I am hoping that this blog will help you and me experience the craft of crochet as well as knitting. During times of silence or turmoil, crochet and knitting continuously help me quiet my mind at my own pace, enabling me to find my center. I am also sharing my SECRET persona, Lt. DAX, my life in code while living in Bajor. Maybe fiction maybe not is up to you to decide. Peldor Joi!!!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Putting on the Swift
Sunday, March 29, 2009
A Swift in the Making
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Bare Necessities from Knit Picks
One of the things that I discover as I go along my journey of Craftsmanship is to enjoy the craft and the process of learning. Knit Picks allows me to do this easily with their bare yarn. There are other companies like Dharma (here in California) , but for now I am comfortable with Knit Picks and the choices they have to offer.
*
I am also done with the Easy Head Hugger from Danny Oullette, Malabrigo is not the best yarn for this pattern, but I wanted to make the hat in this yarn. The colorway is very distracting from the chevrons on the lower band. Going back to Knit Picks a great deal for little money and the ability to paint it yourself! You can not beat such a great deal!
Well I hope you enjoy the video is in HD and I am playing around with videos as well, so have fun as well, thanks for stopping by!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Easy Head Hugger by Danny Oullette
Once I was done with the hat I went around the neighborhood to take pictures and show off my hat. This hat took me a bit of time as I am retraining myself to knit in a different way than before . My new way is a lot more relaxed and a lot less tight than before. It is a pleasure to knit this hat without having to deal with a lot of the tension. The pattern is better suited for a single color, but I wanted to see what it would look like in this Loro Barranquero Malabrigo. It is better in one solid color, but what can I say it goes with the scarf that I am very close to finish.
So there are more Danny Hats to come in the near future, I actually have one for a sweater I will be making, Hat, scarf and sweater combo what a Hoot! Thanks for stopping by!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Happy Spring 09 Everyone
Monday, March 16, 2009
Experiments in Teal Dyeing
The Skein above was achieved by immersing, (dipping) a section of about 4 to 6 inches of the yarn for a limited time, or rather a timed section of time. 4 minutes to begin with, pulling that section and soaking a new section of yarn for 8 minutes, while the previous section rests on the outside of the pot. You continue increasing the time , let's say 20 minutes, then 40 and then less than 2 minutes, for the clearer part of the teal. This is one of the easiest ways of creating a measurable colorway than may be reproduced. When dealing with reproducible ways of making color measurements are the key, same amount of water from the same source and quality (chlorine free , filtered, distilled, bottled, et cetera), vinegar (white or red or yellow) and the dye itself in milliliters or better yet weighted. I like to weight them rather than measure the liquid. In my opinion is more accurate, but maybe not.
I used a "GLAD Brand"plastic bag as they are sturdy to place the yarn as it was being processed, in the way there was a bowl where the excess liquid was dripping. When I was done dyeing it was time to wrap the yarn like a burrito in the plastic wrap, then put it in a plastic container in the microwave and nuke it for 2 minutes, letting it rest for two minutes, then repeating 2 or 3 more times. Once your yarn is done cooking, let it cool down,or rinse it quickly in cool water. You may also prepare a cool bath with water and half a cup of vinegar and put it in locking the color. I leave my yarn in that kind of rinse for about 5 to 10 minutes then test it to see if it is still bleeding color. If so another vinegar soak for a longer time is needed, then 10 to 15 minutes more. When you are doing Kool Aid, the water where it was soaking comes out usually clear, it's amazing.
The end product is the last skein. This is a Paton's Merino Classic Wool. I went to bed in Pleasantville in a black and white world and Woke Up in a World full of Color! Pleasantville is an Academy Award-nominated 1998 film written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross. Released by New Line Cinema in Canada on September 17, and stars Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Marley Shelton, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, and Jeff Daniels. Don Knotts, Paul Walker, Jane Kaczmarek and J. T. Walsh are also featured. I have found something that I really enjoy and that I find myself navigating toward all the time. Most of the yarn that I have bought comes from hand dyed skeins. I can now produce such skeins and in the colors that I like and want. Wool is a lot easier to dye and a lot of fun, it can be non-toxic with food grade coloring, you can never go wrong with utilizing glass and stainless steel containers as they are extremely resistant to absorbing anything. This is it for today thanks for stopping by and maybe soon a video instruction on how to dye some yarn, it will be fun!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Crazy About Color
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
It's all about Yarn Dyeing
The second step is a bit tricky and the best thing you can do is to use mason jars or to use the same plastic containers all the time. Remember that you should mark these containers for reuse for dyeing only. Never use these containers for anything else as some dyes, even vegetable dyes may be harmful to you, on your skin, inhaled. Anyway they are chemicals whether from vegetable nature or not, rubber gloves, latex, vinyl they will serve to preserve your alabaster skin beautiful.
