Sneak Peek at my latest hand dyed yarn

So without revealing the givaway yarn, which is in these pics somewhere ;-) here is my latest batch of dyeing.

I tend to dye as and when the mood hits and of course I have to have the time to do it, which is why it is often sporadic. I have to dye once the kids are in bed or occasionally at a weekend by getting my husband to take them out. It's easiest when they're in bed though because my husband helps out by washing things up as I go along so it gets done much quicker.

Sometimes I choose the colours as I'm dyeing. I often think about what colours will go well together but sometimes when I get the dyes out to start making them up something else whooshes into my head and I go down a totally different route. That yarn above for example was going to be a black and yellow combination when I first got my dyes out.

The two yarns below were dyed in the slow cooker.

The yarn above is made using a splattering technique that gives a huge random mix of colours. I really like using this technique on sock yarn but decided to give it a try on something else this time.

I experimented a little on the next one

This one was dyed at the same time as the purple one above, in the slow cooker.

Something a little brighter

Another slow cooker one

 

Look what I got!

I went into town last week and while I was there I spotted a yellow plastic basket. I pondered buying it to put yarn in for my current projects. I needed something that would keep the yarn together, be easy to move about the house and that would hold enough yarn. That was the tricky bit...after all, how much is enough yarn???!!!??? So I looked at the basket and thought about whether I could fit the yarn for my vertical stripe blanket in there - that's 5 balls (i.e. one for each colour) and I thought, yes, yes, I definitely could fit that in there...but I'm also making a neat ripple cushion, that's another 3 balls. Hmm. Now it's definitely not fitting in. Scrap that idea.

Of course a few days later I thought I really need something to keep this yarn in and, of course, regretted not getting the basket. It was 79p!!! Why? Why did I not buy the 79p basket to make my life easier. Ok, so I know that I didn't buy it cos it was yellow and I really wanted a purple basket . 

Yesterday the weather was lovely and sunny, so I wandered up into town. My plan was to BUY. THAT. BASKET. then take Orla to the park.

So, into the shop, down the aisle for the basket. The basket was not there. Off I go up and down the aisles searching for the basket. Nothing. None.

Hmm....plan out the window. Decided to look in some of the other shops and guess what I spot? A basket. The same basket as before but...it's purple . Hang on though, it's definitely smaller than I thought. Yes, I think it's too small. See a pattern here????

I did pick up this plant though, to brighten up the windowsill. I also got some seeds for the kids to plant.

Today we happened to go to a garden center. Shhhhhhh...don't tell my husband that I suggested going to the garden center so I could look for a basket. The baskets weren't big enough and more for flower displays than yarn until I saw it. A bright pink tub trug. As we approached I saw....a PURPLE tub trug. So here it is, filled with current projects(those knitting needles are in use - I'm making a simple shawl and loving it)

I know, it's ridiculous to be so excited about a plastic bucket but it's just perfect. Look, it really is

See that card? Well that's the Mother's Day card Erin made for me at school. She was desperate to give it to me this morning. Oh and check out the floor. It's far, far nicer than the grubby old carpet.

And I just have to share this picture of Orla playing with my neat ripple blanket the other day. She was playing 'bedtime' with Dora.

Day Trip: Coldspring Mill

Erin hasn't felt great the last couple of days but she seemed to perk up this morning after a bacon sarnie! So, we decided to go out somewhere. After a bit of debating where to go and what to do on such a lovely day, we settled on heading over to Coldspring Mill at Cullingworth. I've heard lots of people say the wool shop is great for a bargain but it's hit and miss what they have in stock. They seem to have given their website a little makeover recently and the picture of the wool shop made me want to go and check it out. We thought we could head over to Hebden Bridge afterwards and have a wander round in the sunshine.

By the time we got over there it was time for lunch. I settled on the small breakfast at a super value price of £2.50. Alan went for sausages in Yorkshire pudding with mash and peas, despite plans for a roast dinner later. It certainly filled us up and the kids loved looking out of the windows at the fields.

Then we wandered into the outdoor shop. I was tempted by the jams but managed to resist. We had a quick browse of camping stuff, before heading down the stairs into the Wool Shop. Now I have to admit, I was expecting a few shelves of yarn but there was loads. I thought it was slightly randomly spread out too, I found some Stylecraft Extra Special Dk but the Stylecraft Special DK was the other end of the shop. There was some cotton on one aisle and others elsewhere. A little mixed up, you might say. I still haven't decided whether it was frustrating or if it just added to the treasure trove feeling.

