I’ve been preoccupied with dyeing lately, but trying a new technique has forced me to recognize how I haven’t been spending much time crocheting lately.

Before I decide whether or not I’m going to offer yarn, using this new technique, I’ve decided to crochet it up into a simple scarf.

That was the beginning of the scarf, and it’s about 2-3 times longer right now. It’s a single crochet, very basic scarf. The only difference is that I’m using this new speckled-shade dye technique which does all of the interesting work for you.

In the photo you can see how dark the end of the scarf is–a very deep green with a hint of brown. In the ball behind it, the outer part is a very light shade of green, and I mean very light. There are, however, specks of darker shades in those strands too. As the piece is crocheted, the overall tone becomes lighter, but the speckled areas will actually darken.

It works like this…

Darker end = medium and light speckles;
Middle section = light and dark speckles;
Light end = medium and dark speckles

I’ll post some more progress shots, as well as the final product, when I get a chance. It’s sure to be an interesting experience!

I wanted to share this as it’s a great example of letting the yarn do the work for you. In fiber arts–I’m thinking crochet and knitting here–when the fiber is more interesting, or visually stimulating, you end up using simple stitches, or less complicated stitch patterns. Most often this is due to the fact that colorful, visual fiber loses the stitch pattern, making it appear less prominent.

Le’ts face it, when we use a fancy, or complex, stitch pattern, we want to see that stitch pattern, so we use a simple (read: smooth) yarn. The reverse is true of fancy, or interesting, yarn. Simplify the stitch or stitch pattern to let the yarn pop. There are, I’m sure, exceptions to this, but that’s a great general rule to follow.

Crochet, Dyeing

Hello strangers!

I’ve been awfully quiet lately, I know. I’m letting a few things slide lately–things I shouldn’t–which has left me feeling pretty poor about not having enough time. I have a sneaking suspicion this is all a part of being an adult. When I was a kid, the days were long and glorious. The only time I got fussy over time was when it became too dark out to play football in the streets with the boys, and my mother (football nut), who loved that I was playing any kind of sport, called me in for the night. Now, at 28, unenthusiastically zipping across time to 29, the days are shorter. There’s never enough time to do it all. Work, school, crochet, design crochet, dye yarn, dye fiber, podcast, edit podcast, spend time with family, take dog outside, try to keep the dog and cat from killing each other, breathe…

That last one lately has been difficult.

Then recently I decided that, with it being National Crochet Month (Happy March!), I should participate with, and send samples to, Phat Fiber. I discussed this a bit on the last episode of the podcast, but here’s a snippet of what Phat Fiber is about (lifted from their site)…

Phat Fiber is a mystery box of awesome samples for the yarn and fiber enthusiast in us all. With a focus on the independant artisan, this box is a super grass-roots treat for the senses. When your box arrives, chock full of samples, expect to be overwhelmed with the sight and feel of artful yarns, bits of roving, small batts, stitch markers, original patterns, valuable discount coupons and much much more. Inside, you could find anything that yarn and fiber enthusiasts would love…even an herbal tea or two! Phat Fiber seeks to bridge the gap between talented online artisans and consumers hungry to support the independent small business.

So, there’s this box that I wanted to be a part of. It’s March, and I wanted to send in samples for both fiber-lovers and crocheters. I felt very rooted to the idea of getting crochet out there, celebrating what I love about it, and reaching as many people as I could. This is what I sent in:

I rushed taking that photo as I was trying to get them into the shipping box and mailed, so the mini skeins are blurry. All very sad. That’s representative of at least 24 of the green/olive (Horned God) mini-skeins, 30-ish of the pink/yellow/orange/white (Apple Blossom) mini-skeins, 10 mini rolls of the pink/yellow/orange/white (Apple Blossom) roving, and I think 60 crochet patterns for a wristlet/cuff pattern. Horned God is a sock-weight yarn; Apple Blossom yarn is a delicious baby alpaca, silk and cashmere blend lace weight; and the Apple Blossom roving is a baby alpaca and merino blend. So. Freaking. Delicious. I really wanted to keep it all for myself.

I think, all told, I spent about 50 hours putting it all together. It was, with complete honesty, more involved than I thought it would be. I had hoped to get the business/discount cards printed for me, but didn’t have the time. I ended up printing them myself, which was painful. There were rewarding moments, too, though. When I would punch a hole in a card that had a logo I designed on it, I’d smile. When I would squish a little 0.4 oz roll of roving into its bag, I’d pet it for the last time and sigh, knowing that it would end up being loved. When I printed dozens upon dozens of pattern postcards, I knew that it was a great representation of what a crocheter could do with less than 40 yards of lace.

There is pride in what I did, what I sent. I just don’t think I can do it two months in a row like I was hoping. Not enough time, not enough energy. I’ve promised myself I will do the May box. That should give me plenty of time to slowly work up, and work on, the samples. I need to repeat the mantra “I don’t need a box, I don’t need a box, I don’t need a box”. If I don’t need a contributor’s box, then I don’t need to push myself to send 50+ samples. No one is forcing me to contribute, I just want to.

