of sticks and stringsand related things

Late last Monday night, I cast off this scarf. I could have used another ball of yarn to make it longer but I've had enough of it! Seven weeks to knit one scarf - bah humbug!

Although there were no purl stitches in this scarf, it knitted like there were; all that moving the yarn forward as if to purl in order to slip stitches was just as slow as actually purling the stitch. The pattern is the Corrugator Scarf (designer's Rav link) and is, after all, a variation of a rib pattern.



There has been some progress on these toe-up socks but knitting sock yarn on 2.25mm (Size 1) needles is always going to be slow. I have knitted the one short row heel (no holes - yay) and am working up the foot. I haven't yet turned the second heel because I need to concentrate to do it and my house has been populated by DD and GS#1 for the last three days.



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Last week, the postman delivered these:

This is a reprint of the original; not the updated version (I didn't realise that when I ordered it)

I bought this for DD - she wants to make some money while she is a SAHM

A couple of weeks ago, I dyed this acrylic 8ply (DK) with Australian made Landscape (acid) dyes. Don't ever let anyone tell you it can't be done!


Much to my dismay, it took me two hours to untangle the yarn and wind it into a ball. I wish I knew why some of my dyeing projects become so tangled!

So, there it is: proof that I do still knit, read about knitting and dye some of my own knitting yarn! LOL

Dyeing Days

Dyeing is an activity that takes place on our back verandah/patio. It can get very hot out there so dyeing can only be done on cooler days. Since the weather here has been well over 30*C (86*F) lately, there haven't been many cooler days!

Also, as many of you would know, dyeing is not a "spur of the moment" activity - yarn has to be wound into skeins and soaked for several hours.

Nonetheless, there has been some dyeing done here in the last few weeks.

Firstly - acrylic. I started this skein about two years ago and never finished it. With my method of dyeing acrylic, one colour is dyed then the whole skein rinsed and dried before the next colour applied. This skein had waited for two years, one section dyed mauve, the rest still white. The mauve and the pink are done using Ozepol (dyes made for synthetics) but the blue was done using Landscape dyes (Australian made acid dyes for protein based fibres).
There are two other partly dyed skeins waiting for my attention: one is finished but I'm not happy with it - I got two pastel colours and one bright yellow! Eek! The other skein has been started but needs more colours added.

Then came my low immersion experiments. With both yarns, I crammed the ball (unskeined, as it came from the manufacturer) into a jar and poured dye over it. The first one I then topped up with water. The result is pretty but not as variegated as I would have liked. With the second, I stuffed a 100g ball into a very tight space, and soaked in like that overnight. The next day I poured blue dye on it, let it stand for a couple of hours then "cooked it". I let it cool overnight. I rinsed it then put it back in the jar (up the other way) and poured cerise dye over it, let it stand for a couple of hours then "cooked it" again. I let it cool and rinsed it. I was not at all happy with the result - the two colours did not work together. I left it for a couple of days then decided to overdye it. I used a fairly weak purple solution (didn't want to obliterate my previous colours) and this is the result. I am very happy with the result of the overdyeing. Try to imagine the cerise without the mauve overtones and you can see it didn't work with the marine blue!

Finally, the handpainted. DD and I have no expectations and no goals in mind, apart from having fun, when we dye these yarns. We keep no records, we just play. The results speak for themselves - some work well, others not so well.

It will be interesting to see how this one knits up - there is much more brown in it than appears in this photo.
This is very subtle, there are four or five shades of green in this yarn which DD has christened "seaweed". DD did this one on her own - it's a lovely blend of purples and pinks not oranges as it appears here. My personal favourite - I have nicknamed this one "Sunshine Lollipops". I am hoping DD will let me use it to knit the Drop Stitch Scarf which is currently #1 in my Ravelry queue.

Australian Sheep and Wool Show, Bendigo

WARNING: LONG POST

Up early [for us, we are on holidays you know!] - the shuttle bus picked us up at 8:45am. If I'd known how easy it would be to get parking, I probably would have driven but, having never been there before, how would I know? It was very quiet when we first got there, like they were still setting up or something. We decided to climb the hill [a reasonable slope, nothing too vigorous] and work our way back to the bus pick up point. There was method in my madness: 1) we wouldn't spend all day walking uphill [which my cold knees would hate] and 2) the theory of leaving the best till last! The sheds closest to where the bus left us were labelled woolcraft; on the theory that's where the knitting would be - we would wait and see it last!

I'm glad we did it that way. Firstly, the last pavilions held the alpacas. DD loves alpacas and so she was able to wander around and look at them with only their owners in the way! No paying customers had made it that far so early! She managed to find one animal that would let her pat it and it even gave her a kiss. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera out at that point and he was in no mood to repeat the performance for the camera!