*
The second step is to have your color mixes ready according to the instructions you have, vinegar is very important when it comes to dyeing wool, it sets the color in. For this project I even had some kool aid solution (light Yellow), and some food coloring(Blue). Nevertheless the colors that I have here are Chery, Aztec Gold and Turquoise from the EBay store. You can buy them from Knit Picks at a better deal. I only good enough for the two skeins that you saw, but I Imagine that I could have used all the color on 100 grams of wool. I stretched it and experimented adding and combining them. I had plastic bags on top of a towel on the kitchen floor, there was very little mess, I can say almost none.
*
Once you are ready you paint your yarn. I would recommend paint by the numbers and rinsing your gloved hands, from color to color. You may use a brush for each color, this will allow you to keep your hands clean to handle the yarn. when you are satisfied the yarn is to your liking, is time to take the yarn and make a burrito with the plastic bag or plastic wrap. This needs to be a very good plastic or it will melt in the microwave. Yep you are going to take your yarn and make a roll, then make like a cinnamon bun and microwave the yarn 2 minutes, letting it rest 2 minutes x 3 , yep 3 times. Once the yarn is done cooking, lol, be careful handling the hot plastic wrapping, you can use lukewarm water to rinse. I allowed my yarn to stay in a clear water bath with some vinegar to help set the color better for 15 minutes then I proceeded to get the excess water out and hang them to dry.
These pictures are very very close to the real color of these skeins, I am so proud of myself, because this is something that I know I can do. I can create my own color yarn, it is cheaper to buy unfinished wool and dye the color you want. If you keep all your measurements and timings the same for the process, you should end up with the same colorway every time. Thanks for dropping by.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
My First Hand Dyed Skeins
This yarn below is the same as above, I thought it would be a great idea to try and dye it. It was a lot of fun to dye your own yarn, very creative and I am sure that I would get very good at it with time. I rinsed both skeins of wool and allowed them to sit in a bath with some vinegar to help set the color in. I was glad my bathroom sink is black.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
More Yarn Porn Mar 09
Joann Sensations Kashmira is not a bad looking yarn and it feels soft, but it has nothing extraordinary besides,that. It is a great price and it is wool. It has many colors.
Noro is another story, Kureyon Sock yarn is a beautiful yarn to make hats, scarves (brioche!!!!) and socks. I have washed and dried socks made out of this yarn in my house and they require nothing more. No felting, no shrinking, this is a great yarn for socks if you want them to be washable, imagine if you just dry them flat and handwash the? Beautiful isn't it?
I got four skeins of this yarn for the holidays, 2 of each colorway S182 and S185. I would buy Noro anytime. The only thing it has pieces of mother nature in it, it twirls a lot and it is rough for the first 3 or 4 washings, maybe if we condition it like hair, with a good shampoo and conditioner it may have a different behavior.
Icelandic wool is one of my favorite wools, I was lucky to run into this one at the Men Who Knit Retreat on the West Coast. I am planning to dye this skein, some beautiful green or multicolor.
Fortissima is a yarn that I will have the opportunity to make socks with soon, there is a great pattern from Skacel that was given to us with these skeins of yarn, two white and one black skein.
I prefer the black skein more than the white skein , it is probably because It has a lot of specks of color s in it.
Briar Rose Fibers Sonoma yarns are sensuous and have a great feeling. There is a lot of yarn on this skein to be able to make a hat and a pair of gloves. There may be one of my projects for next winter.
This is one of the most beautiful skeins from perchance to knit. 65 merino, 35 bamboo, very soft and it feels springy, it is a lot of skein enough to make a pair of socks.
So here it is Sunday, I have uploaded 100's of pictures to flickr and there are more to come, have to go to knit on my scarf and hat made with the Loro Barranquero from Malabrigo. Thanks for stopping by!
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Ebay Yarn Porn Mar 09
The Yarn-Barn Ebay Store
6 skeins - 100 Yds each (all are one lot)
Light Sport Wgt /Heavy Finger Wgt - WPI 18
Suggested Needle 3 / Hook D
600 yds total - Approx. 6oz
Sunset (Golden Orange tone)
Almost two years without blogging August 2020
Life can be a bowl of strawberries when cheries are not available. It has been almost two years since I have been in this blog. I have s...
-
An easy to make Circular Needle Organizer, Thanks for stopping by!
-
The Prisoner of Azkaban Hogwarts scarves are very different from the old scarves where egalitarian stripes where the norm. I have created a...
-
Well I am doing this in a public way , because I found at least four people that have been hit with this. The headline was "Credit Card...