Hipster Shawl

Last week I finished my Hipster shawl and I've been wearing it from the moment I put the fringes on it. How did I live without it before?! I'm so happy how it turned out, I love the color and the yarn.

I had 200 g Italian bobbin tweed, 75% virgin wool 25% poly-amide, very thin - 800 m / 100 g, which I overdyed in warm chocolate color. I sampled knitting the yarn with two and three threads held together and liked better the two-thread sample, knitted on 3.75 mm needles. As this made my yarn and needles much smaller than what the pattern calls for, I continued knitting and serendipitously had enough yarn for one full repeat of the pattern. And again serendipitously with this additional repeat my shawl turned exactly the size it is supposed to be according to the pattern. One more reason to love this shawl!

Pattern: Hipster Shawl by Joji Locatelli
Yarn: Toscofilati, Erica 4, 85% virgin wool 25% polyamide, 200 g
Needle: 3.75 mm (US 5)
Time to knit: 18 days

The Chocolate Color

Let me start with the ascertainment that ever since I started dyeing yarn, I've overdyed every beige yarn I've bought, as well as a beige cotton shop bought sweater I had :) Beige turns out to be a color I'm drawn to buy but not to wear - neutral drab colors are not for me, it seems.

A few months ago I came upon Hipster - a shawl pattern by Joji Locatelli and I immediately fell in love with it. I've been following Joji's podcast and admiring her creativity a lot, she's one of my main inspirations to start sewing again, as apart from a talented knitter and designer, she's also a fearless beginner seamstress.
So, when I was browsing my favourite online yarn shop for tweed for another project I came upon a sale of this beige Italian bobbin tweed and I grabbed 200 g of it for Hipster. But the moment it arrived I knew I had to overdye it (again!). I experimented with at least a dozen of small cuttings from the yarn, shifting it from tobacco yellow to dark purple, until I settled on chocolate. And I'm loving it. This is my current WIP, but more about it and the yarn in (I hope) a coming soon posting :)

And while I still had chocolate color on my mind I finally decided how to overdye the viscose yarn I had bought for my mother. The result of another sale purchase - 6 skeins of baby blue viscose-acrylic yarn, three for me and three for my mother, were waiting to be overdyed. The yarn is very soft, the color is nice, but neither mother nor I would wear this baby blue. I had been struggling for a week with the decision, having in mind, that unlike the wool, which is so easy to dye, viscose acrylic blends take dye differently and more difficultly. And of course they require dyes for cellulose based yarns. 

To ensure good cover of the blue, I dyed these skeins in two steps - first I dyed the three skeins solid brown, washed them and hung them to dry to ascertain that they had the color I wanted (wet viscose looks much much darker than dry viscose and I wanted to be sure). Then I dip glazed them in concentrated black for a more variegated final color.

I think they turned out quite nice, with deep saturated color. Because I dyed each skein separately, there are some variations between the skeins and as with all hand-dyed yarns it would be recommendable to be knitted with alternation.

I was curious, so I made two samples to check the gauge. The yarn is thin - 400 m / 100 g, so it could be knitted with a single thread or with two threads held together. I was leaning towards the thicker option, but in the end I like the single thread sample better. Of course, it's up to my mother to decide which she prefers.

Now I'm off to pack all the yarns I dyed for my mom lately and send them to her to keep her busy during the coming months.

Two-Tone Colorways - New Experiments in Dyeing Wool

My latest colorways in my yarn dyeing experiments - Lollipop and Berries. I used 50 g Alize superwash for each of these dye jobs.

Lollipop was achieved by dipping half of the skein in very diluted yellow wool dye until the solution became transparent (it does! it's like magic how the wool sucks in the dye particles, when there are few of them) and then dipping the second half in very weak red dye solution. Then I fixed the dye in hot water with white vinegar and salt.

For Berries colorway I used the same technology, but instead of wool dyes I dissolved two variants of STEP instant drink (sort of the Bulgarian version of Kool-Aid) - morello cherry (the lighter raspberry color) and red grapes (the bordeaux color).

The sakura tree in our neighborhood is in blossom:

I'm delighted how these dye jobs turned out and I'll probably repeat the raspberry-red colorway in volumes to make a sweater for Gaby, as she loved it.

