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!

(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!

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!

This is just a note to mention that I listed the two hand-dyed skeins of yarn I posted about earlier up for sale on Etsy.com. I would keep them, except I know I won’t be doing anything with them for a long while. If you liked them, now’s your chance to buy them!

You can find the two related entries here: “Welcome to the Hellmouth” and “The Harvest“.

The Etsy listings are located here: briannamewborn.etsy.com

I ended up calling the previous yarn “The Harvest”. This one is “Welcome to the Hellmouth”:

 

(click images to view larger)

Dyed half the skein red (maybe more red-orange) by hand, then stock-pot dyed the whole skein in a medium(ish)-blue. This turned the red (red-orange) a really dark purple, almost black in some spots. There are some areas where the blue didn’t take as well, so the red turned more berry-brown. What ended up happening is that it became this very lightly variegation, and I wonder how it’ll look crocheted or knitted up.

Fingering-weight superwash (wool/nylon) sock yarn.

Okay, I know what you must be thinking: why is she dyeing yarn when she could be crocheting?

To which I reply: I have been crocheting! In fact, I have been working on the following:

• body of a purse in fingering weight yarn that will be felted
• swatch for Spring submission to crochet magazine
• full garment that swatch is based off of for sister-in-law to model and keep

That’s busy, right? On top of work, I feel pretty good about my progress. If I could only stop sleeping, I’d have more time!

My birthday is coming up on the 14th of this month, which is both exciting and scary. It’s exciting for two reasons: (1) my mother has promised to make carrot-raisin salad, which is died-and-gone-to-heaven delicious; and (2) it’s a day solely about me (even though i will probably do what everyone else wants to do)! The scary part is that I’m turning 28. I’m almost out of my 20’s and into my 30’s. Some people say I’m just a kid, and I know I act it sometimes because I’m, umm, very young at heart ( *wink* ). I just think it’s the whole getting older thing, and I don’t want too many more years to pass by without anything really exciting happening. I want to live, rather than exist, you know? And a lot of these years have been spent just existing.

Maybe that’s why I finally decided to start submitting designs, or planning children with the girlfriend (we’re starting insemination this year–August or September). But there needs to be more. I want to travel. I want to ride more rollercoasters…

I want more time. I have so much that I don’t get to do in a day, how the hell am I supposed to do it all in a year?

As freaked as I am about time slipping, I have to say that I feel pretty good about 28. I have a feeling it’s going to bring some awesome things. Excitement, pleasure, fun…it should be worth the initial scare.

Roving Braid - Merino/Bamboo - 1st time dyeing, originally uploaded by the crochet side.

This photo has a little mood lighting, so I’ll take proper photos on a white background later, but doesn’t it look nice? This is the same roving as before, but now it’s dry and braided!

Unfortunately, I was trying to reduce some of the crunchy parts that I’m told happens when roving is part bamboo. When tugging to pull those sections apart, I tugged too hard and about a foot and a half broke off. There’s a mini braid, just like this one, but that’s okay. I know now for future.

I think next time I’m going to dye actual yarn.

I dyed my first bit of roving tonight. It’s the 2oz of merino/bamboo that I bought a week or two back. It’s so lovely and soft, and when it was soaking, pre-dye, it poofed and was like a pretty fiber halo in the water-vinegar solution. I tried three colors: a sort of neon/lime green, mixed with a little prime green to tone it down; a prime blue, but soft enough that it wasn’t too dark; and a mix of neon purple, pink and a drop or two of red, which came out a dark reddish-purple, though red’s tend to wash out a bit, so I’m hoping that it comes out lighter. I ended up using too much dye, so I think the colors bled a bit, but what was pretty was when the runoff merged and the blue and green made this gorgeous deep turquoise/teal (i can never remember which is which). I’m hoping that the dye didn’t run together too much.

This is going to be a bit of a mystery to me, once it’s done. I’ve never dyed before, with the exception of tie-dye and easter eggs when I was a kid. But this is the first time I’ve done this process, and my hands are colorful because I refused to wear gloves, and I have no idea what the roving is going to come out as, especially as bamboo dyes differently than wool, an tends to come out heathered rather than solid or semi-solid.

It’s currently steaming in order to set the dye. Once that’s done, I’ll let it cool, and then rinse the roving out, squeeze it in a towel, then hang it to dry. I cannot wait. There will be photos, for sure, even if it’s a total blunder.

This is all about testing the waters to see if I like dyeing. If I do, then I’ll purchase more roving of different types, possibly some yarn, and get some acid dyes. There are lots of things I’d change if I kept with this, but it’s fun, and I like color, and I want to have something else to do to take my mind off of things that aren’t pretty.

Roving - Merino/Bamboo - 1st time dyeing, originally uploaded by the crochet side.

Look what I did last night! I wasn’t able to rinse it out and hang it to dry until earlier today. I’m about to go fluff it a bit before it’s completely dry, but I’m not upset with my first foray into dyeing.

Caryn came in, as I was rinsing it, and said, “what’s up, hippie?” It might have been a comment on the color scheme.