dyeing to knit.

the last little while, i've been playing around with a bit of yarn dyeing.
i talked about one project in this post, but since then, i've been doing even more!



i had these few vessels just slowly ticking away, doing their thing.
the pot in front, had a bath of acidified avocado pits with half a skein of bendigo bamboo sock wool, anticipating a nice light and subtle pink.
the white lidded jar, housed the other half of the skein of sock wool. after not getting a nice light pink from it after soaking it in with the avocado pits, i popped it in here with some red food dye and added some vinegar to the avocado bath to see if that changed anything...



as you can see, i didn't quite get the subtle pink i was after from the front pot, but the food dye, well it sure did the trick!
i'm knitting these two together for a hat project i'm hoping to share a little more about soon.

the orange lidded jar, well i have no results from that one as the yarn is still in there! perhaps i'll find some time over the weekend to fish out what's in there and give it a rinse.
i'm hoping for a nice green gradient for a pair of socks. we'll see what happens!

before that though, the jar housed a different dye experiment...



i put together another solar dyeing jar with walnut shells, though this time with a skein of linen, instead of woollen yarn way back in november.

after four months, the results were a little lighter than last time...



but still a nice little bit of warmth to what was a very cool skein of white...

that might be the end of my dyeing for a little while, i'm basically out of white yarns in my stash he he. plus i have plenty to knit with for now too!

have you ever tried any fiber dyeing at home?

recently...

oops, it's inadvertently been a week since my last post... definitely didn't mean for that to happen, but it did, so let's get caught up!

after bringing home the newest issue of pompom magazine, i realised, i really hadn't given the past two issues a thorough looking over yet...



remedied over breakfast (well begun, let's be honest... the picture, the articles, so much to look at!)
you'd better believe i had my phone sitting next to me and that my ravelry project queue is looking a little healthier! and i even found a project or two to use up a little stash yarn to boot!

winter is definitely here!



frosty, foggy mornings have been in great supply round these parts, and the fire, as well as my collection of winter woollens have been getting a work out!

you might say the nesting instincts are kicking in...



when i got home from melbourne last week, i just HAD to label and alphabetise the spice jars. priority one when it's 6:30pm on a sunday and there's no dinner planned to speak of...
jeez i'm happy they're done though!

a wee catch up lunch with family last week, saw me giving this lemon tart recipe a go.



cathie's recipes are always my faves (i basically know this banana bread one by heart i've made it so many times!), and having tasted these amazing tarts before, i knew it would be a winner!
and oh boy, it was! so simple and easy, particularly for a recipe where you're making pastry and a curd, and so flipping delicious!

last sunday, i met up with some folks and hit up the hand-knitters guild, annual yarn market.



despite telling myself i do not need any more yarn, i walked away with these three beauties. a skein each of merri creek sock and darling road dk from miss click clack and a big ol' ball of a beautiful alpaca/merino/bamboo blend from the alpaca yarn lady.

as well as purchasing yarn i didn't need, i got to hang with a gorgeous group of ladies and have lots of fiber friend catch ups. a great day out!

in my last stint in melbourne, i was so grateful to come home with this gorgeous thing...



a beautiful, suspected handmade, spinning wheel!
gifted to me as it's former owner hadn't used it in a decade or two and wanted to see it go to someone who would love and appreciate it. definitely already ticking those two boxes, even if i haven't quite gotten it back into working order yet... stay tuned folks!

what a thing to come home to after a busy few days away at work!



a little package full of biscuits from the badass biscuit co. i was lucky enough to win these delicious morsels in an instagram competition and boy were they scrumptious!

so that's been pretty much me the last week and a bit, what have you been up to?

solar dyeing results.

a few months ago now, i posted about a little solar dyeing project i put together.
i waited until the 3-month mark ticked over this wednesday just gone...



and then got to pulling that sweet skein out to have a look!

i gave it a little rinse where unfortunately it lost a wee bit of colour. it dried outside overnight, thanks to the unseasonably warm autumn weather we've been having.



oh the possibilities!

i've got plans for this beauty, involving some fair isle, and the leftover naturally dyed skeins from this hat.
now to find the time to knit it...

having a crack.

yesterday i woke up feeling tetchy.
and the longer i was awake, the tetchier i felt. checking social media and emails. having a shower.
in my tetchy state, i flopped back onto the bed, checked social media and email again, and began playing a game on my phone.

now the real reason for my tetchiness? i was stroppy as i felt that i hadn't had a chance to do anything i really wanted to get done this month... working full time these past couple of weeks, coupled with my days off being quite warm had left me ridiculously pooped!
yet here i was, with time to spare, playing a game on my phone?? how ridiculous!

i dragged my butt off the bed, chucked on some clothes and got to work. tidying the kitchen and bedroom a little, watering the plants in preparation for another hot one, AND something i've been thinking about since the weekend...
solar dyeing.



