The Busy Bee

Over the last few days, I have been working on creating more wool for me to create items from.  I've done some dyeing, which I outlined in my last blog, and then I did some spinning on my kick spindle and have designed and completed a pair of summery fingerless mitts.

As you can see, I've spun up 3 balls of wool the pale lavender, which I created by diluting the Grape Koolaid.  The ball on the mitts, still needs to be plyed, but it is the palest of the lot, and will create some beautiful plyed yarn, once I get to that.  I spun the blue wool and it came out quite lovely with a lot of variance in the colors.  I have a lovely selection of colors to choose from and now just have to figure out what to make.  I have to also figure out the weight of the wool, whether it`s worsted, Aran, fingerling and so on, and for that I use a little guide I make out of a card and notching out a one inch space. I don`t know if there is a name for this kind of measure, so I`ll just resort to my favorite word and call it a doohickey for today.  

The writing on the left hand side has the wraps per inch and what it stands for.  To make the doohickey, I just used a recipe card and cut a 3 inch rectangle off it.  Then to make it a little more sturdy I fold it in half.  I mark out an inch in the center and using a pair of scissors cut about 1/4 of an inch down, and fold the ends over.  This I do on the cut end, I now have a 1 inch notch with which to wrap my wool.  To make things quick and easy I always put down the table that converts the W-raps P-er I-nch or WPI to the wool weights we know so well like worsted or Aran.  

Now for the table of weights:

Wool Weight Name                            Wraps Per Inch

Lace *************************18

Fingerling-----------------------------16

Sport*************************14

Double Knit---------------------------13

Worsted***********************12

Aran----------------------------------11

Bulky*************************10

When using the doohickey, you have to push the wool up together on the inch end and make sure there are no spaces.  In the picture it's wrapped loosely to show how it works, however, carefully moving the wool over takes this to 12 WPI, meaning it's a worsted weight, a standard and popular weight.  

I also designed a pair of finger-less mitts, they are quite lovely and summery in a fingerling weight yarn in green.  I had a lot of fun making them and they go part way up the arm,  perfect for those nights when a gets a wee bit chilly and all you have on is a t-shirt.  Their lacy pattern also makes a lovely fashion statement. 

I'm including a close up of the pattern.  I found it difficult to take a picture with one hand so it's a little blurry. This closeup should help.  It's called a fan pattern and it's really lovely on.  It stretches nicely and they are airy, so they don't get to warm when you wear them, yet they do provide a little warmth should it get cool.

Now after all I've been working on, I need to tidy up.  Although productive, it's been a messy few days and it's time for me to get some things ready.  Packages to wrap up, wool to label and put away for another day, A few things to price and perhaps if I can get things done quickly enough I can even have some time to make another pair of tiny little Mary-Janes.

Adventures in Koolaid Dyeing

So there is the culmination of a good mornings work.  I used 4 Koolaid packets to make this rainbow of color.  The colors on the dryer are more vibrant than they appear, it's grey out and warmish, and perfect for drying the wool away from the sun.  It's actually a simple process, so if you're just starting out it's an easy way to go.  

The procedure is basically the same for all the different dyeing's I did.  First I washed the wool/fleece in a little dish soap, and rinsed it carefully, squeezing it out gently because I didn't want to felt the wool.  Then I soaked it in some water for about 10 minutes.  I didn't want it too saturated, I was going for a mottled look.  The next step was to dissolve the Koolaid in a liter of water inside a large pot that I knew I would only use for dyeing.  The Koolaid doesn't need anything since it has enough citric acid in the packet, which acts as the mordant which helps it set so the color doesn't leach out.  Once the Koolaid has been stirred enough so that the crystals are fully dissolved, you can add the wool if it has had a good enough soak and enough water to cover the materials being dyed.  Now put the big ole pot on the stove and crank the heat up on your burner.   Check it every once in a while, you don't want to boil it, but you do want to get it close to a boil.  Now put on the lid and check your dye every 10 minutes or so.  Once the color has leached from the water into the yarn or fleece and is left clear, you can pull it out of the water and into a container for rinsing.  I do this in my kitchen sink matching the water temperature of the tap water to the temperature of the yarn/fleece being rinced so I don't felt the wool, and once the water runs clear you are done dyeing.  Time for drying.  I use a small little round about with pegs attached to hang my items.  I place them in a shady place and allow to dry, squeezing the water out gently as it hits the bottom of the dyed item.

