Not wanting to “waste” expensive fresh berries on dyeing yarn – or rather be chastised by my household for doing so – I decided to see what would happen if I used frozen mixed berries.
( Details of the process... )
I got this beautiful purple-gray color as a result:
Really pleased. Am knitting it into a handspun wingspan shawl for myself.
This week I’ve been spinning MOAR BFL from that 1 lb. bag I got from a local farm. It is SO SOFT I WANT TO SQUISH IT ALL THE TIME. I am going to be spoilt for other fibers I tell you.) I also spun the last ounce or so of some alpaca I’d gotten at, of all places, a garden market. (The farmers were there with their alpacas and I marched up to them and went, “Do you have fiber for spinning?” It was great! They did, obviously.)
Then I dyed the fiber I spun, some of it with natural dyes even! All was attempted with natural dyes, but the avocado did not cooperate, so that yarn got dyed with other dye I had on hand. Oh well, one can’t have everything.
Four hanks of yarn, two dyed shades of pink and two shades of cream/beige.
The beige one on the left was dyed with paprika, which the website I found said would result in a “pale orange” color. Well, I was not expecting *that* pale an orange, but it works for me. The beige one on the bottom of the pale on the right is still wet; I dyed it with yellow day lilies from my neighbor’s garden. I was expecting a slightly different color, but it works with the others so I’m happy.
(pictured here above: yarn dyed by my nephews; a wound ball of green/yellow/blue done by the 7 year old and a hank of red done by the 4 year old.)
A few months ago my brother and his family came to visit, which included my two lovely nephews aged 4 and 7. As part of their trip, I began my insidious plan to help them appreciate the fiber arts. Step 1 was having them dye their own yarn. The 7 year old elected for food coloring, and the 4 year old was delighted to use Kool Aide to dye yarn.
Now comes part two of the Master Plan – somewhat delayed by other works in progress, a ton of spinning, life, health, pick an excuse. I am going to (attempt to) knit them the object of their choosing using the yarn that they knit.
They were *very* specific. The 7 year old wants a very special hat, and he even drew me a design. (Trust me, that is getting framed or something.) The 4 year old wants…a fire truck. We shall see what I can do with that. (There’s a crochet pattern for fire trucks on Ravelry, but I think it’s beyond my crochet skills. So…we’ll see how this goes! I think I will basically make a rectangle and embellish it with wheels, etc.)
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