Crafty Wibbo

February's dyeing

Left to right: BFL sock, organic DK singles, 2 skeins of BFL sock, merino laceweight, merino blend 4 ply.

Getting ready

Skeins of BFL sock yarn tied ready for dyeing; haven't decided what colours to use yet.

Yarn dyeing

75% wool/25% nylon sock yarn dyed with acid dyes using a variety of techniques.

Mmmm, much better

Nicely exhausted dyebath

A good, strong purple that began life as 3 balls of rather boring pale mauve stripey sock yarn. More when they're dry...

Something different

 
A small piece of needlefelting; my first ever dabble with this technique which I thoroughly enjoyed. I think I'll probably stitch into this piece.

Overdyeing

These two skeins started off life as one skein of Cherry Tree Hill Merino Lace, colourway Peacock (below). It's not one of their most attractive colour mixes (too much yucky pale green), but lovely yarn to knit with.

 
I split the skein into two and changed the colours with two different dyebaths, one of green leftovers plus lemon yellow and one of violet plus a dash of gunmetal. I'm very happy with the yarn's new look.

Painting yarn

Agatha and I had a lovely time dyeing yarn yesterday. This is Agatha's King Cole Merino Blend 4ply hand-painted with Jacquard Acid dyes in shades of red and orange. I'd heard about this method of painting yarn in a large plastic box rather than on the usual sheets of clingfilm and wanted to try it out. It's much, much less messy than the clingfilm method and also easier to paint several almost-identical skeins at the same time.

Backgrounds

Same size and canvas as Green Cat. Left background in Rainbow Gallery Bravo! cotton; right background in Caron Waterlilies silk.

Green Cat

 
3cm square: 14 mesh plastic canvas, silk and cotton threads, seed and bugle beads, vintage sew-on sparklies, gilt charms, button.