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Basic Tutorial: Dyeing Yarn with Cake Paste Dye

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There are various methods you can use to dye your own yarn or project. You can handpaint hanks of yarn, microwave your dyeing project or use a big stove top pot. For actual hanks of yarn, I prefer the stove top method, but if I am dyeing actual projects, I use my oven. My Modus Operanti for (over)dyeing shawls:

I use the basic methods outlined in the links above, but opt for a cake icing dye paste which I bought in a local cake decorating shop. The paste is so concentrated that I need to use only a small amount to dye an entire shawl, thus making it a more economical choice than, say, Kool-Aid (at least if you are in the UK) or commercial food dyes available in your local supermarket. The icing paste also comes in a gazillion colours and you can mix/match to your heart's delight.

For my Echo Flowers Shawl I used half a teaspoon of paste which I dissolved with boiling water and I added citric acid as a mordant. Most dyers use vinegar as it is easier to obtain, but I happened to have some leftover citric acid from some lemonade making. The rest of the dyeing process was straight-forward and I am still very happy with the result.

Completely unrelated: how amused am I to try my hand at Quizlet and getting a B- (75%) score on my Danish language skills? I guess that is what I get for spelling words correctly instead of imitating the quiz master's spelling mistakes. Lumosity is a much better way of wasting time online in an educating and self-improving manner.

And headcold has turned into a real cold. I apologise in advance to anyone meeting me off-line in the next few days. I look and sound like I'm on the edge of death.

The Treasury Project & Thank-Yous

Maybe I am just too geeky for words, but I recently found a very awesome knitting resource: The Walker Treasury Project.

Every knitter knows that Barbara Walker’s Treasuries are indispensable. We use them constantly for designing, for help with a difficult pattern, and for pure inspiration. Sometimes, though, the mostly black-and-white and small pictures keep us from seeing the full potential of a pattern. That’s where the Walker Treasury Project comes in.

We are gathering high-quality, color photos of all the patterns in all the Treasury books (including Mosaic Knitting) and putting them on the internet as a visual aide to this wonderful collection. Help your fellow knitters by choosing a pattern from a particular book, working up a nice big swatch in a light-colored yarn, and posting it to our blog. We can help you label and categorize everything. Also, keep in mind that we’re not posting the pattern, just the picture!

I do not own any of the Treasuries (although I plan on buying them once that big lottery win becomes reality. Hmm, maybe I should start by actually entering..) but I find the entries absorbing. Imagine this lace pattern forming the main part of a stole, this twisted-stitch pattern cries out to be used on socks or maybe sleeves, and this cable-swatch is just beautiful. I could, and I have, spend hours looking through the pictures.

Thank you to everyone who left me a blog comment, a Rav message or even a Facebook thumbs up for my Echo Flowers Shawl. I am currently struggling with a head-cold (damn sinuses) and am not much online, so I'm sorry if I have not gotten back to you. I really appreciate all the kind words and I promise to write a quick introduction to how I overdye/dye those shawls of mine once I get back to my usual self. Dyeing is not difficult and the end results are lovely. Thank you once again.

Finally, I have cast on a secret birthday project. In fact, it is so secret that you can find it on my Ravelry project page (ha!). It is working up so quickly that I have spent a few hours this weekend poring over my next project. Famous last words..

FO: Echo Flowers Shawl

I began blocking my Echo Flowers shawl last night and when I had pinned it out, I looked down and felt a strange punch to the gut. Had I really made that? As it turns out, yes, I have made this and it feels so bewildering to me. This shawl is so incredibly beautiful and so intricate - and it is all my doing. Knitters are their own worst critics, I think. We all shrug and laugh when others compliment us. This little thing? Oh, I just followed a pattern... but we need to give ourselves more credit. We do not just follow a pattern. We interpret and decipher patterns written in often quite technical terms. We choose yarns, colours and textures. Yes, sometimes us 'just following a pattern' leaves us feeling unhappy with the end product, but I think we need to take more credit than we often allow ourselves.

And so with this shawl, I am so very happy to say yes, I made this.

I started knitting this back in November but it went into hibernation due to Christmas knitting and other, more pressing, knitting projects. I pulled it out about a week ago and finished knitting the edging. It was actually a relatively easy knit - just one motif you keep repeating until you decide to start the edging - but I say that with a couple of Estonian-stitch shawls behind me.