So now that the basics are out of the way, here are the variances I applied to the dyeing.  The first color I used was Koolaid Cherry.  I wanted a full bodied color and so I used only one skein of wool.  I followed the procedure outlined above and then hung to dry.  The color is a nice soft red, not quite pink.

The next color was Koolaid Ice Blue, which I followed the procedure for as stated above, but instead of using prespun yarn I used unspun fleece.  I used a lot of fleece, enough to make about two skeins of yarn, and after the final rinse, I put it in a net bag, then hung the bag of fleece to dry.  I achieved a variety of colors on the fleece from a whisper of blue, almost soft white, carrying through to soft palest blue, to a very pale blue, to blue.  There is a lovely mottled affect on the fleece and when it spins up it should have quite a lot of variance in color.

I then followed up with Lemon-Lime Koolaid, which is a bright green.  However that is not the color I wanted to create.  I wanted a pale grass green.  So I grabbed 3 skeins of wool, 2 of them were wool blends, and the third was 100% wool.  I soaked them for about 5 minutes before I added them to the pot with the dissolved Koolaid.  There is not much dye in there so it does not take long to soak up all the color.  I was rewarded with one skin of pale green wool, and two skeins of mottled very pale green wool blends.

My final batch was with Grape Koolaid.  I did not want bright purple, I wanted lavender, so I went again with using 3 skeins of wool and wool blends and followed the same procedure as for the Lemon-Lime Koolaid.  I was happy with the results and received one offwhite and lavender skein, and one greyish lavender skein of wool blends, and one lovely very colorful mottled lavender skein of wool.

This was a great project and I'm going to do some more dyeing soon, but this should keep me busy for the next few weeks. I have the spring colors I want, well almost... tomorrow I may be delving into yellows with some onion skins and vinegar. :D  We see how the day goes.  For now, I'll have to wait for my beautiful rainbow to dry.

I Dyed and Went to Heaven!

I finally did it, I dyed something, albeit small and fairly easy I was looking for a certain look.  I have always loved the color ecru and find it hard to find when I"m ready to work with it.  I had heard that by dying with tea you could create that colour.  As you see it's a soft pinkish brown, that is so warm and natural, and it's not white.

So I had just knitted up this hat, real quick, a basic really, just a roll brim beanie, and I was not sure what I was going to do with it. As you can see it's creamy white with nothing really much to say, fine as it is, but I wanted something more.

It needs something more I thought, so I decided to give it a tea bath and try out that whole Ecru thing, after all what's the worst that could happen.  So I started to get prepared.  I wanted to avoid that mottled look that can happen if you just plunk it wet into the tea water, so first things first.  I soaked the hat in cold water for half an hour to get it nice and saturated.

The next step was to make a double on the tea.  I boiled 2 cups of water and poured them over 2 teabags in a large enamel pot.

The enamel pot is dark blue in there so it looks a little murky, but it's all good.  I then pulled the hat out of the water, gently squeezed out the excess and then plunked it into what looks like murky depths.  But see, not so murky, in fact it's a lovely color, all orangy brown.  Every little while I gave it a stir, over the next couple of hours.  I was patient and kept checking for color.

Once it was done, I squeezed out all the tea and then I rinsed it until the water ran clear.  Then gently squeezed out the water again.  So far this is what I have:

I know it still looks creamy, but the lighting was not that great, however, the color is pretty, very faded browny pink.  Besides it's still wet in that picture.  At this point I'm waiting for the hat to dry to see the true color, and then it's getting some further embellishment.  Once it's done I'll post.

I had a great time doing this little project.  I love the way the hat looks so far, and can't wait for it to be done.