Current Status: drying... and drying... and drying... forever and ever... because NOTHING EVER DRIES IN FALL am I right?! Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore fall and winter. I live for the chilly, gloomy, crisp weather. It's the Viking blood in me, I guess. But this is that awkward stage where it's too warm to have the heat on so it's constantly a little chilly in the apartment (again, which I love- I'm finally comfortable!) and anything that needs to dry just won't. And I'm sorry, but I just don't see myself standing there with a hair dryer. Ain't nobody named me got time for that.
Buuuuuuuuut, in the mean time... do you remember the really cool yarn I mentioned here? I was sure that the inside fiber, the gloriously bright highlighter yellow, was the cotton portion. I WAS WRONG, and I am so glad I was! Can you believe how cool this looks?
The first two photos were excess dye and soda ash being rinsed out, and the bottom is a few skeins hanging on a hanger to hopefully dry faster. Here it is, soaking before being dyed:
And a few more photos of the general dyeing process, just because:
The upper photo is a pitcher of urea water (ewww, but necessary) and some Hot Black getting ready to mix together and make sweet dye love. The bottom picture is one of the highlighter skeins after getting it's dye on. Only three of the skeins will be for sale as is- the rest all have fat, ugly knots in them. Those skeins will be knit up into a nice, squishy cowl, and probably sold that way as I can't see myself wearing something so bright, as cool as it will look.
I also made myself a new beaded yarn- terribly greedy, I know, but I had this lovely dusty blue yarn sitting next to come gorgeous copper beads, and it reminded me of the kitchen in the house of my best friends grandma when I was 9 or 10.
The beads and sequins were strung on some plain white crochet thread, and while I thought about dyeing it afterwards, I quickly squashed the idea after remembering the Lurex Mishap of October 2015... oh wait, I didn't tell you about that, did I? Boy oh boy, was THAT a learning experience.
The thing is, I had dyed wool that had been plied with lurex, and since that process involves prolonged exposure to heat, and it had been a success, I thought maybe the cotton yarn would be just fine. Actually, I was apparently convinced that it would be a success, as I plied TWO skeins with lurex before dyeing, not just one.
I'm not sure I even have adequate words to express what a disaster it was. I soon realized, while rinsing out the dye, that little bits of gold and copper lurex were LITERALLY FLAKING OFF, as if King Midas had been shaving his beard in my sink and didn't bother to clean up after himself. I now have these two HIDEOUS skeins of yarn, which I cannot, of course, over dye...
Buuuuuuuuut, in the mean time... do you remember the really cool yarn I mentioned here? I was sure that the inside fiber, the gloriously bright highlighter yellow, was the cotton portion. I WAS WRONG, and I am so glad I was! Can you believe how cool this looks?
The first two photos were excess dye and soda ash being rinsed out, and the bottom is a few skeins hanging on a hanger to hopefully dry faster. Here it is, soaking before being dyed:
And a few more photos of the general dyeing process, just because:
The upper photo is a pitcher of urea water (ewww, but necessary) and some Hot Black getting ready to mix together and make sweet dye love. The bottom picture is one of the highlighter skeins after getting it's dye on. Only three of the skeins will be for sale as is- the rest all have fat, ugly knots in them. Those skeins will be knit up into a nice, squishy cowl, and probably sold that way as I can't see myself wearing something so bright, as cool as it will look.
I also made myself a new beaded yarn- terribly greedy, I know, but I had this lovely dusty blue yarn sitting next to come gorgeous copper beads, and it reminded me of the kitchen in the house of my best friends grandma when I was 9 or 10.
The beads and sequins were strung on some plain white crochet thread, and while I thought about dyeing it afterwards, I quickly squashed the idea after remembering the Lurex Mishap of October 2015... oh wait, I didn't tell you about that, did I? Boy oh boy, was THAT a learning experience.
The thing is, I had dyed wool that had been plied with lurex, and since that process involves prolonged exposure to heat, and it had been a success, I thought maybe the cotton yarn would be just fine. Actually, I was apparently convinced that it would be a success, as I plied TWO skeins with lurex before dyeing, not just one.
I'm not sure I even have adequate words to express what a disaster it was. I soon realized, while rinsing out the dye, that little bits of gold and copper lurex were LITERALLY FLAKING OFF, as if King Midas had been shaving his beard in my sink and didn't bother to clean up after himself. I now have these two HIDEOUS skeins of yarn, which I cannot, of course, over dye...
That picture is extremely flattering, trust me. You can see on the left side, though, how dulled and weird some of the lurex looks. Oh, and here's a bonus shot of my shower wall, where I thwacked the yarn to straighten it out after soaking. More King Midas stubble. This was taken AFTER I scrubbed the wall today, too. I've resigned myself to having it there as a constant reminder, I suppose.
Anyhow, that lovely beaded blue yarn will probably be a chunky knit hat.
So- a few things I've been thinking about, and one of them involves this blog. I will probably start creating content on WordPress instead, as after 5 minutes of quick research tonight I see there are distinct advantages, and if I'm going to do it, the time is now, before I have any followers or regular readers.
Also, I am researching how to make great YouTube videos. I would like to start my own podcast, and so I'm watching a few of the offerings out there, and I'm enchanted especially so far by Junkyarns. While I don't have a community built up yet, I'd like to get there. I'd like to be able to get the word out about my yarns more. And, I've decided that the intro and outro music on my videos will be played by me. Betcha didn't know I play violin, eh? I'll make a synth drum beat for it roo or something, it'll be fun.
Ok, I think that's all for now- I'll update again once I've got some nice finished yarn photos to share. I'll also have some finished knit projects to share too. In case you didn't see the last post, I've re-done a LOT of my shop photos on Etsy, and they're looking really good.
Happy crafting!
“Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either.”
― Elizabeth Zimmermann
― Elizabeth Zimmermann
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