I used Fyberspates Nef Lace and I must admit I did not like it. It felt quite synthetic compared to Malabrigo and Old Maiden Aunt merino/silk, and I really did not like the variegated colours. And so I decided to overdye it using cake paste dye (as you do). The yarn did block out beautifully and the colour is super-intense.

I'm very, very, very happy with the end result. I bet you can tell.

The pattern is free (PDF) and while I was using a cobweb yarn, I have seen some lovely versions using as heavy a yarn as double knitting. If I were to make this again - okay, I absolutely will - I'd try a fingering weight just to add a bit of weight to the fabric. And use a semi-solid or a solid colour.

As of right now, all I have on my needles is a Snapdragon Tam which is one-third done. I feel another shawl coming on..

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Diggi Loo Diggi Ley

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It is that time of year again. The daffodils are blooming, the birds are singing and Eurovision is but a month away. As per usual I have subjected my ears to all the participating songs and here is a quick First Look & Listen response. More to follow when/if my customary Eurovision mania takes hold. The Alright Ones: Albania have set themselves up as providers of decent pop and this year is no exception (even if it starts out sounding a bit Doctor Who). Denmark have pulled up their socks and have sent an epic sing-along schlager. Estonia proves yet again their knack for sending excellent oddball songs (it's like they don't know Eurovision is about cheese). Germany is surprisingly emerging as the pre-show bookie favourite although it is a bit too Gabrielle Cimli/Duffy/Paloma Faith for my taste. I have a weak spot for big Balkan rock ballads and Macedonia brings it this year.

The Disappointing One: Turkey is usually one of the countries to watch and have in recent years provided some real highlights (Mor ve Ötesi's Deli is still totally awesome). This year they are significantly less than awesome, even if Turkish Emo is .. an interesting concept.

The "What Were You Thinking" Ones: Finland is notoriously hit-and-miss. This year .. well, you be the judge of Kuunkuiskaajat's Työlki Ellää. In Moldova the local youth club is stuck in 1997, while the Dutch send Sarah Palin singing a local radio hit circa 1977 and the United Kingdom yearns for a pre-drugs Jason Donovan in 1990. Meanwhile Serbia sends something I don't even know what is (and this is the same country which gave us Molitva!).

Last year Alexander Rybak was a runaway favourite early on. This year nobody really stands out and even the usual heavy-hitters like Russia, Ukraine and Greece are failing to bring a big song/performer (even if Ukraine is trying to court Twi-Hards by sending a blond Kristen Stewart). Prediction? Your guess is as good as mine.

FO: Serenity

O hai. Official Photographer has suddenly decided that knitters worldwide would rather look at my face than at my FINISHED OBJECT. I do not know if this is because Official Photographer dislikes my new summer cardigan or if he just finds me more interesting than the cardigan. Regardless, this is probably the best shoot from our foray into the Botanics glasshouses. In the photo I'm trying to look fascinated by cacti, in case you are wondering.

The cardigan, then.

Pattern: Serenity from Rowan Studio 15 by Sarah Hatton. Yarn: Rowan Summer Tweed, sh. 537 (Summerberry). Needles: Clover Bamboo Circs, 4mm & 5mm. They're actually my favourite circs for knitting garments. Sturdy, flexible and not too pointy.

I opted for size L, but the cardigan feels very roomy on me, so I should probably have gone a size down (not often I get to say that!). I made a few mods (adding an inch of length to both body & sleeves) and picked up fewer stitches for the neckband. My main modification was probably pinning the frill to the body and picking up stitches for the neckband through both frill and body, rather than sew the frill in place and then pick up stitches. My method reduces the amount of bulk you get.

My favourite parts of this project? Probably being able to finish a sleeve in an evening (because I loathe knitting sleeves) and I also really enjoyed how the frill was constructed. Knitting this rekindled my knitting mojo and I liked the slightly fiddly construction (I mean, this could totally be a top-down cardigan, but the designer had other ideas and I learned a lot about garment construction from knitting this).

Currently I'm eight rows away from finishing a shawl I began back in November, so I foresee plenty, PLENTY, of new projects in the forthcoming weeks. The new Kim Hargreaves book is published tomorrow (and I seriously hope the postie has a delivery for me) and I have my beady eye on Peace which is a shaped cardigan with moss stitch details knitted in Handknit Cotton. Which shade, which shade? I'm thinking a neutral colour might be an interesting challenge.. However, before I begin plotting Kim Hargreaves designs, I have a long list of things I want to knit. Small, fun things. Maybe even a shawl or two..