Another Book

  Got a new book today, Spinning, Dyeing and weaving. Haven't had a full look yet but was reading bits about dyeing before, its got natural plant dyes in it. I'll have a proper read of it later. Read bits and pieces in the tartan book, it has the clans tartan and a little history. Unfortunately the instructions aren't great. The second book that come free with it is pretty good though, helping me understand a little better. It does seem I will have to mess around a bit to get vertical stripes, at least the rest is easy with the heddle.

  I haven't threaded the new loom yet, glad it came with some work on it as it does look a little confusing. I might spend the weekend playing with it, it is so easy to use though, push up, thread, push down and thread. The loom came with instructions this time and a pattern booklet. The pattern booklet isn't great but I have the basics down so will try one with a vertical stripe.

  I ordered a kick spindle yesterday. I've been uhmming and arrring about buying one for a couple of days, there not cheap. After a few days thinking about it I decided ya. There goes my spinning wheel savings. I'll let you know what its like when I get it, so looking forward to spinning with it.

  Started another Iphone sock yesterday too, not 100% sure about how the pattern will turn out for the back. I've played around with it some and decided to give it a go. I still haven't finished off the backpack, I really should get the last few bits finished on it.

  Got some washing on the line, its cold out but lovely and sunny. I think this autumn, fall, is going to be nicer than the summer we had here.  This is my favorite season though so I might be biased.

No dyeing today

Well after Tuesdays disaster even the calendar says WTF.
 
  The immerision method I was trying in the microwave hasn't worked, think this is to do with the red and the ph. It seems a lot of reds can be tricky to get right, red #3 no idea what it is though. I'm going to get a few packets of kool aid and try those, there well tried and tested and there lots of advice out there too. 
  I will also get some of the acid dyes. There are starter kits on ebay that include sock yarn so you can dye and knit your own socks, I'll just get the dyes though, still have plenty of the white sock yarn.

  I was thinking of plying the yellow/mustard sock yarn with my light brownish spun yarn. Would also like to ply my red left over sweater yarn to make a hat with. Wish I knew about plying befor I did the back pack, I knitted it with two strands of yarn and  think it would of been easier to ply the two though I've never plyed/plied(?) befor so don't yet know how hard it is. This will soon be corrected.

   I've bid on some multi coloured tops for spinning on ebay. 500g in all but you can't pick which colours though they will include at least one white top. There pretty cheap and will be good for practising with.

 Going to post about my very first knitted socks tomorrow, well the couple of baby socks I did and the ones I eventually managed to do for myself.

I need adult supervision.

     I put the dyed yarn into separate plastic bags to stop any colours running between skeins and for the steam to work. Didn't think I heated them up enough last time and that's maybe why the dye didn't set. This time I made sure I heated them enough, errr I mean too much. The plastic bags have melted into the yarn, I guess that's one way to set the colours, going to need a hammer and a 6 inch nail to knit with though.

  Next time I'm using kool aid and the stove top. I do have a bowl of the mustard yarn in the microwave at the moment with some red dye that I'm trying the immersion method. Keeping an eye on it so I don't burn the house down or something. Got the thermometer out and keeping it around 180. Not sure its working but will keep at it.

Coffee break

and I've not even started yet

I've earned this coffee break, you know how I hate shopping. Didn't maim anyone today, look they'll heal so its not classed as maiming. Even that shin compound fracture will heal ok. I did apologise about that, felt bad after I'd run over her with the trolley for the 6th time. Just kidding. Honest.
 
  I'll get started in a bit, going to unwind a ball using the back of the chair. Using the swift was a pain last time. I think its best to leave that for helping turn skeins into balls. I got some *red, blue and yellow liquid dyes*, I did look at the icing pastes but don't know about those, they all contained glucose. Guess I could try one in my home brew, a nice green beer for halloween maybe.
  Got a bottle of distilled/white vinegar, do have more in the house but thought I'd get one more for my prepping. Someone mentioned using lemon juice instead because of the smell which seems a good idea to me, even wearing gloves I couldn't get rid of the vinegar smell last time. Made my biscuits taste funny. Not sure if I could use the fake lemon stuff, jiff??? I could also use the invisible lemonade kool aid stuff, I think that serves the same purpose to add acid.
  Got some little plastic pots with lids, I know the food dyes are safe but would really like to keep all the dyeing stuff separate. Will be much safer for when I get around to using the acid dyes and more nasty stuff. Don't want to accidentally kill myself, contrary to popular opinion it would be a bad idea.


ETA 
Colours are 

• blue = spirulina.
• red = anthocyanis, paprika extract, emulsifier(polysorbate 80).
• yellow =ploysorbate 80, curcumrin.

More on my dyeing

    I love the folks at ravelry, there so helpful. Seems I made one mistake and also I found out the asda own brand food colouring is rubbish too.
   I will give it another crack because the dyes are easy to get and cheap but this time I'll add some of the distilled/white vinegar to the dye. I'll also only do a couple of small amounts of yarn too.
   I'm going to get some kool aid stuff as well, seems its pretty easy to get over here in the UK, can get it on eBay and a few folks sell it as well. Need to get a couple of spare pans too and have a go at acid dyes.

