Digital knitting pattern for the Fabel Knitwear Antiquity Blouse. The PDF includes both the Norwegian and English version, and a separate Korean version! The Antiquity Blouse is inspired by a popular style of blouse from c.1916 – 1918. It’s knit bottom up in a solid yarn, with an elegant lace pattern around the hem and at the front panel. The sleeves are picked up in mohair for that flowy look, ending in solid twisted rib cuffs with bobbles imitating buttons. The collar is picked up in mohair and finished with a picot edge. Needles: 3mm, 3,5mm & 4mm Sizes from XS - 4XL
Have you ever wanted to try natural dyeing? It's as easy as raiding your pantry! Check out this step-by-step tutorial for how to dye yarn using black beans to get a gorgeous smokey blue color!
How Not To Dye Wool Yarn Plus a lot of […]
Make a colorful, free-form doodle weaving using a homemade cardboard loom. Simple enough for kids, teens, and adults alike!
Congratulations to imwalton, our winner for this month's blog giveaway! We will be in touch with you shortly to arrange for the delivery of your prize. If cabin fever is starting to set in this winter, why not try dyeing your own yarn to add some color to your next project? It's easier than you think - in fact, you might have everything you need already in your kitchen! Here, we've used sugar-free Kool-Aid to dye a multi-colored skein of yarn and will show you how to do your own at-home dyeing with minimal mess. Supplies: 1 skein of undyed yarn. We've used Beth, a blend of 30% US Merino Wool, 20% Silk and 50% Alpaca from Kraemer Yarns, which already has several ties on the skein to keep skeins tidy throughout the dye process. Click here to see their many undyed yarn options! Packets of sugar-free Kool-Aid in a variety of flavors. We've chosen Pink Lemonade, Strawberry & Grape to create a Valentine's Day-inspired colorway; click here to see the colors produced by each flavor on the Knitty blog archive. 3 bowls (for mixing dye). Microwave-safe dish. Make sure that your entire skein of yarn can fit comfortably without the colors touching. Gloves. Dish Soap. Spoon for mixing. Newsprint or brown craft paper (to cover your work area). Dyeing Your Yarn: 1. Mix each flavor of Kool-Aid in its own bowl with hot water. For our colorway, we mixed 1 c. hot water with 1 packet of Pink Lemonade, 2 c. hot water with 2 packets of Strawberry, and 2 c. hot water with 2 packets of Grape. Stir with spoon to ensure that powder is thoroughly dissolved, then add a dash of dish soap to each bowl and give it another quick stir (the soap will help to work the dye through your skein of yarn). 2. Take one end of the skein and dip it into your first bowl of dye. Gently work the dye through with your gloved hand in a "massaging" motion. 3. Take the middle of the skein and dip it into the next bowl of dye, again massaging the dye throughout the skein with your gloved hand. 4. Take the other end of the skein and dip it into your final bowl of dye, working the dye through the skein with your gloved hand. 5. Now, begin massaging your yarn to incorporate more of the undyed skein into each color section like so: 6. Allow the skein to set in the bowls for a few more moments, then transfer to your microwave-safe dish carefully, gently squeezing to remove excess dye from each color section as you do so. Make sure to go from light to dark in order to protect the lighter color as much as possible. 7. Heat set the dye by microwaving for 1-2 minutes (find more info on how to heat set your yarn here; there are also guidelines for heat setting dye in a conventional oven found here). 8. Remove your yarn and allow to cool down before the next step - you want to avoid shocking the fibers from hot to cold, which could cause accidental felting. 9. Rinse in cool water, either by hand or in a top-loading washing machine which allows you to skip to the spin part of the cycle. If rinsing by hand, gently remove excess water by squeezing skein gently, then wrapping in a fluffy towel to remove remaining moisture. Hang to dry, or lay flat on Knitter's Pride Blocking Mats, if you prefer. Note: If this is your first time dyeing, or if you are just unsure whether or not you have correctly heat set the dye, we recommend testing a small section of the skein under running water first before immersing the entire thing. If your dye was heat set correctly, you will not see any dye in the water at this stage. It will be easier to return to step 7 to re-set the dye if you have only rinsed a tiny section! Once your skein is dry, you can look for the the perfect pattern for your new creation! Our Naturalz needles are a great choice for this colorful yarn! Like this post? Pin it!
by Janet AvilaWhile I was in Rwanda visiting Handspun Hope, I got to see how the cotton yarn is made.
