The Dyeing's Done

Dyeing For Norwegian Sweater KAL << Main >> Some Knitting

Hi, All, Happy 2008. Hope everybody made it. :)

I've been busy. Yesterday, I ordered my Reconditioned AVL loom. Here are the specs:

1994 60" Full-Frame Production Dobby Loom 16 Harnesses, Polyester Heddles, Compu-Dobby I,Mechanical Dobby, Dobby Bars, Peg & Peg Wrench, 4-Box Flyshuttle, Overhead Swing Beater, 1-Yard Sectional Warp Beam. It should ship out on Feb. 18.

All I can say is WHOOHOO!!!!


I've got the yarn all dyed. Here's all the skeins. It turned out better than I hadp hoped.


These four pics are one ball that I shot from four different sides.




The colors just leap right out. I think it will look pretty good when it's knit up. Now I am just waiting for the KAL to start. We will be making a headband "swatch". I still have to pick up which motifs I will use. I have the "Starmore" Fair Isle book and "The Complete Book of Traditional Fair Isle Knitting" to look through. Too many choices.

I've been working on the grandkid's hoodie in my off moments. It's coming along slowly but surely. Pardon the awful colors...I took this last night around midnight.



Well, it's off to the salt mines. I've got to ratchet up the organizing here if I'm going to have any room for the loom. It's going to be a loooooong month and a half. Can't wait. Take care, All.

Dyeing for Norwegian Sweater KAL

Almost Done << Main >> The Dyeing's Done

Hi all. I hope everybody had a good holiday.

I have been resting up so I could tackle the dyeing of the contrast color for the Norwegian Sweater KAL. Things take me three times longer to do these days. I thought I could call my friend to see if she wanted to come by and do some dyeing while I had all the stuff out, but the times I felt up to doing it were in the middle of the night. It took me an entire evening just to wind of the one pound of yarn into 4 hanks. That took me out of commission for a couple of days. Then, it took me most of yesterday just to get set up.


I stared playing with the colors around 6 pm and it was 4 am by the time I had painted the skeins and had them wrapped for steaming. I was toast and I slept all day today until 5 pm. I'm not sure if leaving the "uncooked" skeins full of acid will be good for the yarn, but we'll see. I finally was able to get them steamed by 9 pm. I'm letting them sit until tomorrow and will wash and rinse them then. I'm hoping to have gotten the jewel tones I was looking for. The color on the bottom photo look pretty close to the actual colors. I think they will look good no matter what color they turn out to be. I did take notes, so I should be able to recreate it if I want.

When I first started dyeing, I made 64 half-ounce samples of the mix ratios of my three primary colors and their values. It sure has helped me when I have wanted to do dye certain colors. Saves a lot of time and supplies. I still want to take the time to do more samples. The basics are good but not near enough. That might be a good summer project so I can do it outside. Right now, my worktable is the concrete floor, which isn't so bad, but all the cups of dye just wait to be kicked over while I'm working. I lucked out last night.

I'm hoping to hear about the loom I was looking at first thing on Wednesday. I left another e-mail of questions, but they are on holiday until the 2nd. I'm really excited and impatient. I will post pictures and info as soon as it's "mine". I don't want to jinx it. :)

Well, I hope all who celebrate New Year's Eve have a safe and happy time and to all, have the best year ever.

Busy Week

What a week. I've had no chance to work on any spinning stuff, and only about 45 minutes to knit on my wimple.

Spent my birthday on Wednesday running errands for my ailing step-dad while he was in Alaska visiting my brother. Checked his house again and there was a horrible stench! I checked out his fridge and tossed some green stuff, washed his extremely moldy coffee maker and it still stunk in there. I just couldn't figure where it was coming from. Then I decided to check the oven. I found what was left of a 3 pound pork roast that had never been cooked putrefying. It had been in there at least 2 weeks. Gag!

The GOOD thing that day was when I got home, my son, who is a mushroom fanatic, gave me The Rainbow Beneath My Feet

I can't wait to go "shrooming" and trying this out.

Today, I'm going to try and comb the brown Cotswold fleece for my shawl before the grand-girl gets here. 5-pitch English combs and 2-year olds don't mix. Have a great day.

The Mailman was here!!!!!!

Yipeee! I feel like a kid in a candy store. I'm not usually on to order knitting books anymore. I really have a ton and I usually only buy "Technique" book and make up my own patterns. Well, here are some of my latetest purchaces from Amazon




Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller. It's loaded with techniques and stitch libraries.





Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off for laughs.





Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook I got this mostly to see how the instructions and writing are to see if I want to order their new book Twisted Sisters Knit-to-Fit Workshop when it comes out in September.



And, last but not least:





4 pounds of dye and 5 pounds of citric acid from PRO Chemical and 4 1-quartand 10 16-ounce squirt bottles from Dharma Trading Co.

Dyeing is Fun

I love dyeing. As I'm waiting for my orders from Dharma Trading Co. and PRO Chemical to get here, I thought I'd post some things I did a few months ago.


This is 4-1/2 ounces of Acid dyed superwash DK weight Merino. I think it says "Socks".

This is some Superwash DK Merino that I had left over from an EZ Baby Surprise Jacket that I mad for my friend Terri's little girl. Very comfy.

This is some Kool-Aid dyed Corriedale that I spun up and used to make a hat for my hubby.





This is some more Kool-Aid dyed Corriedale that I spun.




I thought that the purple tweed was really boring, so I plying it with some hand spun blue acid dyed Corriedale. I like it much better.






Here is a Kool-Aid dyed hand spun bulky Corriedale that I made into some of EZ's "Re-treads".






Some Kool-Aid dyed Superwash Fingering Merino that became socks.

Some acid dyed superwash fingering weight merino. I really would like to make These Socks by Eunny Jang with it.

Acid dyed superwash Worsted weight Merino. Could this be something that Cathy in Oly might like? Hmmmmm.