There was a good range of cheap acrylics (lots of Stylecraft, James C Brett) but a few higher end items. There were tubs of bargain packs of unlabelled yarn and various random balls at £1.99+. Definitely the sort of place you could go and find something for your latest project.

So, what did I buy? Well, so many things were tempting but I am supposed to be Not. Buying. Yarn.

Just 3 balls slipped in the basket. This Stylecraft Life DK.

I'm planning on making a cushion for the living room with it. When I saw it I knew it would be perfect colours for the living room, though I couldn't quite decide between the Cobalt (on the left) or a more grey colour. I didn't like the two together and settled in the end for the cobalt and I thought it just looked a bit fresher. the other colours are Heather (in the middle) and Crocus (on the right).

We never made it over to Hebden Bridge as I managed to break a tooth while out and didn't really fancy it.

Fibreholics!

Well I almost haven't got this done in time but luckily (a) the deadline was put back a month to allow for more contributors to get stuff in and (b) I'm up at this time of night. Ok that second one isn't quite so lucky. Anyway, there will be yarn and fibre samples from me. If you want a sneak peek of the fibre here it is:

Head over to their site to find out how to buy one of their fantastic sample packs of indie dyed yarn or fibre.

FO: Flower Jar Cozy

Another quick stash buster!

This was worked up in some scraps from the Neat Ripple I made. It's Jarol Heritage DK yarn. I used blue for the main body as it was the one I had most of. I started with foundation single crochet until it was long enough to wrap around the jar, then worked rounds of single crochet (UK double crochet) to cover the height of the jar. I might have done a couple more rounds but I ran out of yarn and I think it looks ok. Since I used 30 stitches per round (didn't plan it, it just happened that way) I decided to use the same stitches for the petals as the Blooming Flower Cushion by Attic24. This works over 5 stitches. I thought a petal worked over 3 stitches would make too many petals.

Better view of the flower

To add a bit more interest to it, I went on a hunt through my button jar and discovered some flower buttons and ladybird buttons. I sewed some of these onto the blue.

Here's the finished item!

More BBM!

To help keep things organised I've listed most yarn on Folksy.


I've also been selling some hairclips and there's more still to be listed.



I also had a play with Woad dyeing and listed two skeins at a bargain price of £6.50 posted.


Woad produces glorious shades of blue and both skeins are semi-solids. I did one skein of aran and one sock yarn.

Maternity leave is going well. Erin is getting into babywearing!!!



Orla on the other hand is enjoying eating parrots




Speaking of parrots, I dyed this yarn quite some time ago for The Soaring Sheep and it was snapped up.

Dyeing & Reskeining

Well I did some more dyeing the other day. There was a competition thread on Ravelry and the theme was dip dyeing so I thought I'd give it a go.

I used three tubs each with different amounts of Black Cherry Kool Aid, then dipped roughly a third of the skein of wool in each (after soaking it). I let the colours work up the sections in between the tubs. It was then covered and microwaved to set the colours and left overnight to cool. Here's the result



After much debate I decided to go ahead and buy a niddy noddy so that I can reskein my dyed yarn. I was tempted to wait until Woolfest but curiosity got the better of me!



I got one of these beautiful ones (a large) from Michael Williams, who was very obliging and let my husband call at his house on a Sunday to get it.

So after reskeining, my dip-dyed yarn looks like this:


So the plan now is to reskein all the yarn I've dyed so far.

I also really, really need to do some more dyeing cos it's just soooo much fun. I did buy a second stock pot (i.e. now have 2 for dyeing in) but this one also has a steamer section in it so lots of experimenting to do. Am itching to find out what effect I'll get if I do one skein in a dye bath in the bottom of the pot and one skein steamed in the top if I do a base colour in the dye bath and then pour colours over the top skein and let them drip into the bottom.

Yarn & Fibre Addiction!!!

So I sorted out the living room this week and realised just how much yarn & fibre I have. I have a box full of fibre to try spinning with, a big bag of fibre to felt and a huge basket of yarn. Despite this I ordered some more last night! Oh and forgetting all about the 6 whole fleeces in the shed. It's getting as bad as my cloth nappy addiction!

Speaking of cloth nappies, I'm taking mine on holiday to Morocco - mad???? maybe but I just couldn't bring myself to buy a pack of disposables. I haven't used any since my little girl was about a week old and I'm not starting now. Anyway here's pic of the little cutie ;-)...urm, ok...it's above the post because I can't figure out how to move it!