I See Rainbows

I love rainbows and what better month to make a rainbow cowl than the one where gay marriage is (finally) legal in every state in the United States.  It's Purl Soho's Classic Cowl knit with my own handspun yarn.  You can see the details here.  It's a pretty fluffy cowl and it makes me want to either cut my hair short or grow it out so I can pull it up.  Seeing this pattern makes me want to knit a pair of matching socks, which makes me want to plant dye the yarn myself and learn to make self striping yarn.  Oh how crafts can build on one another!

Actually, I am planning on doing more in the way of plant dyeing this summer.  Unlike the previous times I've ventured into plant dyes, this time I tend to make many samples trying out different mordants/modifiers and in general learn before I leap.  Last time I leapt into indigo dyeing, accidentally making my vat double strength (which meant I was rinsing the residual indigo out for days upon days) and tying the yarn too tightly (meaning little bits of undyed yarn remained under each tie.)  It took over our tiny kitchen, as I did it in January, and left me with lots of full skeins of not so great looking yarn.  So, this time around I'm making mini sample skeins with this absolutely adorable sample sized niddy noddy, dyeing in summer when I can do it outside, and using superwash wool so I can rinse vigorously without having to worry about felting.  I also plan to document my process better thus I'm sure you will be seeing my results here on the blog.

This cowl puts me at 4391 meters toward my 5K goal for this year's Stash Dash hosted by the Knit Grillls.  I've got until August 14th to knit a mere 609 meters, but to be on the safe side I better get cracking and start a pair of socks or something.  Hmm...

Joining in with:

Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On

Ginny for Yarn Along

Fresh Off the Wheel - Sunshine on a Cloudly Day

I'm not really a big fan of yellow, but when I saw this plant dyed yellow batt called "Daffodil" in Judy's shop I felt compelled to purchase it.  Something about it really called out to me and I think it was that it reminds me so much of the warm bright sun of summer which I sorely miss at this time of year.  It also reminded me of this post I read a while ago on Tonya's blog about how there are so many plants which give us yellow dye and her thoughts that maybe wearing yellow sweaters would help us think of the warm months to come.  Well, I really liked that thought of wearing yellow to cheer oneself through the darker months here in the north, thus for a change this yarn is intended for me and not my shop.

Now, I only had a few ounces of the yellow wool so I needed to ply it with something else to make a good sized skein.  I've been wanting an angora hat for a while and found I still had some angora/wool roving that could flesh out the yellow nicely.  The angora is a soft dove gray which got me thinking about how the roving looked like a fluffy gray cloud waiting to be spun as it sat pooled at my feet.  Then I thought what a nice juxtaposition of clouds, which are the mainstay of winter, and sunshine, the mainstay of summer.  Needless to say I'm happy with my lumpy, fluffy, squishy "Sunshine on a Cloudy Day" skein of yarn.  Oh, in case you were wondering it came out to be 250 yards of DK/worsted weight.  I've already begun knitting this hat making just a few modifications, but more on that in another post. 

Joining in with Linda for Creative Friday and Andrea for Fibre Arts Friday.

A Touch of Indigo

 

I'm chugging right along on my Amber sweater - it's body is all sewn up, ends woven in, and the cowl neck close to done.  Now, I have to say I am not a natural at knitting lace and even though this project is pretty simple it made my head hurt.  Seaming up of the lace fabric at the shoulders was fudged at best.  I'm happy the cowl, when completed, will cover most of that seam up.  It's not a knit while you watch a movie kind of project.  More of a "wake up super early before your child wakes up" kind of knit.  Well, at least for me.

In my last post I believe I told you I dyed the yarn for this sweater myself with natural indigo dye.  It was my first time using indigo and I accidentally made it too concentrated (which I discovered afterwards of course.)  All the yarn had to be washed many, many times with a cleanser that helps removes any excess dye for the water to run clear.  Most of the yarn from this dyeing batch I have been able to use without issue, but this particular yarn still has excess dye that rubs off on my hands.  This is called "crocking" and could happen indefinitely if I dyed it incorrectly, but I'm hoping this isn't the case since most of the yarn was fine.  So, Amber's success is a bit risky as I made no swatch, then made modifications to the pattern, I'm not too comfortable knitting lace and indigo dyed yarn that could continue crocking.  Wow, I'm living on the edge - a knitter's edge.  I do wonder why I've taken such a risk with my precious knitting time.  My only conclusion is I simply didn't want to give up on this yarn's ability to be something wonderful.  Routing for the underdog again. 

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On. 

Fresh From the Dye Pot

I've had the itch to dye some yarn this week and because of the season I decided to use black walnuts.  My friend's yard gets littered with the walnuts each Fall so I knew right where to lay my hands on some. Her daughter kindly collected a large bagful for me and I paid her a little something for her efforts - a win win!  I placed the black walnuts in my large 5 gallon dye pot along with enough water to fill it within a few inches of the rim.  They simmered for about 2 hours at which time I strained off the walnuts leaving a lovely dark brown dye bath.  While the pot was simmering on the stove I soaked some previously mordanted (I use alum and cream of tartar) handspun and machine spun yarn.  Then I placed the wetted yarn in the dye pot and simmered them for  about 1 hour.  The results were a lovely warm medium brown color.  I wanted to see what other shades I could get from this dye bath so some of the yarn went back in to see how dark I could make it and I added a couple of fresh skein to create a lighter shade.  You can see the processes below.

Black walnuts simmering away.  I kept this covered as it can be a little smelly. 

 Yarn soaking in sink.  If throughly wetted the yarn will soak up the dye evenly with no splotches.  Some skeins were previously dyed with osage orange wood chips or annatto seeds but I didn't just love the color so I decided to over-dye them.

Here are the final results drying in the sunshine outside.

The black walnuts were such a success I wanted to dye more yarn.  Dyeing is just as addictive as knitting and spinning for me, but thankfully I go in waves so I don't permanently overtake our tiny kitchen.  I have been collecting avocado skins for some months as I heard they are used as a dyestuff  and really, since we were eating them anyway it makes them free (just like the walnuts - are you seeing a theme?)

Here is the surprising color made by avocado skins.  I found out later I could have used the pits as well as the skins.  Which would have helped dye more yarn as it's a 1:1 ratio by weight.

Here are my single plies drying outside.  I spun them last spring and it has been satisfying to see I have improved quite a bit since then.  Practice, practice, practice as they say.   

Here is a closeup of the peachy tan color.  It kind of reminds me of dyeing with tea by how the yarn looks more aged than colored.  I think it would make a great skin tone for gnome doll faces.  

I will spin more singles to ply with the walnut and avocado skeins.  I've already made this skein with a confetti colored ply (also plant dyed, but with exotic plants mainly) which is already available in my etsy shop SimplyPlaying.  It's twin skein is still drying, but will probably be listed by tomorrow.  The really lumpy bumpy slubby yarn I will knit with myself probably into some more toys  for the shop.  I'm off to clean up my mess in the kitchen now.  Just on a side note, black walnuts contain a toxin that prevents other plants from growing so it is best to throw it in your garbage rather than composting.