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...

I had dyed this yarn using Kool Aid and had so much fun it lead to a Kool Aid explosion in my kitchen. Lots of Kool Aid, lots of yarn, fun and color. See this post for the yarny back-story. So then I began looking for a pattern that would suit my needs. I settled on The Sailor’s Delight Socks (rav link)  from 2 at a Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes . I decided to use the dark plum for the cuffs, toe and heel. and the variegated for the rest of the sock (I hope I have enough) Here I have started the heel. This will be the 2nd pair of socks that I have knitted with Melissa’s 2 at a time technique. The first attempt was rocky, but this one is going smoothly. Heel turned and…. Gusset done, now all I have to finish is the foot and toe. Almost there…. All done, pre blocking. I do like knitting two socks at a time. Pros… -use every bit of yarn -if you alter a pattern, and don’t write it down (like me, thinking “I will remember that” no worries, you have already ...

I got some plain yarn, it is beige Lion Brand 100% wool, kind of boring. 24 oz of it. I want to knit this , from Knitty. Imagine by Karen Alfke who blogs here Abakini, better living thorough knitting. Notice that there is green and blue Kool Aid, in the background. Because, yes, I am officially obsessed with Kool Aid dyeing. I wound it off into 4 oz hanks. And then cooked up some lemon-lime Kool aid, I used 5 pkgs. per 4 oz of yarn. I decided to solar dye the yarn, since it is 93 here and sunny, and I found some sun tea jars on sale at Wal-Mart. I let it “cook” until the water was clear, then let cool until room temp and  rinse and drained it well. This took about 6-8 hours in full sun. Let cool and then rinse in cool water. Hang to dry.   Very green, but I wanted a little variation in color. I used blue Kool Aid, and used 2 pkgs. per 4 oz hank of yarn. I had a brain storm of applying it with a salt shaker. . Make sure you yarn is just barely damp, not se...

While trying to destash, I ran across some nice yarn, but the color way was outdated, or I was tired of them….So…..why not try overdyeing? (I know I’m really suppose to be destashing and decluttering my house, and I end up making a bigger mess) Over dyeing begins…why not…can it look worse? Yuck. Blue/yellow/red before.   Before and after, this is with 5 packages of grape Kool Aid, and microwave dyed . It took the harshness away. My husband doesn’t see much difference, but he IS a man. Here we are all dry and ready to go, now I would knit something with this yarn. Inspired by my success, I decided to try more yarn. I found this blue/orange/burgundy/green color way. ugh… More yarn…and this time I tried solar dyeing, I found out that WalMart had their sun tea jars (glass) on sale for $1 each. I used this method . This yarn reminds me of the 70’s, and then some grape and  cherry kool aid (sorry I know it’s generic, but that’s half the price) Sun tea jars...