Sunday 24 April 2011

Happy Easter!

Nothing says happiness like a bit of homemade-ness, so here's some Easter cheer!


I knitted the rabbit and needle felted the egg, but the little chicks are some of the mass produced fluff ones that are all over shops this time of year- but they're too cute to resist :)


And a couple of trays of chocolate shredded wheat nests with mini (very mini) eggs. Easter nests are a bit of a tradition and this year's are pretty good!

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Projects in Hand

A slightly Work-in-Progress based post today- mostly because I've got so many going at one time and I'm excited about all of them!


First off is my quilt blocks for a king-sized quilt I'm planning using Oliver + S City Weekend fabric from Moda. The colours and prints are amazing and I've got some co-ordinating blue for spacing blocks and edging- so I'll have to get my maths on for that part.



Next is my almost completed 'Tulip Top' from Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar , only it's done in Patons cotton in Pomegranate and will have a Sage trim . The yarn is lovely and it's been a pretty quick knit for me- but it's also a good example of how rubbish my maths is (not that it's too noticeable, but it doesn't bode well for the quilt!).

I'm also going to have a go at making the Study Hall Skirt from Anna Maria Horner which I'm doing in V&A Quilting fabric with pink cotton contrast. I'm a bit of a sucker for pleated skirts, so if it goes well I may do a more winter weight one with some lovely cranberry corduroy I've got.


Finally a completed project in the Cath Kidston spoon competition, which John has also entered and is definately worth a look!

On the downside I think my camera has busted with over 5 years worth of service so it may be time for a new one!

Sunday 10 April 2011

Kool Aid: The Return

Following my first post about dyeing yarn with Kool Aid I've been desperate to try more, so I picked up some cheap Kool Aid in mixed colours from ebay and a couple of skeins of Alpaca/Wool/Nylon mix 4ply yarn from DT Crafts, which is wonderfully soft.

(Yarn skeins soaking in water and washing up liquid)

My first colour way was 2 sachets of Lemonade, 2 Sachets of Orange and 2 Sachets of Strawberry.

I wasn't expecting the Strawberry to be so strong- I sort of wish I'd only used one sachet, but the colour looks nice, it's just pretty strong. Lemonade seems like a bit of a duff colour- it's very pale and so almost got completely drowned out by the stronger colours- a mix of lemonade and a more orangey yellow like mango might have gone over better. I dyed that lot in the same way as the previous batch, but was a bit more 'rough' with the mixing so that the yarn was more evenly coloured. The second skein I dyed with 2 sachets of Grape (although I bought three, but didn't need the third), 2 sachets of Cherry and 2 of Ice Blue Rasberry Lemonade.This one I 'painted' with the dye, instead of mixing in the saucepan, and it worked really nicely. It's more controlled than just pouring over the wool, but I'd probably use newspaper to lay it out on next time. (Please try to ignore the kitchen debris- I should have made more of a tidying up effort!)



I love the contrast between these colours- the cherry is a nice deeper red than the strawberry.


With all the nice weather we've been having lately it was perfect weather for drying.


John's taken a more 'arty' picture of the yarn drying so I'll post that with the photos of the wound yarn later, when he gets around to sending me the pictures.

I think one ball will be for socks and the other for a lacy scarf.


This is so addictive- I've already started gathering some more Kool Aid together for a one colour dyeing, hopefully of a lot of wool to knit a jumper or something out of- exciting!