When I finally managed to get her away from the alpacas we went to look at various breeds of sheep. They all have their own pavilions - one for merinos, one for Corriedale, etc! The sheep pavilions were a bit more on the nose than the alpacas so we didn't hang around for long!

Into the first 'permanent' pavilion we came to. By permanent I mean a fixed shed, the others were temporary tent-like structures [marquees?]. Here we saw the first of the retail stalls. We looked, admired and touched and admired some more; but didn't purchase anything. My motto for Shows is "look first, buy later"; that way I don't end up carrying a multitude of purchases all day!

Ran into David [who not only has my favourite knitting podcast but is also a member of the same group of the Knitters' Guild as DD and I] so, of course, we had to chat! More looking then it was time for the first of the fashion parades. Out of respect to the designers whose work was shown, I didn't take any photos. Suffice to say, there are some brilliant minds out there - what people are doing with wool in knitting, crocheting, felting and weaving is mind-blowing. The garments made from wool fabric were also amazing. Who'd have believed that wool could be almost transparent and ooh, so soft and flowy!

After the fashion parade, we met up with friendly Catsmum aka Susan and her friend Jeanette - I had a box of postcards to hand over [promised months back]. It's amazing how much my DD and Susan had in common! We took the time to have a cuppa together and to talk a little.

More looking, admiring and touching followed; including DD's discussion with Sarah Durrant about Knitpick Harmony needles. DD loves them; I wish someone had given me such wonderful needles when I was a new knitter! We had a chat with the owners of La Grange Woolcraft about dyeing and ended up going back to buy Landscape Dyes from them.

There was a display of competition items in all manner of crafts; I was particularly impressed by the first prize winner of the team entry [5 items made by a team]: it showed a jetty from underneath and on top, mostly done in felting - fantastic work! Once again, I didn't take any photos - they were behind glass and taking photos through glass is tricky at the best of times; but my conviction against photographing others' work without their permission also ruled.

We saw an amazing display of dolls with needle felted faces. The maker was demonstrating her technique and I fell in love with doll making all over again! I'm going to save my money and make another trip to Victoria to do the workshop [$130 for two days] unless someone can persuade the tutor to come to NSW!

So, apart from the dyes, and a special present for WM [can't tell you what that is, he's reading my blog to keep up with our adventures while he continues working to pay for our purchases!! LOL] what did I buy? Nothing! Yes, that’s' right, nothing!! I know you'll all think I'm crazy but I'll try to explain.

I have more hand-knitted jumpers than I ever wear. Working in air-conditioning, it's too hot for even 5ply [sportsweight] jumpers/sweaters. With my frozen shoulder, I have trouble getting in and out of them so I probably wouldn't wear one unless I really had to - like today; it was so cold I had to wear a jumper; and who would go to the Wool show wearing a bought jacket? Lots of people actually, but here was one of my few chances to knit one of my gorgeous hand knits!

The hand-dyes I saw today were all lovely - but I dye my own yarns!

WM doesn’t feel the cold yet has two jumpers that he never wears - one of which won second prize in the local Show [State Fair] years ago! DD knits but won't wear hand knitted clothes [go figure]. Her reasoning is that other people need them more than she does.

So, nearly all my knitting [until DD and FSIL have wee ones] is done for charity. I love alpaca [it's unbelievably soft] and the new yarns [bamboo, soy, milk, etc] are amazing. But I need budget yarn [not beautiful yarn] for my knitting projects so, for now, it's remnant yarns and yarns on special that take my knitting budget.

You may not agree with me and that's okay because we need each other to make this world interesting. Besides all those retailers needs shoppers unlike me to stay in business! Regardless of our non-yarny purchases, we had a good time and the Show was well worth a visit just to touch and admire and see what’s out there [and add another couple of must try crafts to my list!!]

Off to breakfast in the morning and then the mill shop! [plenty of remnants, I hope]

Why do acid dyes not work on acrylic?

I'm no scientist so my knowledge, limited as it is, comes from my reading, talking to people and my experience.

Acrylic behaves differently to natural fibres, like wool and cotton, because it's not really a fibre - it's a form of plastic! When natural fibres are dyed, the colour penetrates to the core of the yarn. Acrylic doesn't allow the dye to penetrate - it just coats the surface. I'm told this is also true of nylon and polyester.

I have tried some acid based dyes on acrylic. Acid dyes - whether commercial dyeing products, or food products like jelly [jello], food colouring and Kool Aid - look great until the yarn is rinsed. The colour washes off immediately. The trick with acrylic is to find something that will stick to the acrylic but not make the yarn hard. Hence my earlier experiments [here and here] with acrylic paint. Heavily diluted paint gives very pale results. To get the bright colours I want, I'd have to use almost undiluted paint; which, of course, would stick but it would make the yarn stiff.

In a later post, I will tell you about the experiments DD and I have been making with fibre-reactive cold-water dyes on acrylic. Stay tuned!