I saw this beautiful cowl from Elaine's blog and cannot stop myself from knitting it. The actual pattern calls for an aran weight yarn but I am using Dream In Color Smooshy Blue Lagoon which is a fingering weight. Needless to say, my cowl is much smaller and it is short of 6 rows. The circumference is 31" and the length is 10".
I use a 5.0 mm circular needle for the whole cowl and cast on 228 stitches using the cable cast on method. Cast off using p2tog, slip stitch back to the left needle and repeat till the end for a stretchy edge. This is my first cowl and also my first Dream In Color yarn. I just love the subtle colour variation of the yarn and it is so soft and fun to knit too.
Wish that I had bought 2 hanks instead of one, then I would have a bigger cowl!
Yes, these are the names of my recent natural hand dyed and hand spun. The first photo is Peach Punch which is dyed with balsam flowers. It is 2 ply merino yarn :
And this is Butterscotch :
It is 200 gm of superwash merino yarn(600 m) and it just take the colour of yellow onions beautifully. I love this combination of bright and intense colour.
When I first saw Ishbel, I just fell in love with it. I was waiting for a suitable yarn to knit this simple and yet beautiful shawl. Finally,when I was spinning my Gingerie, I knew that this is the colour graduation that I am looking for. I am glad that I have added tumeric during the dyeing process with red onion skins. It just enhance the colour of the yarn. I knitted the smaller size shawl using 4.0 mm circular needle and used about 60% of my yarn (approximately 300 m).
Wonder what I should knit with the rest of the yarn. Any suggestions, please?
I have been really busy lately with my new found love...natural dyeing. Before I go further, these are my recent completed projects that I just can't find time to post. Since a picture paints a thousand words, I will let the photos do the talking :)
The first photo is a top that I called Tulip Garden, knitted with one solid and one variegated colour crochet yarn :
My sister called me up one day and asked if I would like to join her for a trip to Shanghai, China in November. Since it is autumn in China, I have knitted her a pair of fingerless mittens and a hat.
This Noro spiral one-skein hat pattern is knitted with one skein of Mission Falls 1824 Cotton Whirl in Dusk. The fingerless mittens knitted with Elann Peruvian Highland Sport yarn is Fetching by Cheryl Niamath. I have modified both of the edgings to seed stitch. I love the vibrant and variegated colour of the hat. Incidentally, she is flying to China today but I didn't make it. I hope it will keep her warm and cozy.
And now, let the fun begin :) This BFL sock yarn was dyed with 193 gm of Clitoria Ternatea and 428 gm of Dragon Fruit skins plus one whole fruit weighing 500 gm. The flowers and fruit were simmered separately for an hour and left to cool. Alum and cream of tartar was used as mordant for the sock yarn. The yarn was also simmered for an hour in the mordants, left to cool and then dyed in three parts. One in Clitoria Ternatea dye bath, second in Dragon Fruit dye bath and the last in a mixture of both dye baths. The whole procedure took me 3 hours to complete.
I was amazed and surprised that the heated dye bath of Dragon Fruits yield a soft orange colour and a mixture of both dye baths produce a grey colour. Next time, I will experiment with the cold dyeing method using Dragon Fruit again. I hope this time it will yield the fruit's magenta colour that I am looking for.
I have always wanted to hand dye some yarns for my friend Denise. So when she told me that she love the colour, I couldn't be more pleased to give to her.
Can you guess the plant dye that I use for this BFL fiber? It is red onion skins and tumeric! I used 440 gm of onion skins and 2 tablespoon of tumeric powder. That is a lot of onion skins right? It was given to me by the grocery shop owner at the market. In fact, I have 2 more big bags of onion skins!.
The fiber was simmered for an hour and left to soak for 4 hours before rinsing. I have spun it to this 2 ply yarn that I have named as Gingerie:
These beautiful 255 gm of red balsams were picked from my little garden for a period of two to three weeks. The flowers were kept in a zip lock bag and stored in the refrigerator until I have enough flowers to dye. I used 138 gm of Merino wool and simmered for 1 hour 45 minutes. Half of the fiber was simmered in the pot for 10 minutes and part of the dyed wool was pulled out every 10 to 15 minutes. I added vinegar to the dye bath and dyed the second batch in the same way. The second batch was left to cool in the bath for 2 hours before rinsing. This is how the dye bath of balsam flowers looks like:
Ta dah! I present you my Peach Punch!
