Knitting Dragonflies

  I love this bright coral color that these skeins ended up! I wound up about 2000 yards of 100% Wool yarn and decided that it was bright and sunny out, so it was time to do some solar dyeing I was going for a light pink, but after that skein looked rather wimpy, and my husband said he thought it would look good more vibrant. I decided he may be right. I like to use sun tea jars to solar dye my yarn. It is amazing how warm the sun makes the water and really bakes the dye into the skeins, I’ve used different combos of fiber mixes and 100% wool gives the most vibrant colors. I wound all of my yarn on a swift, and tied each one off in at least 5 places. I found to error on the side or more ties, to reduce tangles. But tie them very loosely, I like the little mark of lighter dye where the tie was located, it gives the skeins a more varied look. Soak the skeins, making sure all of your wool in underwater, I usually put a plate on top of them to weigh them down. Gently squeeze the ...

I saw this sweater on this front of Knitscene Fall 2009 and decided to make it, but  with a twist of colors, minus the belt (why place a belt over your pattern area?). Deciding on blue I picked out some Blueberry Kool aid, then offset it with Lime Kool Aid. I did this in a three step solar dyeing process. For more info on my solar dyeing see this post . (more dyeing how to info links here ) Wet your yarn (natural fibers take up dye better), thoroughly, soak at least 15 min in warm water. While you are waiting for the soaking. Dissolve your Kool Aid packets in warm water (or the same temp. as the water you are soaking your yarn or fiber in), standard amount is 1 package of Kool aid per oz of fiber or yarn. Less Kool aid=lighter color, more kool aid=vibrant. 1-Solar dye my yarn with the Blueberry Kool Aid, I used 5 packets per 4 oz of yarn, dissolved in 4 cups of water. (I use a sun tea jar, I know many people use canning jars) After this is dissolved, gently place your ya...