Hooray for the Internet!

It's been ages since I've put together a mish-mash of links!  Here are some of the things I've come across recently.  Enjoy!

-Colleen

Fried Gravy on Whimsical Cookery
The middle patty is actually gravy which has been fried.  This sounds horrifically delicious.

Sylvia Plath on 365 Lucky Days via Kireei
This stitch artist is creating one project a day for a year.  Some are literary, all are lovely!
There are also some great Wes Anderson themed pieces.

Art Journal on Bare Feet and a Free Spirit
I love watercolor painting for fun and I adore the idea of keeping a watercolor journal.

reCAP Mason Jar Pour Top
Now that I am home and surrounded by mason jars, I want one of these! 

Inkodye on The Purl Bee
I've posted about Inkodye before. I can't wait to get my hands on the stuff!

Maps on Kayla Danelle
I want to do this for every place I've lived.

Hooray for the Internet!

Mid-spring and a lack of upcoming holidays means a significant slow-down in blogosphere but here are some of the things I came across this week.

Doily-Print Fabric  on How About Orange

This blogger, Jessica Jones, was a bit disappointed about how making doily prints on fabric with photo-sensitive dye turned out.  I love this faded result better than if it turned out to have perfect, crisp edges.  I want to do this myself!

Layered Skirt Tutorial on Dana Made It
Via Wee Wonderfuls

Obviously this is a tutorial for a kid's skirt.  Nevertheless, it could be converted to an adult and I am not ashamed to wear ruffles or seersucker.

Hazel the Humpback Whale Pattern by Bec Brittain

Who doesn't want to knit a humpback whale?

Maps of the USA by Relative Green-ness  on Upworthy

I like this one.  There's another one that's much less up-lifting. Follow the link at your own discretion. 

Vintage Kitchen on Heart Handmade
via Kireei

I could live here.

Stenciled Watercolors on Grow Creative

As a teacher, I am four square against using stencils with young children--limiting the creative potential and all that.  However, as an adult, I can use stencils all I want!  And I would do this for making stationary or something.  

Rainbow Connection on Handmade Charlotte

This image fills me with joy.  

Dyeing Natural Fibers with Spices

Dye Natural Fibers with Spices

A Tutorial

Over the past few weeks, blogs and Pinterest boards have been abuzz with posts about natural egg dyeing.  After we dyed our eggs with beets, paprika, turmeric, and red cabbage, it seemed wasteful to dump the extra dye down the drain.  I took a handful of un-dyed wool and put it in the yellow (turmeric) dye, then went grocery shopping.  When I came home, I found that the wool had, indeed, dyed a beautiful yellow.  I saved the rest of the yellow dye (having dumped the others because they were a bit lumpy) and decided I would try more later.  

Today, I got out some more wool and two hanks of white, cotton yarn.  I prepared the yarn for dyeing by wrapping it around a book.  I cut about 6 pieces of scrap yarn and tied it around the strands at even intervals; this way, the yarn would not become tangled while dyeing.  Here are all the materials you will need to do this at home:

-un-dyed cotton and/or wool

-turmeric and/or paprika

-vinegar

-pots

-tongs

-rubber gloves

-fine mesh or a nylon stocking

I boiled two pots of water: one for turmeric and one for paprika.  Each pot had enough water to cover the yarn.  I added a few teaspoons of spice for each liter of water and one tablespoon of vinegar to each pot.  It definitely takes a lot paprika to make a darker color, but turmeric will work with less.  I mixed the spices in well then let the water come to a boil.  I then submerged the yarn in the dye and turned the temperature to low, leaving the dye to simmer for about 30 minutes.  You could make your yarn darker or lighter by changing the amount of spice you use or changing the length of time you leave it sitting.  Remove your yarn when it is several shades darker than what you would like. 

I used tongs to remove the yarn from the dye.  Wearing rubber gloves, I washed the yarn until no more dye came out.  I set the yarn to dry in the sun.

Next up: wool!

 I covered the pot of dye with a nylon stocking and poured the dye into another pan, trying to avoid letting any of the spice mix in.  This is because I did not want any spices to stick to the wool which is much more delicate  and harder to wash than the cotton.  

Once the dye had cooled to about the temperature of bath water, I carefully submerged the wool.  Next time, I will take greater precautions to fully submerge it.  Again, I let the wool sit for about 30 minutes.  After washing, I found that this was far too short!  Next time, I will leave it for at least an hour, if not several.

After soaking, I carefully washed the wool.  The water should be luke warm--no warmer, no colder.  This prevents the wool from accidentally felting. After the water ran clean, I set the wool to dry in the sun.

The results!  Turmeric turned both the wool and the cotton a pretty bright yellow.  The paprika made the wool a pale orange and the cotton a coral pink.

I will be using the wool for needle-felting, not for wet-felting, because I do not know how well the dye will stand up to washing.  As for the cotton yarn, I will probably be using it to make brooches or accessories--again, things that do not require washing.

Want to dye other colors?  Try the same techniques used for dyeing Easter eggs (this link has a good explanation of different colors you can make)!

Next up: vegetable dyes!

-Colleen

I've Been Dyeing To Do This

An Introduction to Fabric Dyeing

About six months ago, I knit Amy this scarf with some cheap cotton yarn that I got from a bin at Lidl.  I bought a ton of white, generic yarn figuring that I could dye it to be whatever color I wanted later.  I knit up a Summer Flies Shawl, a pattern I'm a big fan of.  Then it sat for ages because dyeing is actually really intimidating, especially if the instructions are not in a language you speak.  

In a burst of productivity, I finally dyed it.  The results were satisfactory.  In the future, I will dye my yarn before knitting with it.  Nevertheless, you may find yourself in a situation wherein you have something that just needs color.  Do not be afraid--especially if you live in America where Rit dye is everywhere and easy enough to use that I was allowed to instruct small children in its application by the age of seventeen.     

Luckily, I had learned how to use this particular dye two years ago while making something for my last job.  It had been a while so I skimmed the instructions but there are those pesky things like grams and liters.  However, I knew that powder plus boiling water and salt made dye.  So, that's where I started.

Red and Blue Make...

Black?

I added the water to the dye and mixed in the salt.  I think that's what you were supposed to do.  Seemed right.  Each box contained two packets.  I figured one package of each color would equal one box of purple dye.  But the dye turned this horrifyingly dark shade of almost black.

Submerging Scarf

However, as I saw the dye work its way up the scarf by osmosis, I could tell that it was, in fact, a nice shade of plum purple.  

I set the timer for 20 minutes and waited anxiously.  We got this great little egg timer from a friend who left the city.  It has this unique function.  You know that time is up when you suddenly find you're not annoyed anymore because the ticking has stopped.  Some people might say this means it's broken.  To them I would say, "fair assessment." 

BLACK?! 

When I dumped out the dye and started to rinse out the scarf, it looked black.  Distinctly, not-purple-in-any-way, black.  But after much work rinsing, it did end up purple.  This is part of the frustration of dyeing yarn after knitting it.  It took forever to rinse out.  In the end, I threw it in the washing machine with some black clothing to get the rest of the dye out.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, though!  There are some patches that for reasons beyond my comprehension are a totally different shade.  Still pretty!