Knitting Dragonflies

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 simme

I’m ready for spring. I’m sure that is true nationwide. OK, I love snow and winter, but time to move on to the next season. Below are my inspirations, along with how I got the colors.  Bright flowers and sunshine were my inspiration as a got out my dyeing supplies. My husband always helps me. Looks like he found a knot. So first thing, yellow, I need some yellow yarn! Yellow like the sun that gives spring life. All yarn is soaked in water 15 min to saturate and then gently squeeze out excess [4 T of Acid Dye (Jacquard) in water, golden yellow, microwave for 5 min. and let sit for 1 hour, rinse in cool water, and gently squeeze excess water out, sprinkle some of the same color over the yarn, while tossing, microwave 4 min and let sit for 1 hour, rinse in cool water, and hang to dry]   OK soaking, Now some pink, pink for the little pink buds of wildflowers [1 t of Acid Dye in water, microwave for 5 min. and let sit for 1 hour, rinse in cool water, and gently squeeze

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 yarn i

If you have the new Spin Off mag , you have probably read the fantastic article by Michael Cook about Growing your own silk , and his in depth website Wormspit. Well, I fell in love with the little wiggly spinners. A relatively new spinner, and I have only spin with a silk hankie ( or matwatas) once. But I knew I had to have some of the voracious little guys.   I’m planning on letting them all live out their natural life span, all of the info I have found indicate that if you desire the silk for thread, the worm must be killed while in the cocoon (the cocoon is one long filament), but if using to spin, it is not necessary to do that. More info at Peace silk Here are my eggs My husband had asked me “is there anything you would like me to get you for your birthday?”. And so  as I set out on an adventure, come with me on my wormy quest for silk. I hope to be able to make some silk hankies and dye them . I found a nice tutorial on how to dye them by Constance Rose Textile

Yay, the sun is out. We have so many sunless days here in the winter. I feel like when it does come out, I need to go out and really enjoy it! So I’ve been catching up on my “to do” list! 1)Let me see I made 3 Hula Hoops, for Christmas presents, very easy and fun. If you are interested in making one yourself, I have included some info on how to do it: This is the best tutorial I have found for making a hula hoop yourself, watch out, you can’t make only one! He also includes all of the supplies you will need. A taping link, and a hula hoop demo to get you started. Watch out it is addictive and fun, (and burns calories)! 2) Felting gnomes, which turned out to be elves, and Santas! See photo at top, more than one was made but the rest became presents, and this is the only one that got captured in a photo! Felted gnome tutorial here   3) Painting more Sumi-e paintings. Bamboo, Prawn and Iris…. I was amazed that all of my “practice” bamboo paintings were eagerly taken by visi

I found this stop motion tutorial on flickr, The Making of Origami Koi by MABONA ORIGAMI, website here http://www.mabonaorigami.com/ , full of inspirational images! This will make you take a second look at the blank piece of paper. Need a Mid Century Birdhouse ? I grew up in a ranch style house, and now my birds can also. Chris at Curbly.com show us how to make one! Don’t let your birds be homeless! Need a cute Mini Terrarium ? Jenny Ryan on Craftzine shows us how to make one using a Mason jar. Put a little mushroom in and a fairy and what little (or big girl) wouldn’t enjoy having this on her desk? A Copper Ring Tutorial from Karen Makes Stuff, stop and look at her blog, she has plenty of ideas you will be interested in. And for all of you knitters and spinners, take a look at the Knitty fall 2010 , and the Knitty spin close look at Navajo Plying   Knit Fast, Dye Yarn "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass... it's about learning how to dance in

Five fun links…. -I like this idea of monograming your own mugs , Hey and Valentines day is coming up. Thanks Design Mom! -I love reading Threadbanger! Here she has found a tutorial on making a cuff watch out of a mens shirt! - Sneezerville teaches us how to unravel a purchased sweater , find some great yarn in a bad sweater? Turn it into a beautiful item with a little work. - Print your own calender with Sofia’s World ! Free and pretty too, get organized! -How about sewing  a Memory quilt with Todera , use some of your memory filled fabric or clothing. -And I couldn’t resist this one, make some Monster Spray for your little one. -- Knit Fast, Dye Yarn "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass... it's about learning how to dance in the rain."

I had this pattern and wanted to make it for quite some time. After much dithering about the yarn to use. I choose some of my hand spun super wash merino.  And picked out some beads. At first I thought I was going to leave the beads out, then I thought, seriously, take a chance and I decided to use them! I had a hard time finding a color of bead to use that looked good. I  started the pattern, and frogged it once then went crazy and decided to use a variety of colors of beads to pick up with two predominate colors in my handspun. The method I chose to use for knitting with beads was the traditional way, string them all on and slip them down when needed. It worked ok, with this amount of beads (108 beads), but if I was using more, I would attempt the crochet method, (see links below) The pattern calls for the beads to be applied in 5 rows in a twisted rib pattern, I was pleased that it was easier than I anticipated. I found several good blog posts on knitting with beads.