Wednesday, November 18, 2009


I bought a bag of wool from my local op shop, around 1kg for $6, which was too good a deal to pass up. However, there were no labels and it was all just wound in balls. But I figured it was probably wool, and being a light grey, I could dye it. So I set about dyeing about 300g of it green using food colouring.

I used the first method described here. I love using my slow cooker to dye wool because it is super super easy, but its not really a method for getting exact colours. If you have a very clear idea of how you want your yarn to look once its dyed, this method is probably not for you. I'm much more of a 'throw it in the slow cooker and see what happens' kind of girl so its great for me. Initially I had wanted a darker green than I got, and I was a little disappointed with the wool when it came out of the slow cooker. But as it dried I got more and more excited about it, and now I'm sold on the colour. I've got another 100g soaking so that I can dye it a light blue/purple so we'll see how that goes with the green.

Sunday, November 8, 2009


I finished knitting my first yarn swap jersey and I'm quite pleased with how it came out. I'm still not 100% sold on the verigation in the yarn, but it looks nice in the jersey. The pattern was Baby sock sweater by Amy King, and it was really easy to follow. The sizing is on the small side, I did 3-6months but really should have done larger. However that did give me plenty of yarn to do other things with.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

I received an amazing swap. My wool was not only hand dyed, but also handspun. It was thick and thin merino dyed in shades of blue and green. My partner chose waves as her kiwiana theme.

Not only did I receive the great wool, but I was also very spoilt to receive some awesome gifts as well. I got a cloth nappy making kit, all the fabric and notions I would need, a hair clip for P and some gorgeous hand painted breast pads.


The red and yellow is my buzzy bee swap. My swappee was really pleased with it as well.

I have already wound my yarn into a ball and started knitting a headband for myself out of it. I can't wait to see how it turns out.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...