Knitting Dragonflies

I’ve been amazed at blending and creating colors from just the basic three colors. It started as yarn dyeing, and took me to watercolors, which helped me understand color on a whole different level. I haven't painted in a bit. But I have been playing with yarn dyeing….. The inspiration, a photo from a spice market in Morocco! The spices, the colorful clothing, and the sky! I discovered if I do my yarn dyeing in multiple steps, laying the colors in one at a time, (wash, add another color, wash repeat as many times as you desire) that the colors come out cleaner! I’m loving the results. The above set is Morocco spice, especially dyed for someone! It is best to think of the color wheel and lay in your lightest colors first, do some planning. Think of what color the overlapping colors will make. Red is the strongest, so I always add that one last. Want to warm it up? Put the entire skein in a weak color bath of a warm color, red, orange, or yellow. Cool the color, try a weak...

While going through my stash in my stash busting mode, I came across my first hand dyed, hand spun. Three bulky bright orange skeins of merino yarn (12 oz). It is still in there despite my many attempts to incorporate this yarn into, well, anything. I was reading Claudia’s blog; The Knitting Blog by Mr. Puffy the Dog ,  and she had an idea to make a shawl for visitors in her home. Our house is always on the chilly side, and I thought that was a excellent idea. Adding a bright wrap for visitors would be a welcome item indeed! Before dye                                       After dye post, see post here I finally decided that a big pop of color in the Baktus scarf would be pretty, whether under a coat, or over a summer top to keep the chill off, a super bright touch of orange would be p...

Sun, and bright blue skies! I’m in the mood for some bright yarn and some Reggae music from Jamaica ! So pick a song from the top 25 this week and get some sunshine into your life. So I got my dye pot out, and decided to try some kettle dyeing! I used the kettle dyeing tutorial from Fiber Fever’s blog (throwing knit fits since 2006). It is easy and understandable. So with just this amount of info, I got started… I quickly found the red dye over powers everything else, I was trying to half orange and half red. But I like the extreme vivid colors, I found if I didn’t stir it in and let it “settle” on top, and then stuck a chopstick in straight down, and just “wiggled” it a little, the dye dispersed without getting too even. Then I tried some blue and green, ooo pretty. I’m trying to keep a little white in it for more variation, and the colors look cleaner.   This pot has 1/3 red and 1/3 orange, 1/3 yellow, just a little wiggle, and then after bringing to a s...

Do what you love, love what you do… I have an Etsy shop and have tried to sell several different items in it. Maybe it was the items, my lack of enthusiasm, the economy or another variable, it never really took off.   Quite by accident, I started dyeing my hand spun fiber. One night on Plurk I posted some of my fiber and a woman went wild over it, and insisted I could sell it. I was just having some fun though, and ignored her. Then another woman contacts me and wants me to make her some hand dyed yarn. so I do and sell it to her. After that I start getting all kinds of requests!! My knitting is on the back burner right now, and my husband is extremely tolerant, with dyeing and yarn all over the kitchen. Dinner? What you want to eat?   Moral to the story, life is short, thanks to all of the knitters and dyers online that have helped me on my way! Dream as if you'll live forever.  Live as if you'll die today.  ~ James Dean   Now I...