Maybe for May I’ll come up with a new pattern.

Oh, speaking of the pattern. The wristlet/cuff is called “Mrs Dalloway”, named by a good friend of mine who is much better at that sort of thing than I am.

That’s Mrs Dalloway. She’s a flirty, party-throwing kind of girl. She doesn’t mind if you just wear one, or if you want to jazz it up and wear two–one for each wrist. Make sure to click on the photo to see a larger version.

The pattern was free to those who purchased a Phat Fiber box, and for those who signed up to find out more about the secret site. For everyone else, I will be offering it up for sale at a low price. It’s available at Ravelry already, and will soon be available here on The Crochet Side.

And if you’re interested in that kind of thing, you can see some of the new dyed items that I’ve just listed at the Etsy shop for The Yarn Side. You read it here first (well, outside of Twitter, but I don’t think anyone reads those anyway)! I’ve moved all of my fiber stuff out of my Etsy shop for my patterns, and into it’s own store. The Etsy store will eventually make way to a new website. It’s up, but not functional, and doesn’t have any pretties. It’s pretty much a holding place right now, sad to say. One of those things I’m going to have to find time for at some point.

Regardless of my inability to manage my time efficiently, how are you? What have you been spending your time on? Crochet anything lately? Dye something? Spin something? Listen to something fantastic or interesting? Come give me something to read; I’ll put whatever I’m doing on hold for a few seconds to find out what you’re up to. :)

Crochet, Dyeing, NEW Pattern

In the podcast I discuss dyeing yarn, and I have to say that I’ve been a bit lazy with the blog in the recent months. I haven’t even shared many photos, have I?

Well, it’s a Brand New Year, with a Brand New Design, so I’m going to have a Brand New Outlook. I aim to put out more podcast episodes, as well as more blog entries. 2009 is going to be great for each of us.

Let’s throw some photos and text into this entry and make it one big show and tell, yeah?

The following photo was taken by Caryn. I asked if she’d take some photos while she was out in her studio (read: garage), and she broken down and said that she would. Anyway, this photo displays some yarn that I have lying about. The bottom red/pink-toned skeins are different shades of my “The Puppet Show” colorway. The middle two in the blue-green colorway is my “Go Fish”. The top middle two are “Mutant Enemy”–the green on the right skein is more accurate than the one on the left. Damn you photography! The silver-blue skein on the left and right is the new colorway, “New Moon Rising”.

This following photo shows a close-up of the “New Moon Rising”. The skein itself is a Fingering weight, which is perfect for us crocheters. You may thinking working with such a lightweight yarn is tedious, but it doesn’t have to be. Did you know that Jules is crocheted with Fingering weight yarn? It is! Fingering weight allows us to introduce more drape with complex stitches if need be, without the bulk of a heavier yarn. Fingering weight yarn, provided that the contents of the yarn works well, can also give greater stitch definition and shine a design right up. *swims in a bathtub of a Merino/Silk blend in ‘New Moon Rising’*.

The following three photos are just bonuses! The left shows the reverse side of the hang tag that now comes on all of my yarn. It shows you the name at the top, the weight, the yardage/grams, fiber type and care instructions. Then you get to read the inspiration for the yarn, and a quote. All in my lovely penmanship (she says jokingly–har). The middle photo shows you what the skein and tag look like together, and what you can expect to see when you receive a skein. The far-right photo is another shot of the Worsted weight skein that is shown in the far-left. I just really like this colorway, so if I can show a million photos, I will. Sometimes less is not more, people, you know? ;)

So, what has the new year brought you? Have you looked back at 2008 with a clearer vision of what you want to accomplish this year? Did you bust as much stash as you wanted? Has it rolled over into 2009 with a vengeance? Should we discuss ways in which we can bust our stashes even further? A square-a-thon? We all have time for at least one square, right?

Bring me your ideas.

Crochet, Dyeing, Talk, Yarn

Some of you may not be aware, but I work for Six Apart. On our Everything TypePad blog, there is a post regarding the 2nd Annual DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge. (You can read more about it here.)

To the right of this entry, if you are viewing this directly on the blog, you will see a widget, prompting you to donate to some worthy causes.

First up…

the Crochet Club, which was started by a teacher in South Carolina. She is trying to raise some money for supplies so that her 3rd-5th grade students are able to learn an (awesome!) skill, that will also preoccupy them during their morning wait for school to begin.

That was the only crochet-related cause at DonorsChoose.org, so I decided to bring in some knitting-related ones as well. I am, however, keeping with the teacher’s teaching their students a craft theme.

The other 3 groups are as follows:

Let’s Learn to Knit — an elective class of 6th graders in a high-needs community who need to raise funds for supplies. There has been enthusiasm for such a class, but there is no guarantee that the students’ families will be able to provide supplies.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside — High School students wanting to learn how to knit, then providing the finished objects to their local Ronald McDonald house. Needs funds for supplies.

