jenwren's blog

Both on the same day - 'Yarn to Dye For' and 'Dyeing to Knit' arrived from Amazon, and some Mollydale hand-dyed silk from Purl Yarns April Fools sale.  Mollydale Knits is actually based here in Armidale, but I hadn't seen any of her silks at Black Sheep Wool n Wares in Guyra, and hadn't had time to go to the Wool Room in Uralla to try my luck.  Hence I grabbed the opportunity when it was on sale at Purl Yarns.  I was unpacking my mail while a tradesman was fitting a smoke alarm for my landlord.  He admired the yarn and said his wife dyes yarns.  Yes, this is one of those crazy coincidences - his wife runs Mollydale Knits.

The school holidays can't come soon enough at the moment.  I hope to have time to do some yarn dyeing of my own.

I finished the DNA Scarf on Tuesday - just as the weather warmed up again, so I haven't had the chance to wear it.  I stopped knitting it when it reached about 2 metres long, which meant I have about half a ball of yarn left over.

I've gone back to knitting the Lorna's Laces socks and I've turned the heel of the first sock.  I'm not as annoyed with the colour pooling as I was before.

Today I've done a whole lot of fibre dyeing - mainly some cotton for a project you won't see on here (as the intended recipient may be reading...) and some wool tops to be spun and plied with the silk/merino blend I've been spinning (or, rather, that I was spinning a few weeks ago - no spinning has actually occurred in the last couple of weeks).  Pictures soon - I have to go pull the last of the cotton out of a Synthrapol bath and finish rinsing it.

Here's the cotton I dyed on Friday, being checked out by a Pink Lady chocolate bilby.  The aim was purple, fire-engine-red, and orange cotton yarn (Bendigo 8 ply, originally 'snow').  This was the first time I'd gotten around to dyeing cotton with fibre reactive dyes - my previous use of these dyes has been with Tencel.  I had bought a second violet dye from Kraft Kolour  because I didn't like the colour of the violet from Batik Oetoro.   Sadly, both violets are pretty much the same red-violet colour.  I hate red-violets but absolutely love blue-violets.  So the purple yarn had a second trip to the dye bath with some blue to make it a yummy blue-violet.  The red also had a second trip to the dye bath - I failed to put enough dye in the first time around, and it came out too pink - certainly not a fire engine!  A heavier dose of dye overcame that issue.  The third was meant to be orange.  It looked more orange when wet, but really it at the yellow end of yellow-orange.  Next time, more red dye needs to go in that mixture.  I didn't bother revisiting the dye bath with that skein since the colour works just fine with the other colours.

Sorry, no pictures of the wool yet - it's a yummy purple, but is not quite dry yet.  I've also had fun planting some bulbs in the garden, and cleaning the house.  And the bilby is now headless...

I appear to have transferred the sock bug to my Mother.  My parents have been here for a visit since Thursday.  On Friday we went looking at cars for me.  I decided what I'm buying, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen immediately.  Anyway, on Saturday morning it was very cold, and we were going to Guyra - partly to see the new Devils Pinch deviation of the New England Highway that opened just before Easter after about two years of construction, and partly to go to Black Sheep Wool n Wares, my LYS.  Guyra is colder than Armidale, so I told my parents to be warmly dressed.  My Mother asked to borrow a pair of my hand knitted socks because her feet had been cold.  She liked them a lot so buying some sock wool in Guyra became a goal.

I bought yarn to make up for not buying a car - Madil Kid Seta (kid mohair/silk blend) in a variegated blue.  Mum bought the same yarn in a multicoloured variegated colourway - we've both admired the shawl patterns in the latest Yarn Magazine issue, so this yarn is likely to end up in something like one of the patterns from there.  Mum picked out a Patons Patonyle sock yarn in a self patterning colourway.  With some needles borrowed from me, Mum has made a fair bit of progress on the first sock, and is enjoying the magic of the stripes appearing and changing with the progress of the sock.  I had ordered some cream Patonyle before Easter, but it hasn't come in yet - I intend to over dye it in my own choice of colours with inspiration from the Yarn to Dye For book.

My own sock project, with the Lorna's Laces has made progress over the last week.  The first sock is now finished, and I've started on the second.  As the picture shows, the striping of the second sock is not quite the same as in the first sock.  So these will be fraternal rather than identical socks.  We had a BBQ lunch today and Mum and I sat in the sun knitting away on our respective socks.  Tomorrow, Mum, Dad and I will head to Nundle to visit the woollen mill before they continue on home.

My constant companion of the last ten years and one month - the Jenny Jeep - has gone, traded in for my new car which I picked up this afternoon.  In that time I've lived at 6 different addresses (in Sydney, Melbourne and Armidale), and travelled far and wide in this car and run up 115,000 km.

Pics of the new car soon...

Here's my new car - a Kia Rio.  The colour is called "polar silver" which is basically silver with a pale blue tinge to it (they also make them in "clear silver" without the blue tinge).  I'm still very nervous driving it, and especially nervous putting it into my garage.  It's both longer and wider than the Jenny Jeep, as well as being lower, so it's a big change to get used to.

I drove it (it needs a name!) to Guyra to the wool shop to pick up my ordered cream Patonyle for custom dyed socks.  I hope to dye the first two balls tomorrow.

I forgot to mention Nundle from Monday.  That's mainly because there is little to say.  Both Mum and I were disappointed with what they had on offer and neither of us bought anything.

Take two balls of cream Patons Patonyle.  Calculate the amount of yarn needed to knit a sock stripe of desired width (about 2 metres - thin stripes).  Decide how many coloured stripes to have (four) and therefore how long one color repeat will be (8 metres).  Wind both balls simultaneously into an 8 metre skein on a warping board.  (Sorry, I forgot to photograph that bit.)  Wonder if you will regret winding both balls together...

Wet out skein in water and detergent overnight.  Measure each two metre section and mark with a tight tie to minimise the dye wicking into the adjacent colours.  Paint yarn with the dyes of the chosen colours.  Wrap with plastic wrap and microwave in a heatproof dish.  Realise you've forgotten to remove the tight ties.  Scald fingers while removing ties...  Allow yarn to cool completely.  Rinse and hang to dry.

Take skein of yarn to spinning and weaving day and with the assistance of four friends (three to hold the skein and two winding off the two strands of yarn) wind skein into centre-pull balls on toilet rolls.  Wind the balls again with ball winder after getting home.  Start knitting socks.