Saturday, July 24, 2010

Not much sewing happening around here!

Not much sewing but lots of dyeing and a bit of knitting ;)

As I go through a lot of procion dyes and they have a limited life on cotton, I thought I'd try them out as acid dyes (as you can do that too!) Simple Turquoise, Fuschia and Yellow and I couldn't help myself but make rainbow yarn hehe.

Procions start to lose the capability to bond with cotton the older they get but the dye portion of them is fine, its just the "glue" so to speak that breaks down. So using them as acid dyes I prepared the yarn - Bendigo Woollen Mills Melody in this case- with a vinegar soak as per normal wool dyeing. I then applied dye as normal, wrapped in cling wrap and steamed inside a steriliser. It worked! and I am thrilled at the result, and hoping some of my favourite colours translate ok to wool too.

And then I couldn't resist as I needed to knit it up to see how it turned out, I CO Celias emergency 1 day hat for my youngest. Great knit and a free pattern too! It just squeezed in with enough to weave in the end left over (ok I made it fit lol) She loves it to bits too which is pretty good for a not quite 2yo! My older girl Ellie likes it too, and it fits her as well, but she isn't allowed to touch it with Kayla around, bossy much?

I have overflowing bags of undyed yarn and just slipped and ordered some more Melody, whoops! so better get dyeing some more...

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