Search Results for: dye yarn

Discovering Lace Yarns

So a confession – I’ve never used lace yarn in my 9 years of knitting. I bought one skein a couple of years ago, but never used it – it just sits prettily on my shelf. I guess I’m scared it too thin for me & I’ll break it immediately – even though I will happily knit socks in light fingering weight yarn on size 0 needles!
But I finally broke down & bought some because I am determine to overcome my fear of it. Plus I’m in love with Barb Wire and feel I must have it for my next sweater project! (interview with the designer tomorrow!)
So I bought some pretty Gloss Lace in the new Peapod color

Since our Gloss line is my favorite yarn, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to start there.
Then I love Alison’s Citron so much that I needed to do that too …

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Podcast Episode 57: New Fall Yarn!

Kelley and Tina talk about the new fall yarn lines, detailing the color selection process and discussing different commercial dyeing techniques.
What’s On My Needles

To keep up with my knitting progress during the week, be sure to check out my personal blog.

3 easy ways to listen…
Suscribe in iTunes Episode 57: New Fall Yarn! RSS feed

Music used in this Podcast
Introduction: A Sunken Ship Irony – Reflection at Sundown [http://spotlessrecords.com/asunkenshipirony/]
Book Review: Jim Ronayne – The Three Brethren [http://www.jimronayne.co.uk/]
What’s On My Needles: Beyond The Pale – The Music Plays Me [http://www.beyond-the-pale.com/]
Ending: Jim Ronayne – Thoughts Of You [http://www.jimronayne.co.uk/] <

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Finished Handspun Yarn – Blues and Purples

I finished spinning all 500g of the Wool of the Andes roving
that I dyed
!

I did end up plying the lighter blue bobbins (the top two in the photo above) with the darker purple-and-blue bobbins so that the color would even out among the skeins. It worked for the most part, and I ended up with 5 skeins that varied only slightly – one is more purple, one more dark blue, etc.

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Yarn in progress

I’ve been dyeing a ton of fiber lately! I think it’s because the weather has been so cold, dyeing just seems like a way to make Crafty Soup. 🙂

I’m a big fan of our Bare Wool of the Andes fiber for a couple of reasons. First, it’s really easy to spin because the Peruvian wool is a little grippy and lets you control it easily. Next, it comes in 100g bundles which are the perfect size for the bobbins on my Kromski Polonaise – I know that one bundle will fill one bobbin perfectly. Finally, it’s really inexpensive so I can mess around in the dye pot and try strange and/or challenging blends of colors without worrying about being out a pile of cash.

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Dyeing Supplies Shopping List

When we sent out last week’s e-mail, I mentioned that summer is a great time to take advantage of all the canning supplies that are available everywhere from Safeway to Target. Here is a list of what I keep on my dyeing shelves.

Hot Water Canner – This looks like a huge soup pot.
Jar Rack – Designed to hold the jars while the water is boiling. I use it the traditional way if I am dyeing small amounts of fiber or yarn actually in jars of dye solution. If I am steaming, then I turn the rack upside down and place the plastic wrapped fiber or yarn on it above a couple of inches of simmering water.
Wide Mouth Quart Sized Canning Jars – Wide mouth is really the only way to go. Easy to measure in dye stuff, easy to put in and take out the fiber or yarn and easy to stir around or poke as needed.
Wide Mouth Rings and Caps – I store solution in wide mouth jars so I need the rings and caps to put on the top.
Canning Jar Lifter – This is an item you might think you can ignore figuring you can use plain hot mitts. Don’t! It is so much easier and safer to use this tool.

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Experiments in Plant Dyeing

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I am one of the photographers here at KnitPicks and
since I
have started working here I have been verrrry slowly learning how to
knit. When
I heard about the dye along I thought great! an excuse to not only pick
up my
needles again but I can try out a new craft, dyeing. I have only
tie-dyed so I really
had no idea what I was doing. After a couple of talks with the girls
around
here and reading through the very helpful book Natural Dyeing I decided
to try
my hand at some plant dyeing. My goal was to use only plants/flowers
that I
gathered from around my house but the loooong rainy May we have been
having
nixed that idea.

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Dyealong Wrap Up

Thanks to everybody for following along with (and participating
in
) our sock blank dyealong!  We’ll be posting our finished projects
over the next several weeks, and you’ll be able to see how our sock
blank
dye jobs translate to actual stitches.  Just a reminder, you
can still enter to win a $50 gift card by emailing a photo of your own
dyed sock blank – here are the
details
.

I’m a big fan of the Jacquard
acid dyes
, and I use them all the time at home.  Instead of dyeing sock
blanks
or Bare
yarn
, though, I usually tend to dye a lot of roving and loose fiber
for spinning my own yarn.  For one of my first attempts, I tried dyeing
the roving by handpainting it with foam brushes, wrapping it in plastic
wrap, then steaming on the stovetop.  I chose a basic rainbow color
palette (since I was just starting the whole dyeing thing) and this is
what I got:

(That’s my cat Eddie, mashing up my nice
fluffy roving.)

I spun the roving in color order, and once I had
two bobbins full I plyed them together in roughly the same order so that
the colors would blend and kind of “smash” into each other.  I knit the
yarn up into a basic linen-stitch scarf, and this is what I got:

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