Archive for the ‘Dyeing’ Category

I unravelled my husband’s sweater. The colour of the yarn was whitish and we decided to darken it.  Choosing the colour wasn’t easy, but finally purple it would be.
I added some  black to the dye bath to soften the purple a little and the dyeing process was started.
However I didn’t give the water (with added black dye) a proper stir  and the final result was two skeins with black parts. That didn’t make me happy 🙁

How would it show? I knitted a sample and well it wasn’t that bad.So now I had to dye all other skeins with some black too. It was a huge job.  First I stamped
the black dye into the yarn, then wrapped each skein in cling film and put it on steam.
Fingers crossed that I did the right thing….
Next step is to find me a nice knitting pattern

two columns or pillars, but the sample lies flat.
Staring at the picture a bit longer, I noticed the floats
seem to be at the bottom of the small quadrangles and rectangles….

This shawl is very warm and nice to wear.
If you want to see how it was made, please click  this page.

This time 2 colours!
The weft has very long floats and it wasn’t easy weaving.
This sample is really flat, but the hues and pattern are deceiving your eyes.
It seams to puff up!

I am attending a workshop called: ‘Optical Illusions’ given by Marian Stubenitsky
Do you see the 3D effect too? Click on photo to enlarge…it is so amazing.
Looking forward to next saturday for the second lesson.

Here they are.  I knitted them simultaneously on 2 circular needles.
First the width wasn’t good. Then they were to small. Now I am wearing them and they fit perfect.
It took some time  😉

While dyeing, I was very busy taking care of the layer underneath.
Many times I peeped at the back side if I didn’t add to much  dye liquid and dried off  if necesarry.
Finally I carefully turned the blank and adjusted the places were extra dye was needed.
Hoping it was not to wet, I put the rolled up plastic on a tray above the water in my dye pot and turned on the gas cooker.

The time I had to wait until the steam had done it’s work and  the wool package was cold again, seemed days….To my surprise there was not much dye in the water, when I washed and rinsed the blank.

The yarn on the bobbin and the yarn at the top ‘left’ were already spun.
I plyed with mercerized cotton.

Visiting the stands on the Farm and Country Fair I bought a sock blank. I couldn’t resist.
Next step is dyeing and knitting.

Weaving this linen scarf  was a nice try out. Then I did some shibori dyeing.
To be honest I didn’t like the result at all. What a waste, I thought.
However, I did some ironing. Maybe it changed for the better, but it didn’t. The only part I did like were the fringes!
Then I draped it around my neck, looked in the mirror and to my surprise it didn’t look too bad.
Now I wear it. Nice on my bluish clothes, not nice  in the drawer.