on saturday morning, i picked up a veggie box from rohan, aka wholelarderlove and inside was a generous handful of walnuts. still in their shells! once i got into work, i hunted down a hammer, and got to cracking, revealing the delicious nut inside. but what to do with the shells?
i contemplated taking them home for the worm farm, but then remembered back to all of the instagram pictures i've been seeing the last couple of months of folks using natural dyeing ingredients and the heat of the sun in a jar to get some awesome dyed yarn and fabric!



so back to yesterday morning, and after doing those few chores, i set to setting up the dye jar above.
winding off my ball of yarn into a skein, giving it a good soak, and layering the walnut shells above and below it in the jar, topping it off with water and setting it in a nice sunny spot on the front doorstep.

now, will i have the patience to wait a while longer before pulling it all apart to see the results? hopefully!
though after the stinker of a hot day we had yesterday, the yarn is already looking quite a bit darker than it was when i took these pictures yesterday morning... will definitely be posting an update when it's ready!

oh and i guess i should share some technical details? or as many as i have... the yarn i used was leftover 4ply shilasdair from this hat in colourway 'fleece cloud', a non-dyed yarn. there was probably about 15-20g of yarn left from the 50g skein.
i used approximately the same weight of walnut shells, and tried to bash them up relatively small.
i didn't premordant or anything, other than soaking the skein in water. hopefully that doesn't mean all of the beautiful colour will run out when i rinse it!
this is a one litre jar and everything fit pretty perfectly...

have you tried natural dyeing before? or gotten one of Ro's veggie boxes? what do you do with walnut shells?

sock wool love.

as i mentioned on sunday, i popped into my local yarn store on friday morning to snap up a few bargains in their spring sale!
since bring these beauties home, i haven't been able to get them out of my mind, and if i didn't already have three knitting projects on the go, i'd definitely be casting on with them straight away!
to keep my itchy fingers at bay, while i'm knitting away on my other projects, i've been planning what to do with each of my new purchases. that way, when the time is right, i'll be good to go!



this glorious stuff is destined to become a pair of socks for my mumma, potentially for christmas if i get my shit together quick enough!
i'm hoping to whip up another pair of simple skyp socks for her.
i loved knitting up mine, and i'm hoping they'll be a simple enough pattern for her to like too!



i may have fallen in love with a couple of the colourways in this wool, so this purple came home with me too (i was *this* close to taking home some grey as well...) and i think it will become a pair of sugar maple socks.
again a christmas present, again if i can get it together by then AND if i can get the book the pattern is published in from my local library.
fingers crossed for that one!



and then there is this beauteous creation. i have been um-ing and ah-ing with what to do with this one... i desperately want to turn them into another pair of socks, just for me, but then there's the hitchhiker shawl... but i might save that for the beyooooootiful blue colourway that i left at sunspun. it's been on my brain ever since it was pointed out to me by one of the lovely ladies there, and i definitely think i will be going back for it!
so this lovely skein will become some longjohn socks i think. yep!
just look at the colours though! don't they just scream spring? delicate pink blossoms, new green shoots. so. much. love.

do you make plans for your yarn as you buy it? or do you only buy yarn WITH a plan?

going backwards.

after finishing bb's jumper, i was super happy to have it done...
but then the more i looked at it on him, then more i realised that it wasn't the greatest fit.



particularly once it had been washed a couple of times, it was WAY too big!
i started to express my unhappiness about the way it was looking and fitting, and FINALLY bb has agreed to let me have another crack!



a morning of UN-sewing the pieces...
and then another morning of frogging...



and i've got a whole bag of balls of wool again.
i think it will be a little while before i get around to casting another jumper on for him, but when i do, there'll be MUCH swatching (and then washing of said swatches) as well as copious amounts of measuring!
this next version will hopefully be made to last!

i pulled out another project too...



i realised after re-reading the pattern, and actually measuring my foot that the size i was knitting was NEVER going to fit me! and as much as i enjoy knitting for other people, these beauties are destined to be mine! all mine ha ha!

even though i was almost done with the first sock, i figured it was better to start again, so i ripped it all out, and started it again almost straight away!

do you ever pull out your knitting? do you find you have to go backwards to be happy?

coming to an op-shop near you!

i've been thinking the last couple of weeks about the yarn that is currently in my stash...
a lot of it was bought from op-shops, or inherited from my nanna and great aunt, and the large majority, is rather disappointing to knit with.

so while i was doing my thinking, i came to the conclusion, that all the junky, acrylic, novelty yarns that make up the majority of my stash, were holding me back somewhat...
thinking about knitting with these wools that i don't like, was making me lose motivation for knitting, which is something that i love!

after a little sort, this lot is off to the op-shop!



4989 grams worth of wool.
that's almost FIVE kilograms!



and the large majority of it was this wonderful fluffy stuff! so very on trend for 10-15 years ago ha ha!

i emptied what was left on to the kitchen table to assess what i have... and also to share on instagram, there's been much chatting about wool stashes over there, and well, there was a bit of a dare to share ha ha!



all of my stash now fits onto my dining table!
though i did realise after putting everything away, that i didn't include my little collection of cottons... i keep them in an old beauty case, with a pair of 4mm needles, for dish-clothing on the go.

do you ever feel restricted by what you HAVE to knit with? what does your stash look like?