Sorry, but as a broke college kid working a 40 hour, strenuous painting job, seeing my first pay check is really nice :) It means I can go buy more stuff for my apartment tomorrow: Garage sales here I come!!!
Besides that, I have been wanting to share with you some things that have been on my mind a lot lately, especailly after my summer class, where we spent a few days boiling down plants for inks and I learned you could dye with them too. Ever since, I have been crazy obsessed with dying.
Thus, I decided to do a bit of research on natural plant dyes and have also started growing a few things to use. My aunt has marigolds and some pretty purple things growing for me to try boiling down, and I am hoping my Colious will also boil down well?? I took advantage of the Interweave Hurt Book Sale and got these:
Not as comprehensive on plants as I'd like, but really explains how to go about a lot of techniques
I got it more for the socks, but it talks about dying, spinning and then knitting socks! So much fun!
So with the research done, one would think I'd be ready to dye right? Wrong. My plants are really big enough/producing enough flowers yet to do anything with AND I have yet to find any old pots to do so in (it's on the garage sale list).
So instead, needing to get a dying fix, I decide to over dye some handspun for my headband adventures. Since I already made one headband with the pink and black mix, I decided to overdye the other skein I had so I could do a different colored headband.
Before
After
I overdyed the pink/black mix with a very deep golden yellow color Wilton's food dye. I was hoping for a orange/green (because the black is more blue ish) color, and I didn't quite get that, but I did get an amazing fall/deep orange, red, brown, green mix and I love it! I hope it looks good with the black of my headbands.
The second skein I overdyed was my red/yellow mix, simply because I didn't think a red/yellow color would sell as well as a purple blend and wanted to see what would happen.
After
I was wishing at first that I hadn't made the blue so deep, because when I looked at it at first it was a lot of maroon/blue and I wasn't too happy. But if you get closer there are areas of super pretty purple and greens going on too! I really do like this skein better now! Can't wait to knit with it.
There are many more dying adventures on the very near horizon and I can't wait to share them with you. I will give you a preview now of part 2.
My new color dying notebook!
Happy Friday Everyone. See you all again soon with more fun stuff :)
~Lisa
HEHEHE
Yes! The notebook exists now! That shawl is going to be so pretty and even more awesome because you dyed the yarn for it yourself! I love the before/after, you have some pretty handspun there : )
ReplyDeleteThanks! I am super duper excited to dye more next weekend, especially after reading your post too!
DeleteOh my! You totally just inspired me! I shall try to copy your golden overdying. genius! :)
ReplyDeleteI love the golden color, I bet it would overdye on anything amazingly.
DeleteThis looks like such a fun adventure with colors! It's so interesting to see the changes. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh I love the golden colour too, its lovely! Good luck with the garage sales!
ReplyDeleteI think your over-dyes came out great. After reading so many posts lately about dyeing I really need to give it a go! Have fun at the tag sales!
ReplyDeleteWow, I can't believe how the overdying transformed those colors!
ReplyDeleteLisa, I LOVE your overdyed yarn, especially that gorgeous autumnal-orange one! I think it's going to look awesome as a headband! And it's so funny that you mentioned the Twisted Sisters Sock Book, because I bought that one from the Hurt Book sale, too. Such an great sale! :)
ReplyDeleteLove how your dyed yarn came out! The second one you did is my favorite. I love the pops of blue in it. Looking forward to seeing it all knitted up into something beautiful :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent job on dyeing! Before you know it you will be a pro.
ReplyDeleteThe blue/maroon/purple yarn looks great. I didn't know you could re-dye yarn (never thought about it). I'm interested in learning to dye with plants, too, and look forward to reading more about your adventures in dyeing.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your first paycheck!