Explore ashleyjewelry's 7586 photos on Flickr!
Learn how to dye yarn naturally using our easy method and common items like red cabbage, beets, and avocado—all beautiful colors for your knitting.
Use my simple, step by step recipe to naturally dye wool yarn with wild plants found in your area.
by Janet AvilaWhile I was in Rwanda visiting Handspun Hope, I got to see how the cotton yarn is made.
I decided (in lieu of my normal Wednesday links) I'd share a tutorial for my awesome DIY yarn swift, as well as the links to the projects that helped me arrive at my final product. This swift combines all the best attributes of the other DIY swifts I liked, without as many setbacks. It's sturdy as heck, spins on ball bearings, adjusts to hold a skein as small as one yard or bigger than three yards (this was a requirement specific to my large skein niddy noddy - enormous skeins are great for dyeing), can be disassembled for storage, and cost me about $12. Get the tutorial and links after the jump! You need: A used wooden lazy susan - there were four for under $7 at my favourite thrift store, I'm sure you can find one on the cheap. New ones aren't terribly expensive either, and generally cost less than the hardware required to build one (seriously, wtf right?). Two pieces of 2x2 wood, 42" long. I used the cheapest finger jointed fir - it's a mess to work with, but it's cheap as chips and this swift is very large and isn't pretty enough to leave out anyway. Word to the wise: finished 2X2 isn't actually 2" by 2" - about 1/2" is lost when the wood is milled. Four 8" lengths of 3/8" dowel. 4 bolts about 3" long, with matching nuts and washers. A drill. Clamps, if you have them. Either a saw, hammer and chisel, or a table saw and dado blade. Start by finding the centre of your 42" 2x2's, and find the actual dimensions of the piece of wood (most likely 1 1/2"). Cut a dado (notchy thing) at the very centre of each piece. The dado should be as wide as the 2x2, and half that measurement deep. The two pieces fit together in this joint and should lie flat. The dado joint for my swift was done (by my dad...) on a table saw, but this swift tutorial shows you how to do it with a handsaw and chisel. Find the centre of your lazy susan. Draw yourself a guideline along the diameter of the lazy susan, and draw a second diameter line perpendicular to the first. Drill four holes (big enough for your bolts to go through), one on each line, and each the same distance (in my case, 6 1/2") from the centre mark where the two diameter lines meet. On your 2x2's, measure and mark in both directions from the centre point the same distance you measured from the centre point on the lazy susan to where you drilled the holes. On one side of the bottom 2x2 (I determined which was top and bottom by which side, when they were jointed together, had a slightly nicer finish), drill all the way through at this mark. It's important to drill this hole vertically. Line up the hole with one of the holes on the lazy susan and bolt them together, loosely enough that the 2x2 can swing a bit from the bolted point. Next we drill the other three bolt holes. Start by lining up the mark you just made on the other side of the centre point of your bottom 2x2 with the hole in the lazy susan opposite the bolted point. Clamp the 2x2 in place, and drill through both the lazy susan and the 2x2, using the hole you already have in your lazy susan as a guide. Slide a bolt in and secure it tightly. Now take your top 2x2 and line it up at the dado joint. Do your best to line up the marks you measured from the centre with the holes on the lazy susan (perfection is optional here - mine is half assed and it works great). Clamp everything, and drill again; use the holes on the lazy susan as a guide and try to drill as vertically as possible. Put in your bolts. This is what it should look like now, from the bottom: Important step for your later sanity: Mark both the top and the bottom piece with an arrow that corresponds to the same mark on the lazy susan. Unless you are a measuring and drilling genius, it isn't all quite centred and will only go back together after disassembly in one way. Marking the correct way saves you the trial and error later. Now, take the bolts out and set them aside, along with the lazy susan. Put your 3/8" bit in your drill (or whatever size corresponds to your dowels, if you've chosen to go smaller) and grab one of the 2x2's. Find out which side will face