Swatchless

On my stovetop I’m combining onions, beans and wool to see what I can come up with.

Here’s a quick tutorial on natural dyeing and making self striping yarn.

Assemble materials:  I’m dyeing Briggs and Little 1 ply yarn (80% wool 20% nylon).  I am dyeing it gold with onion skins which you can get free from the onion bins at the grocery store if you ask nicely, yellow with turmeric, and blue/grey/green with the water left after soaking black beans for a few days.

Prepare your skein for striping:  I am using my weaving warping board to help me make a long skein

The yarn is wrapped around these pegs to make a long loop.  The distance across is 1 meter, so it is easy to measure the skein.

If you don’t have a warping board winding the yarn around two chairs set far apart will also work

Be sure to tie up the skein in several places so that it won’t get tangled.  I tied every 2 meters as a guide for striping the yarn too.

To keep things from tangling, I gathered the skein up in a single-crochet like chain.
Prepare the dye liquids:

Onion skins can easily get stuck in the wool… 

…so I wrap them up in a mesh laundry bag…

…and boil them on the stove for a while, topping up the water when needed.

Black beans get soaked for 2 days, and then strained off.  The juice is then ready for dyeing.

Turmeric powder needs no other preparation other than pouring it in hot water when the dyeing begins.

Start Dyeing:

Selected portions of the skein are immersed in the pot of onion dye and boiled for a while.

The results are a golden rusty orangey yellow.

A different section of the skein is immersed in the pot and boiled with turmeric powder to dye it bright yellow.

The dyed portion must be kept clear of the stove element, and from the un-dyed yarn, so several big bowls are useful.The funny thing about dyeing is that it ends up differently each time.  The variables are numerous:  the wool (superwash or not, nylon content, etc), the quality and quantity of dyestuffs, the temperature, the time spent in the dye.  The first time I used turmeric powder, the results were a bright yellow.  This time it has turned out a yellowy gold colour, not too different from the onions.  I am intrigued to see how it looks when it is all dry.

Today I was up early checking on the wool that was hung out to dry overnight.  It was surprisingly blue!!

left: sock weight superwash, right: aran weight 100% wool

Here, just to compare the before and after shots:  the middle skein is the original cream coloured “just off the sheep” look.  The one to the right is the lichen coloured result of dyeing with black beans then dipping the wool in ammonia afterwards.  The one on the left is the slate-blue colour that is just the black bean dye.

I have yet to try an acidic after-dyeing treatment, I wonder if it will make it purple.  Perhaps black-bean juice could be used as a pH indicator!  Who said chemistry class isn’t useful….

I couldn’t think about chemistry for very long though, because under that bench, the pigeons were making a bit of a flap.  Bernice has learned to use her wings….one at least, as I quickly learned.  Here’s the video:

Future videos will be taken from slightly farther away!  Who knows when I’ll end up with a face full of pigeon….yikes!

Ever since I saw Yarn Piggy’s lovely colours achieved from Black Bean Dye, I decided I HAD to try it for myself!

image source: flyingpigknits.blogspot.com

Can you imagine that these lovely colours came from BEANS?!?!

image source: flyingpigknits.blogspot.com

The instructions seem easy enough….

Soak the dry beans, drain the murky purply dye water off, dye the wool (no heating or anything required!)  Plus, you can eat the beans while you are waiting for the perfect colour.  There’s a bit of experimenting with fiber types and after baths of ammonia or vinegar….but I’m game to give it a go!

black beans

soaking the beans for 2 days

skein of 100% wool

mordant bath of alum for an hour

soaking in bean juice

I decided to try an ammonia dip after taking the wool out of the bean  mixture.  It turned the yarn a greenish colour.

yarn drying in the sunshine

lichen green yarn compared to the original colour

I’m really impressed at how green the yarn is!  When I did a great deal of natural dyeing 2 summers ago I always struggled to get a good green.  This is a method that will work year round and end up a great green colour.  It’s making me curious about what would happen if I dyed it first with onions and second with beans with ammonia, it may turn an even brighter green.

More yarn is in the bean juice for a longer soak.  Fingers crossed for blue this time!