Meanwhile I'm ready with my light beige cardigan and can't wait for a photo session. But first I have to find decent buttons (I roamed the shops downtown yesterday but nothing appealed to me) and then the weather needs to be sundress-like, as that is what I have in mind for my photos :) So - probably next week, hopefully ...

Green Socks

The first of the two pairs of socks to come out of my home dyed yarn. I improvised a simple toe-up pattern with two six-stitch cables on the front - the yarn is busy enough and any complicated texture would be lost in the colorful patches.

Pattern: Green Socks, 60 sts, toe-up
Yarn: Alize Superwash, 50 g, home dyed
Needle: 2.5 mm
Time to knit: one week

For the heel I used the instructions in this free general pattern by Wendy D. Johnson - she has so many wonderful and free sock patterns!
I like how it forms the heel, very neat and without holes and the pattern has the calculations for 7 different sock sizes, so it's very flexible and universal.

I finished the cuff with one row of double rib and Elizabeth Zimmerman's invisible bind-off, which is really stretchy and beautiful.

The socks are meant for Gaby, but as today the temperatures in Sofia exceeded 20C, she just posed with them for a couple of minutes and took them down, claiming it too hot for wool socks. Oh, well, there'll be other winters to come :)

Striped Sock Yarn

The second 50 g of the white Alize Superwash, which I dyed, using the same method I described in my previous post and five wool dyes - red, yellow, blue, violet and purple. This time I tried to dye the yarn in sections, aiming at stripes for socks my size.

You might have already guessed that I'm a fan of uneven, mixed, impressionist colors. I like harmony in asymmetry and irregularity.

I started the sock to see how the stripes would come out and I'm loving it. But first I have to finish the socks I'm knitting out of the green sock yarn.

Dyeing Sock Wool

It's been almost a year and a half since I last played with wool dyes. What stopped me was probably the fact that I had a skein of dyed yarn and I felt I had to knit it before I dyed another. Recently I turned that skein into socks for my husband and soon I felt my fingers itching to try dyeing wool again. Today I dyed half a skein - 50 g of sock yarn - Alize Superwash, 75% wool, 25% polyamid.
I was not sure if the polyamid content would allow the yarn to absorb the dyes, but I'm happy to report that the result is quite satisfactory.

Unlike my previous attempts, when I was going for a semi-solid color, composed of close shades (yellow, orange, red or yellow, tobacco, orange or violet, blue, purple), today I wanted green base with some contrasting darker pops of color - blue and orange.

Подробно описание на процеса стъпка по стъпка

1. Подготовка на преждата
- Преждата се накисва в хладка вода с препарат за пране на вълна или течен сапун за 30 мин
- Изплаква се обилно и се накисва за нови 30 мин в хладка вода и оцет в съотношение 5:1

2. Подготовка на боите
- 1 л. вода се завира с 25 г сол и 25 г оцет
- Боите се разтварят в чашки за еднократна употреба с гореща вода и супена лъжица оцет. За 50 г прежда приготвих около 50 мл тютюнево, 50 мл концентрирано жълто (портокалово), 50 мл бледо жълто, 50 мл концентрирано синьо, 50 мл разредено синьо, 50 мл синьо с малко жълто, 50 мл жълто с малко синьо. Остана ми доста излишна боя, следващия път ще намаля количествата.

3. Боядисване
- Подготвих тава, покрита с фолио и разположих върху нея преждата. Загрявах в микровълнова печка боята, с която работя, до 70С и внимателно изливах малко количество върху отделни участъци, като с пръсти (с домакински ръкавици, разбира се), потупвах преждата, за да поеме цялата боя. Така участък по участък боядисах цялото чиле. Стремях се преждата да не плува във вода, а да изливам само количество, което може да поеме.
- Междувременно водата в тенджерата (1 л. със сол и оцет) беше поизстинала. Загрях я отново до 70С и намалих котлона на 2 (от 9).
- Прехвърлих преждата в тенджерата и я оставих да фиксира боята за 1 час в горещата, но не вряща вода. По средата на процеса обърнах чилето за по-равномерно разпределение на температурата, като периодично следях да не надвишава 70-72С.
- След час изключих котлона и оставих преждата постепенно да изстива заедно с водата за още час.

4. Изплакване и сушене
- След като преждата изстина, я изплакнах обилно в хладка вода, като на последното изплакване добавих малко омекотител.
- Окачих я на закачалка и я оставих за изсъхне в банята.

Сега остава да оплета чифт чорапи от нея :)