adventures in dyeing yarn

Last month I signed up to the latest FibreShare yarn swap. As part of my swap package I decided to try my hand at dyeing some yarn. 

It's something I've been wanting to try for a while and I thought it would be nice to include something handmade and unique for my swap partner, along with the other fibre goodies.

I've shared a little about the process I followed below if you are interested. 

I thought I'd start on a small scale so I picked picked two 50g balls of eco cotton yarn, one in a pale blue and one in a pale lilac. My aim was to try some ombre effects with the dye and I didn't want a pure white base colour to begin with.

I separated out each 50g ball into two (very approximate) 25g skeins and tied each skein in various places so that it wouldn't get too tangled whilst dyeing.

Next was the fun part! I chose a sunny October saturday and set up a couple of buckets of dye in the garden. The dye colours I chose were emerald green and burlesque red, although as you can see they ended up more like blue and purple.

I dip-dyed segments of the yarn for different lengths of time to try and achieve some different colour effects and I dyed a couple of the skeins in both dye baths to create some colour gradients.

Once I was happy with them I rinsed the dye out in cold water and then hand-washed the cotton with some detergent, just to wash out any colour that wasn't fixed. Then I hung them on the line to catch the end of the day's sunshine (which unfortunately didn't last very long so I had to bring them in and dry them inside overnight).

Once they were dry I wound them up into small hanks, which did involve getting in a bit of a tangle, but they ended up nice and neat in the end.

Here are the finished results... 

I'm really happy with how they all turned out, and love the fact that they're all different. I sent a couple of them out to my FibreShare partner and kept a couple for myself. 

I can't wait to see how they look when they're knitted. Shame they're all quite small, but it'll make a good reference point for future attempts. It would be so nice to knit a cardigan out of my own hand-dyed yarn.

Next I want to try dyeing with natural materials. 

We've already started collecting up our onion skins!

Postcard club

I recently joined in over at the Postcard Club. Here's my first swap with Ed Cheverton.

He sent me a collage play card, and I sent him a paper collage illustration of my favourite houseplant.

If anyone else wants to do a swap with me then do let me know - I really love sending and receiving nice things in the post!

secret seed swap

As I mentioned in a previous post, Lyndsey let me sign up as a late entry to the What You Sow secret seed swap last month. I haven't done a swap for a while so I was really pleased to be taking part, especially as I have a new garden to get growing in.

I really enjoyed preparing my package to send out. I picked out radish, rocket and aubergine seeds (some of my favourite vegetables) and added in some Limnanthes seeds too, as it's nice to have some flowers in the garden.

I illustrated each of my packets with paper collage pictures of the plants, and typed out some labels for the back.




I hadn't heard of Limnanthes before, but it is nicknamed the 'poached egg' plant because of the appearance of the flowers, which won me over immediately.



I was pretty happy with how they turned out. Nice and colourful!

And I received an equally colourful package in return from my fellow secret seed swapper. Just look how cute they are! Thank you Gabriella.



Beautiful packets, and a great selection of edibles, a lot of them themed around Puglia in Italy.
I've since found out that Gabriella has a great blog called Mangia Bene - filled with 'edible stories from a British Italian kitchen', hence the Italy connection.

Cicoria are bitter greens used in Puglia's national dish, and Gabriella described the Cima di Rapa as Puglia's equivalent to purple sprouting. She also included Carosello Mello Lungo which is an Italian cucumber, and some nasturtiums which are pretty and edible too - perfect!

I had a day off work yesterday so I decided to sow a few of the seeds (some nasturtiums and some of the cucumber seeds). Nice to do some gardening on such a lovely warm day.





And here they all are, sitting in our mini greenhouse alongside the runner beans (which are beginning to sprout!)

Thanks once again to Lyndsey for organising such a great swap. I'm looking forward to taking part again next year.

runner beans

We bought a mini greenhouse for the garden this weekend and decided to plant a little something to put on one of the shelves now that we have it set up.

We started with a tray of runner beans - three different varieties. Just look at them! Such lovely colours.

Hopefully it isn't too cold out there for things to start growing.

I'm lucky because Lyndsey let me sign up as a late entry into her Secret Seed Swap and has set up a mini swap for me and a couple of other latecomers. I sent out my packets yesterday so will share some pictures after they have made their way to their secret recipient.

Such a nice idea. And it means maybe I'll be ready to add some more things to the greenhouse in the next couple of weeks.

a sweet pouch

I crocheted this acorn pouch as part of a sweet pouch swap I took part in a couple of months ago.
In return I received some nice treats in the post all the way from Texas. I like Hot Tamales.

hayfever face

Remember this postcard, which depicted what life would be like in our new house? Well, I've been watering my garden regularly and yesterday I spied the first hints of flowers growing!

They are still very small, but I thought them worthy of documentation so have painted them for Jill's postcard swap, which I am taking part in.

It'll fly off in the post to America tomorrow.

In other news, we drew countries for the World Cup sweepstake at work today and I got Greece. Apparently they aren't going to do so well, but my interest in the football has increased by about 101% now that there is something to play for, so that is a plus.

Greece to win! OPA!

let's swap

On Friday Yumi and I got our Fifty-Two artwork back and decided to do a mini swap on the beach. I ended up with this lovely picture of two seagulls which is now hanging above my desk. It's good to trade!

My brother suggested afterwards that we should maybe organise a BIG art swap on the beach, which is an idea I'm very keen on. I'm picturing a big meet up with picnic snacks and enough swapping so that everyone goes home with a new handmade treasure. Any takers?

I've just spent a large portion of the weekend on the beach which is truly a sign of summer being almost here. We also had the first barbecue of the year (or the decade as derek pointed out!). What a treat!

I think this may actually be my favourite time of year.

tit for tat

Have a look at this lovely bird - it's the wonderful work of Richard Phoenix and there's plenty more where that came from.

I'm doing a printmakers trade-off with Rich at the moment. He kindly requested one of my lightbulb screenprints and I jumped at the chance to swap it for one of his pieces of work (I hear he's got some wonderful screenprints under his belt). As a taster he gave me this postcard of one of his oil paintings, which is pretty special in itself.

He has also done an amazing painting of Rosie which I hear he sold this weekend at one of the Artists Open Houses - great news!

my week

Here are some bits & pieces to report from my week:


On Saturday my friend eleanor hosted a clothes swap party where we each took along some unwanted items of clothing and then had a rummage in the BIG pile that accumulated for some new bits. As you can see I came home with a few lovely pieces. I especially like the green/blue top & conveniently matching belt.

On Monday I sat down to watch a film and managed to cobble together this little fella:


The pattern is courtesy of Annalisa and as you can see my attempt doesn't look all that much like her example. I think he'll do though (and Derek mentioned that he reminds him of a certain someone mentioned in my previous post).

I went home to visit my family this week and my mum gave me this wonderful picnic basket:


I especially like the lining!

Oh, and last Friday I went round to Yumi's house for a mobile making evening. We had cookies & tea & smoothies and I even had a quick bounce on her TRAMPOLINE! so much fun.
I didn't get around to making a full mobile in the end but I did make a selection of origami birds & this paper ship:




Next week we are going to make sock puppets!!! I can hardly wait.
x

poor donkey

today my poor little donkey ornament jumped off the shelf and broke his leg



luckily i was on hand to glue him (not very precisely) back together



(and to give him some carrots to cheer him up)

in other news i've been getting my swap packages ready and my strawberry themed parcel for the pack it up small swap is ready to go.
here are some bits and pieces from the bundle:



i hope my partner likes it.

x