a rich, saturated color.  I mixed the Kool-Aid with a little water in the jars, divided the yarn between them, and added enough water to fill them.  Stirring the yarn in the jars this way was a little tricky.  I think next time I want variegated yarn I will try the stovetop method or hand-painting. 

I had to carefully rotate the yarn between 2-minute stints in the microwave to dye all of it.  The sections that were exposed did develop a different texture, but it’s not noticeable now that it’s all wound in a ball.

Then I let the yarn soak and absorb all the color.  The water ended up nearly clear once it was cool.  Then it’s time to let it dry!

  

The yarn dried a little lighter than it was when it came out of the rinse.  It’s very pretty, though.  My daughter has requested that I make a purse for her out of it.

 

Doilies

I don’t like doilies as decorative objects.  I don’t use them in my house.  But I love (recently) to crochet them.  They work up quickly, and each round is usually a different.  It keeps me interested.

I recently bought Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies by Patricia Kristofferson.  The designs are lovely.  I’m working through them one by one.

 
Park Avenue Doily.  Loved everything except the sections of mesh. 

 
Beginnings of the Pineapple Patch Doily.  It’s going pretty quickly, and I’m enjoying the pattern.