Apr 29

Saturday night is alright for dyeing

Saturday was the day I was going to dye. Unfortunately, the day turned into it’s usual way where I can barely get things done. So, once the child was tucked up nicely in bed I asked my husband Rob if he wanted to join me in a spot of dyeing. Now, Rob is a pretty awesome person (why I married him I suppose) and he puts up with my fibre and yarn addiction and actively encourages it as well. He also does like taking part in it at the same time and last night we discovered that he really likes dyeing. Below you can see photos of the fun we had and it also shows how Rob dyed the silk hankies and fibre he got to play, and how I did 2 warps that changed colour along the length. Oh, and there was always some more fibre experimentation as well.

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Shown is the 2 wound warps of wool yarn from Linton Yarns Direct, Silk Hankies, Tussah Silk Top, BFL roving, random fibre all from World of Wool.

Yarn and fibre soaking in water and a bit of vinegar.

Stock dye solution ready. The solution was made by adding 200ml of water to every teaspoon of powder.

The most important fluid. Not always necessary but it helped with the creative process.

Master dyer at work.

Warp 1 in the dyepot with orange dye.

Sapphire Studded Technicolour Yawn silk hankie. Rob was going for the splattered look here.

Second lift of yarn out of the depot. A stronger orange came out at this point.

Poppies. Rob was going for the Monet look.

First lift out of depot. The yarn came out a pale orange.

Weft yarn steaming as it's just come out of the dyepot.

Purple dye added to the dyepot.

Sapphire Studded Technicolour Yawn once steamed. Unfortunately the artwork blended all together, but I really liked the mix of colours, more like a forest.

Poppies after steaming. Looks more like the mud is trying to get the Poppies.

Rinsing time with some cold water and a bit of Soak.

Clyde Sunrise Warp is finished and waiting to be rinsed.

Batch 2 of the silk hankies. Left one is named Nocturnal Planes and the right one is Magenta Dragon.

Warp 2 underway. Inspired by one of Robs green creations I thought I'd go green with this warp.

More green yarn growing

Last set of hankies. Left is called Prophesised Mothman in Pink and the right one is Convergence with a hint of tangerine.

Orangey brown added to the pot

Warp 2 The Tree of Life cooling down.

Martian Jam with a hint of Crimson. Finally it was my turn to play with some silk so I did some pink orange purple thing with it.

Primordial Triumph. The BFL roving was suddenly remembered after the wine was finished and the cider was opened.

Warps drying in the sun. I love how strong the colour changes are within each warp.

Dyed fibre on the drying rack.

Silk hankies drying and looking lovely and shiny.

Yarn on cones drying

Orange coned yarn skeined. Lots of white patches so thinking it may turn into a scarf itself.

Green coned yarn skeined. Same as the orange and had lots of white patches, so thinking it'll be another scarf.

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Apr 26

Onwards and upwards

by knit1girl1

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Time keeps romping by at the moment and I keep getting to the end of the week and wonder why I’ve not gotten much done.
I tried to remedy this last week by doing as much as I could of both the flaming wollmeise scarf and the rag rugs.
The Wollmeise scarf is plodding along fine, but is taking a while as the weft is fine and I’m being a bit of perfectionist with it as well.
The rag rugs however got finished last week, thanks to the discovery of Classic Dr Who on Netflix (completely hooked as want to know how on earth the doctor started out as selfish as he was in the beginning to how he is now, and what became of his useless grand-daughter). So, after watching all of the episodes of when the Daleks first came along I got the rugs finished, and here they are:

Large Rag Rug by knit 1 girl 1

Small Rag Rug by knit 1 girl 1

They’ve both really livened up my hallway, and also helped to hide the slight imperfections in my carpet.
I really enjoyed making the rugs as well as they kept my impatience at bay as they wove up so quickly, and it gives a nice solid finish. The striping and the change in twill also worked really well too as it enhances the colour changes.
I now have the difficult task of deciding what’s going on the loom next. I’m itching to do some summery scarves, but can’t decide whether to do something lacey, or have a go at a hand-dyed warp. The aim was to get started with them yesterday, but the child’s immune system had other plans and he’s off school with a lovely viral cough thing.
Talking of school, I started to teach a great group of girls to knit on Monday. I’ve started a yarn club within the school and this is the trial class to see how it goes. My aim is to teach them to knit, crochet, and then eventually maybe weave and even spin. It’s a steep learning curve on both sides as it took quite a while to just get them cast-on. Their enthusiasm is brilliant and it’s up-lifing to know that the youth of today are still desperate to learn how to make things.
There is also another school-type thing that’s potentially in the pipe-line for myself, but I’m not quite sure if it’ll work out yet so keeping fingers and toes crossed that it does and I now need to go and do the paper-work for it:)

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Apr 12

Flaming Wollmeise

by knit1girl1

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This post is all about me trying to do justice to a gorgeous skein of Wollmeise sock yarn that I bought at Knit Nation last year.