I just love the soft peachy colour and it is my favourite. In fact, someone offered to buy the top but I just can't bear to part with it :)
Have you seen enough? No? You want more? Okay, there are more to come! I have dyed a second Peach Punch using 200 gm of balsam flowers on 92 gm of BFL :
This 136 gm Merino wool was dyed with 325 gm of red onion skins again. The colour is lighter because I used big onions instead of small onions. I called it Olive Garden :
That's not all! I have also dyed these two dk weight Merino yarn with food dyes for my two dear friends, May and Irene. They wanted something bright and colourful and I named them Summertime I and II:
Hope that you have enjoyed looking at these eye candies, if I may say so :)
My second post for today is a hooded baby sweater that I got from here. It is a simple but very cute baby sweater. The original pattern called for worsted weight yarn. Since I use sport weight acrylic yarn, I have changed the needle size to 5.00 mm and cast on 75 stitches instead of 48 stitches. I also knitted these Magic Slippers :
I just love knitting these tiny and cute projects.
Are these for my baby...you may ask!? Oh no...I am too old for that! It is for my friendly hair stylist, Candy. Her second baby girl is due for delivery anytime now! So excited for her! :)
I have always thought of knitting a shawl but I was thinking would I ever use it? When I saw this beautiful Swallowtail shawl...I knew that I just can't wait anymore.
The yarn is my own hand spun and hand dyed Pomegranate which I have over dyed with more red. I have used almost 475 metres of this 2 ply BFL yarn. The size of the shawl is 23" x 54" after blocking. It is very soft and light.
I love this shawl very much. Wonder why I have waited for such a long time to knit my first shawl! :) I guess more shawls will coming too! Hmm....I am thinking of Ishbel!
I didn't like the pattern because it does not bring out the beauty of the yarn.
Oops! Did I say beauty? I know it is not the most beautiful yarn, but at least it is my own hand-dyed and hand spun yarn :) I unravelled the project and turned it to this :
Finally, I have found this pretty fan bookmark pattern from Crochetroo. It just make the colours of the forest popped out! Oh, I have named my yarn, Forest. Does it look like the colours of the forest?
I wanted a denser and bigger scarf, so I have made the following modifications :
Row 1 of each fan : 14 dc in the loop work
Row 3 of each fan : 1 sc 3 ch 1 sc for the picot edge
I was talking to my friend Denise two weeks back and I found out that her birthday was coming. Oh no! I didn't have any present for her! Ideas were going through my mind but I don't have enough time for a decent project. I was flipping through Crochet! May 2009 issue and found this lovely belt.
I met her in Kuala Lumpur during the school holidays and presented her with this gift. Well, just a little last minute gift! I didn't have her measurement but I guessed a S size would be appropriate. Gosh! I was so glad when Denise told me that it fitted her perfectly. These two photos of the belt worn in two different styles were taken by her 6 year old daughter,Celestine. Clever girl!
I am sorry that I have neglected this blog for a long time. I am still dyeing, spinning, knitting and crocheting. Firstly, I would like to share with you my new stuff. I have made or rather my husband had made me two yarn swifts. The first swift is rather big and heavy. I helped to sand paper and painted shellac on it :
So my dear husband made me another new swift which is smaller and much lighter :)
I was using my pvc niddy noddy and suddenly it rang a bell. A pvc inch ruler! So there I go again to the local hardware store and came back with this :
It is perfect and I love it! So...what do I need next? Ah ha! A ball winder! I have been thinking of a ball winder for ages. My dear friend Donna helped me to buy this ball winder from Knitpicks.com. Thank you very much Donna! :)
I also hand spun and dyed this yarn :
I called it Emerald Dream and it is done using layering method in the oven. I spun it 2 ply before dyeing it. It is 111 gm of merino and the yardage is 421 m (460 yards). It took almost 3 hours to dye but worth it. I like how it turn out but not the colour. It is supposed to be a blueish green like the deep blue sea.
My latest project is called Elly because it is knitted for my friend Elly. This pattern was taken from Craft House Series 2 and it is knitted in the round from top down. It is knitted with double strands of crochet thread from Pyarn.com. She was too shy to model it, so I have to do it :)
Whew! This is my longest posting so far. There are actually two more projects that I have completed but still waiting for fitting and photos.
