Saturday, July 13, 2013

Socks and Shawls

I have been knitting a lot in the past few weeks and am here now to show what I've created. First, here's the shawlette I knit with the miniskeins I dyed with red onion skins. The pattern is Elk Tooth by Caitlin ffrench and I think it looks fabulous striped in these earth tones!

The happy wearer

Blocking - you can see the different colors really well
Then we have another shawl by Caitlin ffrench, Seven and Zero. The blue green yarn of this shawl I also dyed myself, as you may remember, with Kool-aid and blue food coloring. The purple is store bought but looks really good with the blue-green!



Oh, and then there are the socks - are you bored with them yet? First we have Milfoil by Rachel Coopey, and it's knit in the beautiful green I managed to dye with food coloring, onion skins, more food coloring and finally turmeric... They go so well together! I also knit a pair in sport weight Novita Nalle, Koiranputkisukat by Pia Tuononen, an Finnish pattern for a change. But it's also been translated, and available for free on Ravelry.

Milfoil by Rachel Coopey

Milfoil in the forest


Koiranputkisukat by Pia Tuononen


Friday, July 5, 2013

Dyeing with Red Onion Skins

I thought I'd get green. I didn't. But I did get all sorts of beautiful browns, one pretty good ochre and a beautiful pinkish color! I made miniskeins of sport weight Novita Nalle, 75% wool 25% nylon, to test out all kinds of different combinations: I tried adding vinegar, lemon juice, salt and baking soda to my color broth and had a few separate broths with different amounts of onion skins. Finally I dyed Garnstudio Drops Fabel with a lot of onion skins and some vinegar and lemon juice. Here are the results:

Miniskeins!

Miniskeins balled up

Sock yarn!
I have not yet come up with a name for this new beautiful brown sock yarn, any ideas? As for the miniskeins, I've already started to knit something with them. I just couldn't wait, they were so beautiful and looked so good together. I am knitting Caitlin ffrench's Elk Tooth with all the pretty colors, starting with the darkest and ending with the pink - the same order as they are photographed in the first photo. I am knitting the third color now and it looks so good already!


Thursday, July 4, 2013

Beverly Tee

I finished my first project from Knitscene summer 2013, Beverly Tee by Jean Chung. I made mine with two different colors as the base color brown is just too boring... But with the addition of the bright green, I quite like it!






The yarn is Novita Miami, 50% acrylic, 50% cotton. The top is pretty great for summer, as it's knit loosely so wind will go straight through.

I knit a couple more washcloths. I also dyed yarn with red onion skins but I don't have pictures yet, so you'll have to wait to hear more of that experience.

Butterfly washcloth

Single Rose washcloth