July in Review

I have begun a set of small scale tapestry shapes to contribute to this totally awesome international project.

I had a dye day with a new friend, as my way of thanking her for a gift of yarns from her stash that she wanted to go to a good home.  I supplied the dye and process and she brought some cotton (she makes GORGEOUS quilts) She went home with a wide variety of fat quarters and I dyed a few cotton skirts, some cotton chenille, and size 30 crochet thread.

I got my mini cards from MOO. I am SO HAPPY with them.  I got 40 each of ten designs from photos I took of my tapestries.  ALL of them turned out with vivid colour and sharpness and the weight and finish of the stock is gorgeous.  I can't stop touching them. 

oh my yes!

A girlfriend of mine from high school just had her first baby and it's a girl!  I wanted to make her something simple yet unique as a shower gift.   I am so pleased with it I have decided to write out the pattern, and modify it to make pant legs as well. 

 

I made the  straps adjustable, flipped the long ends up and buttoned them twice to take care of the extra length and I like the way that looks!  It's a very simple pattern and quick to knit so I am going to get that written and make it available free to anyone who wants to try it. 

 The yarn is Eco-fil 75%cotton 25%acrylic (loosely spun) I found at Dollar Tree.  It was super soft (perfect for baby projects) and came in a range of colours not typically found in baby yarn so I stocked up!

In the land of inkle I have been pumping out the yardage to play with this autumn.  I am gong to try to make a vest, some more handbags and decorations, and possibly a hat.  I'm also kicking back into gear making guitar straps because I've had a few inquiries and nudges lately.  :)

 

This last one is 2.5" wide and 6 feet long.  I am going to weave one more similar one with another band of basketweave pick-up in a different colour and then stitch them together to a fabric base (my favorite technique) and make either a handbag or a vest.

 

One other announcement I forgot to make here in June was that "Bloom" was awarded the Gale Steck Memorial Award for Excellence in Craft by and Emerging Artist!!  It was an honor to receive this award (my first!) and I must confess it was the final fire under my bottom to get moving on the next big tapestry, which is currently threaded, tensioned, twined, border woven...just waiting for that first commitment of colour.  ;p  

Do you have something cast on, or otherwise begun that you would like to share?  I love discovering new art/craft blogs!  Link me!

Thank you for taking a peek!

♥

JQ

Adventures in Crochet

 If you know me you know that I am constantly wishing I had more arms.  Like an octopus.  Or like  two octopuses stuck together.  But not in the Discovery channel way.
Annnnd now that I've ooged you out...

Fall is one of my two top productive time periods because I enjoy giving hand made gifts at Christmas.  This past fall was especially productive because we were living in a temporary home without any internet. So I went crochet crazy! 

 These are coasters I made for my sister in law in her two favorite colours.

 

Each one was an experiment so that I could learn a new thing, or try combining things.

And the rainbow wiggle crochet coasters were made for my brother. Those are all wiggled differently too, mainly so that I wouldn't get bored.

 

I thought wiggle crochet would lend itself neatly to a bracelet, so I gave it a try!  This one was a treat for myself and I wear it often.

Hot pads! (are they called trivets?)

These are one of a kind. The backs are crocheted solid, some just one colour and some in a gradient. and the front is made with filet crochet and/or motif that allows the back to be seen.  I really like this idea, and plan to do more.  It's a wonderful way to bust my stash, and keep my distract-y brain from getting bored, because I am changing colours fairly often, and using different motifs every time.  I dye a lot of in between colours myself, which helps me do gradients. Pretty much every time I have a dye bath going I toss in a skein of crochet thread (or six) for fun. 

 I made two sets as well, done with Irish crochet roses at the center. My absolute favorite to do was the rainbow one. For my colour changes I crocheted in all the ends as I went so it wasn't a chore at the end. 

 And lastly, I am currently working on small wiggle crochet table runner/hot pad thingy for myself. I'm using Clea Fiesta for this bad boy.  More rainbow-y goodness!  I confess I am finding it slightly tedious, because it is all double crochet around and around and around... but it's a great take along project, and we do a fair bit of driving.

Thank you very much or stopping by!  

A quick question before I go: Do you have a favorite crafting colour combination or, if it changes like mine, what is your current one?

Happy creating!

♥

JQ

Dying Balls of Crochet Thread!

FUN TIMES ALERT!

I have been really excited about an idea I had for dying my cotton crochet thread while it was wound in a ball.Crochet thread is my number one resource, because it is inexpensive and I use it in so many ways including: weaving on my floor loom, inkle looms, incorporating it into tapestries, knitting lace and various crochet projects.  Suffice to say I have heaps of it stashed, and a great deal of that is cream, white, or ecru. 

I found this tutorial for the process I basically want to try, except instead of with wool, which you need to do on the stove, I will be using cotton, and just dying it in ice cream pails with fairly hot water.

