Got Scarves?

 

So, my plan is to have lots of pretty scarves to disguise the fact that I tend to wear the same outfits all the damn time and, as an added bonus, use up some of my yarn stash which seems to consist almost exclusively of single skeins of fingering weight wool.

These three are ones I've made lately from patterns I found online - honestly, whatever you want to knit, it's out there somewhere! God bless the interwebs! They were all easy to follow yet produce beautiful looking scarves. 

Clockwise from top left we have: Tesla which is in a colourway I hand dyed a few weeks ago and just fell in love with; Helix which is in a gorgeous Wollmeise yarn I've had for some time and Foreigh Correspondent which is in another of my own hand dyes in a colourway called Elephant Island.

The All-Seeing Eye

Last week my trusty Canon camera decided it had had enough and started to do all manner of bizarre things with the photos I was trying to take, adding its own Photoshop-alike effects without my say-so! Oddly the video capture still works but nothing else. So, time for a new piece of kit, and here it is.

I've only had it a couple of days but I'm pretty impressed with this little Lumix. I tend to do a lot of indoor photography and, as I don't have anything in the way of special lights etc, I rely on my camera to make up the shortfall a lot of the time. Well this one seems to handle less than perfect lighting conditions admirably with no fringing and good detail, and the auto focus is pin sharp. So far, so good!

All this means I have finally been able to get pictures of my new yarn batch for listing. Hurray!

Hand Dyes Finished

Here's what those skeins I showed you the other day look like when I've finished with them!
More pictures in the listings.

Sneak Peek

Yesterday was a good day to dye. I got a new batch of superwash merino yarn delivered and the weather was beautifully calm and sunny so I got out the alembics and retorts and started the alchemy.

I love the dyeing process. Acid dyes are easy to work with and produce such beautiful vibrant colours. The fact that some of them don't develop their full strength until set and others change their appearance during the process just adds to the magic for me. Every time I open up the steamer and unwrap the finished skeins is a moment of anticipation and excitement as I never know precisely what I'm going to get.

It's quite a long process from start to finish and the actual dyeing is only a part of it. Once the dye is applied the skeins are steamed then left until they cool completely. Then I rinse them in cold water many times to extract any excess dye that might be left. After that they are hung on a drying pole outside, if the weather is good, or on my indoor rack if it isn't. Drying can take anywhere from 1 - 3 days depending on the conditions. When they're completely dry the final step is to re-skein them, which involves winding into a ball and then winding the ball into a skein again. This shows off the colour mixture better, neatens them up and allows me to check for any flaws, knots etc.

The yarn you see in the photo is all dry now and will be in my Etsy shop just as soon as I can get it rewound and photographed!

New Hand Dyes

I'm really enjoying dyeing my own yarn. There's something very satisfying about blending your own colourways which I've always liked from when I first started dyeing fabrics for quilting years ago. I also discovered a great piece of kit the other week, it's a 3 tier electric vegetable steamer which I am using to set the skeins and it's so much better than the microwave! I wrap them individully in tinfoil after I've painted them and then they go into the steamer for 25 minutes. Once they're cool I rinse thoroughly, dry (which can take up to three days depending on the weather) and then re-skein.

It's a lot of work but the results are worth it I think. All the skeins in the picture above are currently for sale here.