A first adventure in dying....

I've been dying (sorry) to try my hand at dying my own wool for quite a while, and although there are a few projects that I'd like some hand dyed yarn for, at the moment, I can't find any undyed 10ply yarn, and it's probably best not to practice (play) with the stuff I really want any way. I had got some undyed 2-3ish ply on a cone though, and thought that I could have some fun with some food colour......
First of all I wound my wool into a skein, as I want it to be self striping, I set chairs about 2.5m apart, and wound the wool around the backs. I secured it with little bits of wool at various intervals, so it wouldn't get too knotted.
Next I soaked it in about a cup of water and cup of white vinegar for about an hour and a half.
Then I mixed my colours in old jam jars, half a cup of vinegar, a cup of water and about 30 drops of each colour into each jar. It sounds like quite a bit, but I'm hoping for a really strong colour. I'm using hansells food colouring, red and blue.
I squeezed the water out of the wool, and put roughly half into each jar.
I then placed them into the microwave and zapped them for 1 min, then moved the yarn slightly so that the white bit was now in the colour.


I continued to zap in minute intervals moving the wool each time, so that the middle bit had plenty of exposure to the dye.
I'm not sure exactly how long it took, but after a while the water in the red jar became clear, and the blue one clearish. I then tipped the lot into the sink, and once it had cooled a bit, rinsed it with clean water.



After squeezing the water out I hung it to dry, and later on, I'll be winding into a ball.
The next plan is to knit a pair of little baby socks with it, and see if the self striping effect actually works........
More pics to follow.

Shawl time

For both of the boys I made a crochet shawl, so for bump, I obviously want to do the same. I've suddenly realised that I have three months (ish) to get that done in, and as it is going to take me quite a while, I thought that I'd better get on with it.
I've added a little progress bar to the side of the blog, linked to Ravelry, so you can see how I'm getting on, although as it is so large, judging the progress is quite hard really.

Lots of lovely new yarn.

My lovely new yarn has finally arrived, I love this wool and I'm going to have to be really careful that I don't end up using it myself, the temptation to do that is huge though.
The Forever Green Elan Organic merino is so soft, and the colours are fantastic, not just your usual baby pinks and blues. I think that little babe might be getting a few things made from it.



The other yarn is the 4ply merino soft baby wool, again it's beautifully soft. This yarn comes in some really quite vibrant shades though; hot pink, dark green, red, black and navy, as well as a softer minty blue option. I quite like the idea of dressing babies in slightly more exciting colours, so I think I'll be dipping into this little lot too.



To be honest, although both are "baby" yarns, I'd be seriously tempted to make myself something from them too, they're so lovely and soft!

MORE new stock

Finally I seem to be getting all the new stock in that I've been waiting for. Lots of new neeldes and hooks arrived yesterday. I've now got 100 cm circular needles, as well as the 50 cm. (More sizes to follow later) Bamboo dpns have also arrived and some bamboo tunisian crochet hooks. I haven't actually tried tunisisan crochet (or afgan stitch) myself, but I'm going to give it a go. They are the funniest looking things though, knitting needle at one end and crochet hook at the other.



I've had an email to say that I've got lots of lovely wool on the way too, should be leaving the mill on Monday, on route to me, so it won't be long until it's here. How exciting, it will just be a case of trying to avoid using it all myself now.....

Socks!

Well I've finally got around to adding a few more hand made items to the site, new born baby socks. One pair knit in the lovely Merino Soft 4ply, and the other in Forever Green Elan Organic Merino. Both are lovely and soft, just right for baby's skin. There are only two colour choices at the moment, but I will be adding more later, and I can custom make them, if anyone wants something specific.

Baby shoes

I've finally got around to finishing and listing some hand made items on the shop. There will be more to follow, but to begin with I've got a few hand crochet baby shoes, made by me with our lovely soft yarns. I've used both the Merino Soft 4ply and the Elan Forever Green Organic Merino.
They fit from newborn to around 6 months.

Are you a WAHM?

Christmas and New Year has been very busy this end of the world, but I'm back now. I should have a lot of exciting new things to tell you about over the next week or so, watch this space....
Just thought I'd mention another website that I'm involved with though, the wahm directory.


If you are a work at home Mum, and would like a free listing on the site, just let me know. You can also use the forum and photo options to promote your work. Have a look at the site and drop me an email if you want to be included, or know someone who should be.
http://www.wahmdirectory.webs.com