Wollmeise and Dr Who bag

It’s sitting on the particularly awesome Dr Who project bag that I got as well.
I’m a sucker for orange and I’d been drooling over this colour way for a while, so when it was there in front of me I had to have it.
The tricky thing has been trying to figure out what to do with such a skein of beauty.
Well, I finally decided that I was going to try an 8 shaft pattern on Norbert, my Ashford table loom, and see if I could get a flame effect going on it.
After pouring through my pattern books (it’s always good to have a good library of books) I found a pattern in Marguerite Porter Davidsons Pattern Book that had a nice varied undulating twill going on. I didn’t like the join though between the pattern blocks so decided to have a tweak on the computer with Pixeloom and discovered that reversing the twill and creating a nice wee diamond in the middle looked rather cool.
So, off to the warping board I went and got Norbert warped in 4 hours (helped with 3 episodes of Dr Who, I’m just slightly obsessed).
I’m using a burnt orange Tencel for the weft that I got at Handweavers Studio in London.

Orange Tencel and Shuttle

I’ve even managed to wind up my pirns properly this time so they’re not collapsing all over the place.
And here’s the weaving so far.

Flaming Wollmeise

And here’s a picture of the warp at the back with all the gorgeous colours.

Wollmeise Warp

I’m liking how the pattern is going, but I’ve got my usual worries in that do I have enough weft as it’s a tight twill, and if the colours of the Wollmeise are coming out enough.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty happy with how it’s looking, but the perfectionist in me wants something a wee bit more. As this one is for me I’m going to do some more playing around with it.
In other weaving, the rag rugs are still pottering along, and I’m considering in changing the weather scarf into a weather tapestry as I got so far behind I’m thinking it might be a faster way to catch up. And I really need to crack on with some summery style scarves.

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Mar 23

Rag rugs are great

by knit1girl1

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I’ve managed to achieve my aim this week to get cracking on properly with the rag rugs on Vicky the floor loom.
There’s a not so great aspect to rag rugs, and that’s making the rags. I got a rotary cutter at the Creative Stitches Show in Glasgow earlier this month and I understand now why they’re such a useful tool. It did struggle a bit with going through the thicker of the 2 curtains that I am using but I got there in the end. The surprise was how much fuzz that cutting the curtains up would create. There was a thin layer of blue all over my dining table and me. Thank god for Dyson hoovers.
Weaving has now commenced and I’m loving how it’s coming out.

knit 1 girl 1's first rag rug

I’m really liking the contrast with the 2 blue colours against the strong red jute warp. Even better is the paler of the blue curtains is creating an effect that looks like the waves in the sea. This is from the curtains being bleached by the sun over time and I’ve managed to cut across the faded sections.
Hopefully, I’ve managed to save enough on loom waste by using the lashing on technique that I can get a longer section of rug out of this to go most of the length of my hallway. Fingers crossed.
This week I’ve also finished off another cowl that’s now for sale in my Etsy shop.

Rocky Outcrops Handwoven Cowl by knit 1 girl 1

The hand-dyed yarn came from my friend Chookiebirdie and the rest of the skein that I have will turn into a cowl for her.
The name for my cowl harps back to my past life of studying Environmental Science that included 3 years of Geology at Edinburgh University. This has left me scarred as I can never look at rocks and scenery without thinking of how they were formed and what they were made of. I did always like sedimentary rocks and it’s great having some good outcrops to look at when I’m walking my dogs down the beach.
I’m discovering that I may be mad in my wish to try and use my local beaches for all my product shots. Trying to get a calm day with the right light is starting to prove hard as there’s always a wee breeze on the West Coast of Scotland and breezes and polystyrene mannequins don’t mix. Again, harking back to another past life as a meteorologist I’m finding a use for my weather observing skills and being able to keep an eye on the forecast. Apart from the time I took the mannequin out of the car and placed it on the sand to then be knocked down immediately by the wind. Ho hum.
Thankfully the weather has turned lovely in the past couple of days and it was sunshine and blue skies yesterday and still felt mild today. Spring is definitely here and I’m looking forward to the longer summery days ahead.

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Mar 11

Warp speed

by knit1girl1

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I think I’m finally getting this weaving thing right as I managed to get Vicky the Viking floor looms warp measured and beamed in about 2 hours or so. This is a world record for me and I hadn’t even messed any of the warp up.

Jute warp on floor loom

The warp is a red jute that I got from The Handweavers Studio in London last year which I visited with Helen and managed to come away without too much drooling over everything.
My plan is to make 2 rag rugs for my hall to cover up the relatively destroyed carpet that is there already.
I’ve not woven any rag rugs yet so it’s another learning curve.
I’m going to use old navy blue Ikea curtains for the rag weft as I’m hoping that the off-set of the blue and red in a simple twill pattern will work well.
Also, I’m hoping I can try and get a sample or two for my Certificate of Achievement out of this warp as well.
The other thing I’m going to try with this warp is lashing the warp onto the front beam as shown in the Ashford Weaving warping a loom videos. I discovered these videos this week and have found them to be great. As I’ve learned to weave on my own through the help of books and weaving groups on Ravelry, and a few other weaving sites, being able to see someone else fully warp a loom and gain some useful hints and tips here and there has been wonderful. They show how to lash the warp onto the cloth apron rod which is something I’ve been wanting to try for ages but been too scared to. Having seen how it’s done now I’m feeling confident and can see how easily it’ll cut down on my loom waste. Fingers crossed it’ll work.
This week I’ve also been able to warp up my knitter’s loom to do a commission for a friend. I’m keeping that fairly secret at the moment as I don’t want her to see it until it’s finished.
I’ll be back soon with some pictures of the rag rug on it’s way.

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