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

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!

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