Knit in the round from crown to brim with two contrasting worsted weight yarns, this celtic inspired hat would be perfect to wear on St. Patrick’s day.

Buy Eirinn for $4.00 CAD

The Gaelic word Eirinn (pronounced air-en) is a poetic name for Ireland often used in songs.  The celtic patterning of the braid represents the continuum of life, love and faith, and the circle motif represents eternity.

As the final hours of the Ravelympics, knitting olympics and sporting olympics wind down, I am extremely proud to present a second pattern.  This is like an unexpected medal win for me as I thought it would be a big enough challenge to spin and knit and publish one pattern!  Watching all of the fantastic performances of our Canadian athletes I felt inspired to go for the double gold.

Skills: cast on, knitting in the round, purl, cables, kfb increase, stranded knitting, chart reading
Needles:   4 size 4.0mm DPNs, cable needle, darning needle
Yarn:  Worsted weight in 2 contrasting colours
Gauge:  4.5 sts per inch, 7 rows per inch in stockinette stitch

This pair of hat and mitts is perfect for someone interested in a little colourwork and a little bit of cable knitting.

If you like Eirinn, you may also like to knit Ceilidh mittens to match!

Download the .pdf pattern for Eirinn (hat) only  $4.00 CAD

Download the .pdf pattern for Ceilidh (mittens) only $4.00 CAD

Download the .pdf pattern for Eirinn and Ceilidh together for $6.00 CAD

Check out my other patterns here.

With the extra yarn that I’d spun, I decided to create a hat based on the charts and patterning in the Ceilidh mittens published yesterday.  This could bring me a double gold medal in the Ravelympics/knitting Olympics.  I’m up for the challenge.

This much of the hat was knit through a fabulous evening of improvisational theatre.  I have been a fan of the highschool improv since I was first introduced to it about 5 years ago.  If you’ve never been to an improv event before, you should check it out!  Here’s the national link, and the local link too.

It is great to see these teenagers working together, trusting each other, taking risks, and producing some moving, some hilarious, and some very interesting pieces of spontaneous theatre.  Audience participation is encouraged, and it’s the audience suggestions that form the backbone of the sketches performed.

I was inspired by them to improvise a little on this hat design.  Fingers crossed it works out!

This lovely celtic inspired hat is looking for a name!  Any ideas?

$4.00 CAD

A ceilidh (pronounced Kaylee) is a traditional Gaelic social dance originating in Ireland and Scotland.  In days gone by, there were ceilidhs in most town and village halls on Friday or Saturday nights.  The cheerful and lively ceilidh music is provided by fiddles, flutes, tin whistles, accordions, and the bodhran drum.

This pattern is the results of my Ravelympic challenge: to design and publish a pattern during the Olympic games, and to knit a pair of mittens from sheep fleece that I carded, dyed and spun during the span of the games.

The green was inspired by my 4 leaf clover, and was created using orange and green kool-aid.  The fleece was spun and Navajo plied to form a worsted weight 3-ply yarn.

The celtic patterning of the braid represents the continuum of life, love and faith, and the circle motif represents eternity.

Knit in the round with two contrasting worsted weight yarns, these celtic inspired mittens would be perfect to wear to a St. Patrick’s day ceilidh.

Skills: cast on, knitting in the round, purl, cables, M1 increase, decrease (ssk and k2tog), stranded knitting, chart reading, kitchener stitch
Needles:   4 size 4mm DPN, cable needle, darning needle
Yarn:  Worsted weight in 2 contrasting colours
Gauge:  4.5 sts per inch, 7 rows per inch in stockinette stitch

These mittens would be great for a beginner who is ready to try cable knitting and colourwork in small doses.

EDIT:  Ceilidh now has a matching hat called Eirinn.

Download the .pdf pattern for Celildh (mittens) only for $4.00 CAD

Download the .pdf pattern for Ceilidh & Eirinn for $6.00 CAD

If you like these patterns, check out my others!

It’s a satisfying thing to weave in the ends on a project, specially when it is completed ahead of schedule!

