A Colourful Adventure with Yarn

In the summer of 2017 while on holiday, I visited Shrewsbury for the day. There are many lovely buildings, a wonderful walk along the river, and many old areas to visit. One thing I like to do is have a leisurely browse around the indoor market. The lower floor is full of stalls with all kinds of products, and there are quite a few wonderful small shops on the upper gallery.

One of those is Ewe & Ply, as they say themselves: "We sell a huge, wonderful range of natural and ethically sourced quality British wool, yarn and fibre". Though they sell much more than that!!

I loved the dyeing I have done before (fabric and threads using different dye techniques), so I was tempted by their kit for indigo dyeing (always wanted to try that) and a kit for dyeing wool with Koolaid (I had just heard about that at the time). Being on holiday I decided to buy both...

And then the kits lay at home. Looked at now and then, but I never got round to using them... until yesterday! Ahem, 19 months later or so...

I decided to try the wool dyeing kit. This kit was from DT Craft & Design, called "Knit'n'Go felted knit sack". It included 100 g undyed DK wool, 10 Koolaid sachets in different flavours/colours, a plastic box (for dyeing in), gloves and a plastic apron. Apart from the dyeing materials and instructions, it contained a pattern to knit and felt a project pouch with belt loops for knitting on the go.

While the wool was soaking in a bowl of warm water (with a drop of Ecover dish liquid - I improvised) I made up some dye solutions from the Koolaid. I had some empty and clean dish soap bottles, so I tipped the content of three sachets into three separate bottles, added some warm water and shook to dissolve. 
My idea was to make my wool deep blue, and adding a little red and yellow for some purple and green accents. With that in mind I used Koolaid in the flavours "Blue Raspberry Lemonade" (blue), "Lemonade" (yellow), and "Strawberry" (red). By the smells you would think I had converted my kitchen into a sweets factory!!!

With the wool sufficiently wet, I poured some of the blue on. The blue turned out to be a bright light blue. Different than I had in mind, but lovely. Unfortunately I did not take a photo of it.

Because when I added a few drops of red (more small squirts than drops to be honest) the red drowned out the blue very quickly. I also added some yellow, and that slightly changed the tone of the colour too. In the end I decided to let it become what it wanted, which was a reddish pink.

To make it more variable in colour I considered trying to add some more blue again, but in the end I opted for a darker purple instead. When this went on the colour seemed a very dark grey really.

After "cooking" in the plastic box in the microwave to set the dye the yarn needed to cool, and I wrote notes (City & Guilds habits - always make notes)! When rinsing later in warm water, the water remained clear. A good sign that the dye had been well set, I imagine.

Drying it the colour seems to have lightened a little, but I am very pleased with the end result!

I am now sooo curious how this will knit up!! I don't think I will knit it into a felted belt pouch according to the kit's instructions. Any experienced knitters out there that can suggest what can be knit with 100g DK in reddish pink with darker areas...???

In the mean time I am looking in my very modest wool stash for wool that can be dyed with some of the remaining Koolaid!

Sandra

Pouches and Creatures

Today the weather has turned cold; we are having sleet and snow, and a biting wind. So having gone out to increase our supplies first (more snow is on the way), I have decided it is a great day for writing a little blog post. Then I am declaring the rest of the day only fit for sewing!

Recently, I have been trying hard to use up some of my fabrics (and other craft items) in an effort to reduce "my bits" that are spread all over the house these days. Then I received some fabric samples that the owner no longer knew what to do with. I simply cannot say NO to any fabric! The only way I could justify this was to start making with them as soon as possible.

Some of the pieces had been sewn into long strips, but I had a different idea, so I unpicked the seams. Don't you HATE using the seam ripper?! It was done very quickly though.

After separating them, I cut the pieces into equal squares, and then halved them again into brick shapes. Sorting them into sets of four, I sewed them into pouch panels, adding some black from one of my boxes:

With just black and white I found them a little uninspiring, so I decided to add something colourful. First of all I started some embroidery. Small buttons, a red perle and an evening in front of the fire later these flowers had been added:

It looks lovely, but not as colourful as I thought it would be. So out came pencil and paper, iron-on adhesive, and some cheerful batiks. A session on the sewing machine turned out this little creature and its brothers/sisters:

I just love the quirky effect of the colourful geckos on the stark black and white background. I'll be turning these in some practical pouches now.

Linking up with Archie the Wonder Dog at "Mini Archie's January Furtle Around The Blogosphere". If you want to know what that is all about, click on the link or on the button (image) below:

That is it for today, I have pouches to finish!

Sandra

My Q1 Finish-A-Long List

The Finish-A-Long is starting again, and I am joining in with my current list of unfinished projects. If you are looking for the link-up to add your own list, it can be found at the Q1 List Linkup post. And if you want to know more, check out my Finish-A-Long page.

Okay, now to my own list, which looks like this:

I used my FAL Planner to keep track during the quarter, hopefully a lot more squares will be coloured in three months time!
1. Feathered Star quilt
Needs layering, basting, quilting, binding.

2. Cubes quilt
Needs the last bit of quilting, and binding.

3. Log Cabin quilt
Needs basting (again, since I removed the wadding I had started quilting with, because I didn't like the effect), quilting, binding.

4. Black & White quilt
This needs everything doing, but at least I have decided what to do with the B&W fabrics and am waiting on a ruler I ordered.
Realistically, this will not be finished this quarter, but I would like to start it soon, so at least it means I will be working on something from the list!

5. Logo quilt (still to be named - what about "My World"? Mmmm...)
Needs layering, basting, quilting, binding.

I have kept it relatively short (for me) this quarter with five projects. I find I do not do half as much sewing as I think I will, and I am hoping this way I will be more focussed... Fingers crossed for some finishes soon!

Linking up to the 2019 FAL

Sandra