My dyeing died.

     Well that didn't start out too well. Did two 50g skeins, soaked in vinegar and water for 30+ mins then got the food colours out to play. Ended up with some nice muted colours which I was happy about. I had been worried the colours would of been too bright from using the food dyes.  
    So far so good. 
  When I picked them up to put in the bowl to heat I gave them a squeeze which I now realise is a big no no. All the colours ran together to form various shades of dirty orange, not great but not too bad either. Zapped them in the microwave for 2 minuets then let cool then zapped them again for another two minutes. Not too bad so far really,let them cool down and rinsed with water to remove excess dye. 
    Oh dear, I now have two 50g skeins of a lovely mustard colour. The colour is really nice but its not what I was after. At this point I'm not sure whats gone wrong, why one colour has taken and the rest just washed away.

Later

   I soaked the mustard skeins in a vinegar solution again this time for about an hour then added the last of the red food dye I had. Red was the only colour I had left over and there really wasn't a lot left. 
  The result wasn't great looking but what the hay. I zapped the skeins in the microwave for a couple of mins, let cool then zapped them again for a bit longer. I let them cool them zapped them one last time and let cool ready for rinsing.  
   Grrrrrr all the red washed out leave me back with my lovely mustard coloured yarn.
   I really have no idea what I've done wrong, maybe its the food colour I used and only the yellow one is any good. It could also be the sock yarn too but I'd of thought if it was the yellow wouldn't of taken either. If all the dyes had washed out I'd understand better but having the yellow set and the red,blue and green dyes wash out leaves me a little puzzled.

   I really wish I had cut up one of the skeins into smaller pieces and experimented that way instead of jumping in head first, oh well you live
and learn. I'll get some more of the food dyes tomorrow and do some small pieces this time and see whats going on.

Scarfs back on track

Sort of...

    The scarf is sort of back on track, I seem to have lost my rhythm with it now though.I keep making silly counting mistakes and knitting one or two extra stitches before I catch them and unknit em. Not sure whats going on with it and I'm not sure where I made the original mistake. I think I might of even made the mistake halfway along a row and then ended up repeating that row.
   The reason I didn't spot the mistake earlier is because the scarfs over four feet long and I had it folded up to make it easier to work with. You could only see it when I unraveled it all to measure how far along I was.

    I've just unwound two 50g balls of the white sock yarn ready to soak in water and vinegar over night ready to dye tomorrow. I have an old metal thingie... errr I forget what there called now. Its got 3 arms that expand and spin around and you wrap the yarn around. Makes skeins. I need to plan it out better next time though. I did put the ball in a plastic bag with a hole for the yarn to go through but it still seemed to snag a lot and collect more hairs than the dog has on its back.

    No posts tomorrow as usual, unless Israel bombs Iran some time today. I'll be playing with dyes tomorrow, I'll let you all know what interesting colours I stain myself with for the next 3 months.
    Have a happy knitty, spinney, dyeie weekend.

Darn backpack

    Getting really hacked off with this backpack now. What should of been a quick project seems to have dragged on and on. I'm doing the straps in garter stitch but slipping every other stitch over an even amount of stitches per row so on the next row I knit a slip stitch and slip a knit stitch. The results are a bit padded and are not stretchy but have a tiny amount of give. Plus its much quicker to knit so I can get this darn thing finished quicker.

  Got my white sock yarn today but will wait until I have the time to play with dyeing otherwise I'll end up ringing in sick, "hello, I can't come in today. I'm blue". 
   I really need a couple of pans, glass bowls to set the dyes in. Its not so important with food dyes but using other types seems much more deadly than I realised. Heck it ain't real fun unless its messy and deadly.

Dyeing primary colours, colors.

    Walking around the supermarket today so I can get some food dyes for dyeing my yarns. For the life of me I couldn't remember my primary colours and was walking around singing red and yellow and green and blue I can sing a rainbow and thinking no no that's not right. *Richard of york??? Finely settled on red being one, just two more to go, blue or green or yellow??? Then it hit me, printer inks, pinky, odd blue and yellow. As you can see I'm not very good with colours, only really like two, black and dull. Is dull a colour??
   Ordered some more of that cheap sock yarn yesterday in white so I can play around with dyeing pretty cheaply, unless I spill some and have to replace the carpet, worktops, walls or ceiling. Ordered two packs of 200g for £2 + postage which worked out at £4 this time, still a very good offer and the yarn is good 75% super wash wool.

    Finished spinning the dark brown top so now need to wind it up and set the twists. Not to sure I can knit with it, its pretty bumpy in places. I'll start spinning either the white top or light brown top next and see if I can get the yarn all one thickness. I think aiming to be thinner will be the way to go. Am still having trouble joining the roves or any snapped off bits, they tend to be too thick.

Have a happy Friday.

*Richard of York gave battle in vain, not really much help with primary colours but good for remembering the rainbow.
  Found a couple more fun ones to teach your kids.

Read Only Your Good Books In Valhalla

Remember Only Young Girls Burn In Vanity