Tag Archives: dyeing

British Wool Advent Calendar

For a few months now, I’ve been working towards selling my own hand dyed yarn. Finally, I’ve begun to do this! My first major product that I’m selling is my British Wool Advent Calendar which you can buy here at Etsy for £36.

British Yarn Advent Calendar

 

From the 1st to the 25th December there is a parcel to open every day. There are 10 that each contain 10g of hand dyed British 4ply yarn, one for Christmas Day that contains 50g of hand dyed British 4ply yarn, and 14 craft related treats and gifts.

Please take a look, and if you have any questions or comments don’t hesitate to contact me.

Work in Progress Wednesday 11th June

Quite a few updates this Work in Progress Wednesday!

I finished my Tonight socks and got through to Round 6 of Sock Madness. I’m pretty happy with how they came out, although I do have to lengthen them a little in the foot to fit me properly, and make the toe more rounded as usual. They’re fully reversible which is pretty cool.

Tonight Socks 2 Tonight Socks 1

I was all prepared for Round 6. I had tv queued up to watch, yarn and needles at the ready. The pattern arrived on Sunday, Chill Thrill, and I liked the look of it. I then spent 12 hours straight just getting to the heel flap on the first sock. As pretty as the pattern is, I wasn’t enjoying knitting it and it had some errors that were putting me off. My wrists were already aching a little, so I decided to sleep, rather than stay up until they were done. Overnight, I realised that there was no point in me continuing. Not only did I have the above problems to content with, but it was another heel flap sock, and they just don’t fit me very well, plus I wasn’t that happy with my yarn choice. I decided that it would be best to drop out. Even if I got the single place on my team to get to the next round, I couldn’t guarantee being able to spend the time solidly knitting to even attempt to win the overall competition. Someone else on the team had also already finished their first sock, and would have much more of a chance in the next round too.

The sock so far was frogged, and I’m still pretty happy with my decision.

Chill Thrill

I found it difficult to decide what to knit next. I decided some summery socks were a good idea. I chose some bamboo yarn (Wendy Happy) that I previously tried to knit into a cardigan back when I first started knitting. Because of tendency to stretch and stay that way, bamboo yarn doesn’t generally work well for socks, yet is a wonderfully cool fabric perfect for summer. I thought if I knit them fairly tightly on my smallest needles (2.25mm) the lack of stretch could be overcome. I’m using the pattern Seasonal Socks and am going to use my favourite Fish Lips Kiss heel, so hopefully I’ll end up with a pair of socks I’m happy with.

Seasonal Socks

I’ve won two knitting related prizes recently. The first was a pattern from PolarBears (on Ravelry) which I won as I dyed my own yarn for Sock Madness Round 3. There wasn’t a great deal I’d knit from the selection, but I chose Playtime Colors because it looked like a fun knit and I’m sure I’ll find someone who wants to knit it. The second was a random prize from a group in Ravelry, where there is a monthly sock challenge. I happened to be one of seven lucky winners for May. I won two skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock and I’ve never used it before so I’m looking forward to that.

Finally, some sad news. Beshley’s Wool Shop, which I wrote about a while ago, is closing. Apparently it’s because Beshley has an opportunity she can’t pass on, but it unfortunately means she won’t be able to run the shop anymore.

It’s just under two weeks until we move house and we’ve barely started packing, so I doubt I’ll have a huge amount of knitting time for the next few weeks. However it does mean that once we’ve moved, I finally have a bit more freedom to make the house and garden look nice so hopefully I’ll be able to post a lot more crafty projects other than knitting!

Sock Madness Round 3

Flowers

Last week I said that I’d go into a bit more detail about my newest socks, made for Sock Madness Round 3.

When I first got the materials list for Sock Madness Round 3, I was surprised to see that I needed a solid colour and 7 10g scraps of colours. I had enough yarn, but I wasn’t too convinced about the colours. I expected the pattern to come out the next morning, so I (driven by Nick) went to find some yarn I could dye, and some food colourings to dye it with. Well, the only yarn remotely suitable that I could find was King Cole Zig Zag in a variegated pale blue with small dashes of dark blue. And the only food dye I could find were the gel Dr Oetker ones. So I bought them and hoped.

When I got home, the pattern had already been released. When I saw it, Rainbow Pipes and Linen Stitch Socks, I realised that I would have to continue with my dyeing plan because the scraps I had weren’t suitable at all. I had said I’d make pizza for dinner, so in between stages for that (I’m surprised we didn’t end up with multicoloured dough!), I dyed the yarn.

I should mention that at this point we were dog sitting at Nick‘s parents’ house, so had to be VERY careful not to stain anything. I also bought a cheap bowl so I didn’t damage any of theirs.

The first step was to divide the yarn into seven small skeins, then soak these in a water and vinegar mix for at least 30 minutes.Undyed Yarn

Then I added some food colouring to some warm water, put in the yarn and made sure it was covered. This then went into the microwave for 2 minute bursts until the water was clear.Dyeing

I hung up the skeins to dry, and they turned into this (with the black I’m using as the main colour):Round 3 Yarn

Not bad for a rushed and unprepared dyeing experiment!

I started knitting the next morning when all the yarn was dry. I tried to take advantage of the beautiful weather, but kept getting distracted by the two dogs.Distractions

A couple of days later we had to finish dog sitting and come home, but the next day I was off to visit my parents. So I knitted on the train, and I knitted while I was there, and I finally finished a couple of hours before I got on the train to come home again. They are some pretty well travelled socks!

When I submitted the socks, one of the organisers pointed out that I had used very Easter coloured yarn. I wasn’t even thinking that when I was dyeing them, but I think she’s right. That works out well considering I knitted most of them during the Easter weekend.

Sock Madness Round 3 Finished

I’ve ordered some better dyes and some undyed yarn and am looking forward to experimenting with it to get the exact colours I want. Keep an eye on this site, and soon you might find it for sale!

 

Work in Progress Wednesday 16th April

This is only  a really quick one as I’m in the middle of a round on Sock Madness and I need all the time I can get to knit. So here are my socks! The pattern for this round (Round 3) is Rainbow Pipes and Linen. I dyed my own yarn for the colours, and I’m loving how it’s coming out. More on that once I’ve actually finished knitting them. Here’s what I have so far:

Sock Madness 8 Round 3