My happy little balls of crochet thread.  They measured roughly 2.5-3.5 inches in diameter:

 

I mix my dye powder (Procion MX ) into boiling water until it is completely dissolved.  I do this outdoors with a dust mask and gloves.  Once the dye powder is dissolved the particles won't go airborne and I can safely bring the dye back into my kitchen.  I never use the same supplies for dying as I use for cooking/eating.  

I made turquoise, fuchsia, bright yellow, and navy:

I mixed together very hot water, washing soda, salt and a little bit of calgon in ice cream pails until they were completely dissolved. Then I poured in the dye.  Some buckets I just used the dye solutions from one yogurt container, and for a few I mixed them.  For example, to get the indigo skein I added a bit of fuchsia to my navy bath.  For the forest green one I added some bright yellow to navy.

Below are plain turquoise and plain navy baths:

Below is the indigo yarn prior to rinsing.  It looks fairly purple, but some of the fuchsia rinsed away leaving me with my indigo. I think there were two reasons my fuchsia didn't strike the cotton fully.  I didn't leave the ball in the dye bath for a full 40 minutes, and there is also a probability that my dyes are expiring.  I don't use them fast enough. 

I had to wrap my umbrella swift up in plastic because I was unwinding each ball into a skein so that I could properly rinse out all the dye.  This is where a PVC Niddy Noddy would come in seriously handy.  Gonna have to get on that. 

All the skeins!  I love the way they look.

As you can see below, I pretty much CAN'T do a dye day without grabbing as many random pre-made skeins I can find and tossing them into the pails alongside the actual experiment.  This gives me a fun array of miscellaneous colours to play with any way I like.  It turns out several of them will work nicely in my next tapestry project (I am on pins and needles right now as I prepare to thread that bad boy up for round 2). 

Balls of pretty thread waiting to become triangular shawlettes:

I chose to stop here with the balls being very close to white at one end, but on my next run I plan to re-wind each ball with the lighter end on the outside and set them in a second dye bath, so that I have a colour on each end that hopefully meld together near the middle.  This way I can orchestrate it so that I have, say, 6 finished skeins that blend from: purple to blue (1), blue to green(2), green to yellow(3) and so on through to red. YAY RAINBOWS!

For my first experiment I chose to knit a scarf using this fabulous One Row Scarf pattern, and the indigo blue and forest green skeins (my trial runs).  My idea was to start with the indigo at one end, knit until it ran out, then begin with the lighter end of the green skein and knit to forest green at the other: 

NEAT!  I have since finished off this blue , and just picked up with the lighter end of the forest green ball.  It is incredibly difficult to pick up on the join, because the lighter ends of both balls are almost identical.  However when I hold the light end up to the original ball of cotton I took it from, the color difference is quite apparent.  So even though the balls were wound tightly the dye did seep in and change even the innermost cotton.

I am pretty excited to see how this weaves up including: on the floor loom, possibly in combination with a painted warp; on the inkle loom so that the warp changes colours in vertical stripes; and in tapestry, where I think it could be very useful alone, or in combination with several solid threads to add a bit of interest.  Also, I recently figured out knitting entrelac, which I think this process would work for!

All in all this was a tremendous success, and I learned several things!  In the future I will use only tightly wound balls and try to keep them in the dye bath for the full recommended time.  I like the crisper speckled effect for this technique, so for the most part I will refrain from wetting out the thread prior to dying.  I can get smoother gradients from the mini-skein/mason jar technique (below).  

I'm also super excited to try:

-Winding five or six short skeins, where the yarn isn't cut in between them as seen here.

-Wool yarn on the stove as seen here, here, and here. 

-Same process as above with a wool cake, but dying it in quarters.  COOL effect!

-Long Colorways using mason jars and Kool-Aid! Here.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!  I am always excited to get feedback, so if you have any comments or questions about my process just leave me a scribble!

♥

JQ

Celtic Braid Inkle

I finally finished this! I often find pick-up and overshot patterns too tedious and still love the act of plain-jane tabby the best...but IT'S SO PRETTY.

I hand dyed the dishcloth cotton that was used for the pattern threads with short colour changes, using those sponge brushes. Then I lined up the colours as best I could on my inkle loom. There is always a little ikat-like push and pull because of the way the string heddles influence the yarn. On a separate note, I've found that if I do horizontal bar pattern using variegated for one stripe and solid for the other I get a comparatively smooth-looking transition. So if you have a pick-up pattern that calls for the horizontal bar structure as a base, variegated can be ultra sharp.

If anyone is curious about my technique for hand painting my cotton for inkles, just buzz me a note and I will set up a little picture tutorial!

I've been busy prepping for a weekend workshop on basic inkle weaving. It's going to be so much fun! I love teaching, and sharing in creativity with other people! I hope one day soon to have a large studio space on an acreage outside the city, where I can host retreats for all kinds of wonderful fiber related adventures. It's been my dream since I graduated from ACAD, and it might be within my reach sooner than I ever imagined!

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! Are you celebrating St patty's tonight? If so, please have a green beer or an Irish Car Bomb for me! I'm going to have to settle for some green candies or perhaps do some rolled dough clover cookies! At least the morning sickness is passing! :)

Happy creating!

♥
JQ