This past 10 days of carding, spinning, dyeing, and knitting has happened in fits and spurts….mostly late into the night.  The Olympic coverage is played late into the night too so it has kept me company as these mittens grew.  I have started to chart and write the pattern, and will attempt the impossible: test knit another pair of mittens in a commercially available yarn to double check my instructions before publishing the pattern.

As I examine the almost finished product a few things come to mind:

1.  The wonderful thing about handspun, or at least about my handspun, is that each bobbin is different.  One mitten is thus a little bit bigger than the other due to the thicker wool.  I don’t know that it is all that noticeable.

2.  This wool is still greasy.  My hands have never been smoother!  As I spin, and knit this wool, the lanolin has been conditioning my skin.  I think I will wash the mittens though, to remove some of it.  Maybe the bits of straw will be removed with a good washing too. (Note to self: Card wool 3 times as many times as you think you need to…I thought I removed all of the straw but boy was I wrong!)

3.  I have also learned that cables on a cuff are not stretchy at all…maybe knit with larger needles it would be better.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Olympics, and that Knitting Olympics and Ravelympic projects are going strong.

My test knitting begins during the Canada-USA hockey game tonight.  GO CANADA!!!

What a day for Canada yesterday!  I watched while we won our first gold medal on home soil, and as I watched I knit, and knit and knit.  This morning I woke up and knit some more, enjoying the relaxing Family Day holiday.

I’m pleased with the results of this wool.  I think it is much happier as a mitten than it was as a sock.  I think I’d have to card it a lot more, and then spin it thinner and make 2-ply yarn for socks, or use this thicker weight and knit a nice slipper pattern.

close up of braid

I used my knitting journal and charted out this pattern in it as I went along.  It is great to have a paper trail now….so I can hopefully make a second one that matches.  I’m going to reverse the cables and the braid design on mitten #2.

Speaking of mitten #2….If I’m going to knit one, I better get to carding and spinning more white.  Thank goodness I dyed enough green to be used in both mittens, I don’t know that I could repeat that colourway.

My recipe for this lovely colour of green:

To dye 1 full bobbin of 3 ply handspun, I put it in a bowl full of water, added about 4 “glugs” of white vinegar, 1 full squeeze bottle of liquid green food colouring, and the left overs from another mostly empty bottle.  To that I added 3 packets of lime koolaid, and one packet of orange koolaid that I didn’t mix in thoroughly (this leads to uneven colouring which I think worked nicely).  I microwaved it for about 10 minutes total, and let it sit until the water in the bowl was clear.

I’ll write up this pattern and share it with everyone when I’m done.  I’m looking for a good name though…

What would you name this mitten pattern?

My grand plans of making a sock with my handspun fell through today.  I got part way into the foot (toe-up), and realized that it was going to be ridiculously thick and bulky so I ripped it out.

I have since cast on for a mitten.  “Thick” and “bulky” are words that seem to go with mittens, particularly in Canada!

I’m making it up as I go along.  So far I’ve incorporated interlocking cables in the white cuff, a chain design before the thumb division, and a colourwork braid in the middle of the hand.

I think these will be great for St. Patrick’s Day!

My wheel is fixed–thanks to my dad, some long thin pieces of rubber, and locktite adhesive.  This afternoon I carded and spun up two bobbins full, and navajo plied them.

I chose to make the yarn 3 ply since my fleece isn’t so uniform.  There are lots of short fibers, and it’s still a bit greasy (not soiled though).  Even though I carded it twice, and removed many small pieces, it still is riddled with “fluffy bits” when I spin it.  Luckily when it is 3 ply, the fluffy pieces blend together with the thin bits to make a “rustic” yarn that seems to be worsted or aran weight.

This wasn’t really my plan, but that’s what the fiber does.  These socks will be very thick, good for wearing in rainboots I think.  Maybe thick socks will be finished quickly.  If there is time, perhaps I’ll make mittens too.

dying yarn with food colouring and vinegar in the microwave

To add some interest, I dyed one bobbin full of yarn a nice shade of green.  I needed to use a lot of food colouring, and then I added green kool-aid, and some orange too, to dull the intensity a bit.

hanging up to dry

The colour in that picture is not very accurate.  When it is dry, and in natural light, it will look better.

Now I’m off to bed to dream up a pattern!