Warm Head, Warm Heart — Third, Fourth, and Fifth graders are wanting to learn how to knit in order to provide their finished goods to the local homeless shelters.

That’s it! If you’re willing to donate even $2.00 to either, or each, of these groups, please do so. They’ll be able to meet their goals if we all just give what we can.

As incentive, if we can meet the goals for each of the groups, I will create a colorway and hold a giveaway. If we meet the goal for one group, I will create a colorway and dye a single skein of DK-weight yarn and offer it up on this blog for a giveaway. If we meet the goal for two groups, I will create a colorway and dye TWO skeins of DK-weight yarn. If we meet the goal for THREE groups, I will–you get the point.

For every group’s goal we meet, I will dye an equal amount of skeins, and we will have an equal amount of winners. 1 goal, 1 skein, 1 winner. 4 goals, 4 skeins, 4 winners.

Go ahead, donate, and make me proud!

Crochet, Dyeing, Fun Stuff, Giveaways, Knitting, Worth Noting, Yarn

You waited, so I’m providing!

(If you missed part 1, here it is.)

So, this is the part where I switched to the girlfriend’s camera, because the yarn was dry and I was ready to show it off better…

Part 5a – Hanging to dry; almost, but not quite (images are clickable)

 

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of the skein, as it was, twisted together. It was really pretty! I’m a fan of re-skeining, however, so I couldn’t wait to get through that tedious process to see the final result.

Final Result – Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (title ganked from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, without shame, because I love that show)…

 

And that’s it! Maybe once I get more yarn, and some proper acid dyes, I’ll photograph the pre-dye and dyeing process as well. :)

Now you can buy this yarn!

Dyeing, Yarn

The idea came to me too late to really photograph the entire process, from pre-dyeing to post-dyeing, but here’s what happened:

I wanted to dye this last bit of yarn I had. It’s a 100gm skein of yarn, 450+ yds, of fingering/sock weight yarn. A part of me wanted to wait until I had some Jacquard Acid Dyes, but another part of me was eager to Get It Done.

In the vein of the Get It Done attitude, I mixed up the dye-liquor. I wasn’t really considering the end result so much, which shows in the final skein. I mixed one bottle of neon-pink to one-cup vinegar and 2 cups hot-water (I use the tea kettle for this). I then mixed one bottle of neon-purple to the same proportions as the pink. We have these quart-sized soup containers from Chinese-takeout that work great. It’s probably not the best that it’s plastic, but I knew it wasn’t a long-term solution. Anyway, I can use a sharpie to write the mixture and color on the top of the container in case I do want to use it over in the future.

Moving on–I left the liquor to sit, then drove to the store, picked up some sponge brushes, and made my way back home. There, I soaked the yarn in a soapy, hot-water bath for about an hour. (Usually it’s only a 30-minute soak, but I may have forgot about the yarn in my Olympics haze. Shh.) Once I remembered the yarn again, I gently squeezed the water from the yarn, leaving it damp, but not soaking.

Additional set-up consisted of my laying out two aluminum pans–you know the type, the family-sized lasagna pans–side by side. I draped the yarn so that it was even on both sides, then proceeded to sponge the pink dye-liquor to the yarn in the right pan. I worked up to about the 2-3″ worth of yarn that was draped over the middle where the pans met. I then switched sponge brushes and sponged the purple dye-liquor into the yarn in the left pan. The middle section I decided to sponge lightly across in both colors to blend where the sections met.

I’m Miss High-Tech, I tell you what.

There was some unevenness, even after flipping the yarn over to hit the backside. Because I had some dye-liquor left, I decided to pour the rest of the dye onto the yarn in each of the separate pans. I then smooshed and propped the pans up so that the remaining dye-liquor was hitting all of the yarn.

I left that to sit for a while. A “while” was about 10 minutes, because I sometimes have no patience, and the Ladies Gymnastics was about to come on.

Gently squeezing out the yarn once more, I set it aside and dumped out the nearly-clear dye-liquor left over. Now it was time to wrap it up–literally.

After making room on the countertop, I laid out the plastic wrap on the counter and draped the yarn over the plastic, down the center. I wrapped the yarn, lengthwise, then rolled it up like a little wormy burrito. From this point on, it was no longer up to me how this yarn would turn out!

I stuck that wormy burrito in the microwave and set it for 1 minute on High. I let it rest for 2 minutes, then set it for another minute. I let it rest, then popped it back on for 30 seconds.

The moment I pulled it out of the microwave, I knew I wanted to take photographs. Did I grab the girlfriend’s higher-end digital camera that she takes all of these wonderful shots with? Of course not. I took the initial photos with the lower-end camera that I use to shoot my video tutorials.

Still, it’s worth showing…

Part 1 – Wormy Burrito

Part 2 – Wormy Burrito unwrapping

Part 3 – Yarn is free and in a bowl

Part 4 – Yarn is soaking in hot water and Woolite

And this is where I hung the yarn to dry and decided to switch cameras, but you’ll have to wait for part 2!

Dyeing, Yarn