up when the swift is assembled, and measure and mark 1" in from both ends. Measure and mark a further 3", 6", 9" and 12" in from the 1" mark. Drill about halfway through the 2x2 at each mark - these are the holes your dowels will sit in to hold your yarn, so if they go all the way through, you may have problems getting your dowel to stay in the swift. Drilling 3/8" holes is a pain in the wrist - to prevent your drill from catching and twisting your wrist, you may want to predrill with a smaller bit first. Go slowly and be careful. Clean up, put your tools away and assemble your swift! Throw some yarn on there and wind away. Notes about this swift: It's ugly. I know. Put it in the closet when it's not being used - it's easy to take apart. It's a good idea to store the bolts in the holes in the 2x2's - then they won't get lost. It's heavy. This means that when it gets going, it doesn't really want to stop, and the smooth ball bearing action only encourages this. If you need to stop winding, reach out and stop the swift, otherwise it will keep going and snag your yarn. Also, if your kids are about face height with the arms of the swift, for god's sake don't let them near it when it gets going. You'll feel like a jerk, and they'll feel like a kid with a broken nose. Most lazy susans don't have enclosed ball bearings, so yarn could get sangged in there if you aren't careful. Ball bearings are covered with grease. Unless you want your yarn to be as well, keep it away. Those 2x2's will stand you in good stead, come the zombie apocalypse. Here are a few links to the swift projects I looked at before deciding to make this one: I took most of my inspiration from this tutorial, but I didn't like the point of rotation - not smooth enough for my tastes. This one is awesome and rather pretty, but I didn't have a porch umbrella lying around. It also can't go nearly as big. This one isn't sturdy enough for my tastes, but hey, a swift is a swift and as long as it works... This is certainly the cheapest DIY swift I've seen, but again, not so sturdy. As an indie dyer I wind a LOT of skeins and I needed something that could survive a great deal of abuse. There! You are armed with all the knowledge you need to have your very own yarn swift, for less than the cost of lunch with the girls.
Since I’ve gotten into dyeing yarn, I’ve needed a way to wind previously wound yarn balls into skein hanks in order to dye them. I don’t own a yarn swift (one of those wooden acco…
Beachy Colorful Hand Dyed Bulky Weight Yarn! Great for felting or knit hats/mittens and craft projects! This yarn cake is Not soft enough for next to skin projects. I hand dyed this thick felting yarn in shades of pink, gold, lilac, copper, blue, and green. It weighs 3.5 oz and is approximately 105 yards, single ply no twist - 100% wool (slightly fuzzy). US 10 knitting needle or larger US J crochet hook 7 WPI Hand soak (no agitation) in room temperature water to wash and dry flat. Already wound up and ready for your project!
...is so fantastic!! My genius husband made me this electric skein winder! It has saved me so much time, I use to re-skein my dyed yarns with a niddy-noddy, but no more! It is so wonderful, I love it so much! It was my Mother's Day gift, the best yet! My husband made a video, scroll down to watch it! Here I will post questions asked about the skeiner just in case you have the same! Q: What is that on the shaft of the sewing machine motor? Some kind of rubber cap to grip the wheel; but what specifically? A: The motor came off the sewing machine with a plastic pulley that was driving the belt. So I picked a piece of rubber hose that would go over the pulley for a better grip with the main wheel. Q: The flat metal length with the spring, what is its job? A: The metal bar is supporting the motor and the spring serves as a tensioner to make sure that there is contact between the motor pulley and the main wheel at all times. The main wheel is not perfectly round so that's why it requires a tensioner.
Hey you! Today I'm finishing off my at-home yarn dyeing series, and I'm talking all about Kool-Aid dyeing. (You can find the post about black bean dyeing here , and other natural dyeing experiments here )
By Jamie Marie Chan After I watched Becky Stern's Ask Craft video about plying yarns, I was inspired to try plying some of my scrap commercial yarns
by Janet AvilaWhile I was in Rwanda visiting Handspun Hope, I got to see how the cotton yarn is made.
Art Yarn Bundle - 235g of beautiful bulky yarns. In this bundle there are two art yarns, a hand dyed recycled sari yarn, and three hand dyed yarns. These yarns make great art weaving yarns, as well as for bulky crochet, knitting, and lots of other fiber arts. You will get the exact same bundle shown in the photos We have other bundles available in other colours and sizes. * Our Patreon crafts community - https://www.patreon.com/LeaandElfie With different tiers of lovely options to choose from, crafts community, projectalongs, craftalongs, goodie bags/boxes, postcards, amongst other things. * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lea_and_elfie/ * Our Patreon crafts community: https://www.patreon.com/LeaandElfie * Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeaWildCreative * Find Lea's page on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/leawilliamsartstudio/ * www.littlepentre.co.uk For more handweaving, clothing, jewellery, dreads & accessories, please see the rest of our shop here www.etsy.com/uk/shop/tinkertailoruk (5)
Where to start? On the whole, you were very good to me. The Blue Brick officially became a business We spent a beautiful summer bringing our resin jewelry to art shows across Southern Ontario I wro…
We've just returned from a bit of a research holiday around Herefordshire and Wales so it has been a long time since I posted on this blog. ...
It’s the most unexpected way to brighten up your entryway … and, of course, add major curb appeal.
I recently dyed yarn with avocados for the first time and I can’t believe I waited so long to try this out! I shared the entire experience and step-by-step tutorial on Instagram here and it continues with rounds 3 and 4 here! I absolutely fell in love with this process. It’s simple, easy, and so...
Since I’ve gotten into dyeing yarn, I’ve needed a way to wind previously wound yarn balls into skein hanks in order to dye them. I don’t own a yarn swift (one of those wooden acco…
Explore our easy knitting patterns for beginners that are sure to hone your skills without being too intimidating.
The Alaskan Lupine (Lupinus nootkatensis) is one of those invasive species that are impossible to eradicate. But it is pretty with it's blue and violet flowers and it does give great colour as a dye plant. The leaves will give a good yellow, but it is the flowers that are more interesting because they give very bright and beautiful greens. Most of the time lime green. I got some pretty amazing colours this summer. I went with my daughter to pick them down by the river where they grow in frightening abundance. We picked the darkest coloured flowers that we could find and stripped them from the stalks. We were careful to remove all leaves, because we didn't want too much of the yellow colour. After picking a few full plastic bags we went home and dumped them into a large pot and filled it up with water. The flowers simmered for over an hour and then was left to cool a bit before squeezing all the liquid from the flowers. The liquid is a very deep wine colour, but the most common colour that comes out of the dyeing in a strong lime green. It never ceases to amaze me, the tricks that colour plays in this process. I used alpaca yarn to dye, skeins of 50g /1,8oz. I've been using that for most of my dyeing lately, since I want to knit a soft and comfy sweater. The Icelandic wool isn't necessarily what one wants next to the skin. Since I didn't have any pre-mordanted yarn, I decided to mordant simultaneously with the dyeing, something which I haven't done before. And because I am forgetful I first dumped wetted yarn into the pot and started to heat it up gently (it's important to take at least an hour to heat wool up to the 80-90°C / 180-200°F or so that is needed to dye) only to realize that I had completely forgotten to put in the mordant. I added 10% (5 gr.) alum and 2% (1 gr.) cream of tartar, which I dissolved in hot water. And then proceeded to heat up the liquid to about 85°C / 190°F. I kept that temperature for an hour. When I lifted the yarn out of the pot, I was floored by the turquoise colour that I got. I have never seen a colour like that from Lupine, so I wasn't about to chance loosing by letting it stay in the dye liquid any longer. Therefore I didn't let the yarn sit and cool, but took it up and let it air cool before washing it out in clear water and some detergent. The second skein I put into the dye liquid turned a very pretty green, I added the same amount of mordant to the dye liquid. And finally I put in a third skein and got a lighter green. Now I had to repeat this to see if I could replicate the colour. I was a bit nervous since I had not really been careful to write everything down as soon as I did it. That is a big mistake in dyeing. Really, seriously. One needs to take very careful notes and write everything that one does, times, tempertures, any deviations from the norm. Just write everything down. I had to try to replicate what I had done and write down every step of the way and lo and behold, I did manage to get almost the same colour. I haven't tested it to see how lightfast it is. I guess I should do that. I did however see a shawl that someone had done with beautiful yellows from lupine and greens from lupine overdyed with indigo. And there was no sign of fading in that. However, I realize that the flower colours are the ones that are the most likely to fade in strong sunlight. But on the bright side, there has been very little sun here this summer, so that isn't such a huge problem anyway.
