What to do on a wet Sunday in May? Experiment with some dyeing of course! I need to decorate a bra to wear for the Moonwalk next weekend (yes, just 7 days to go eeeek!) and wanted to dye it pink. After unsuccessfully trying to find somewhere to buy dye yesterday (we have a serious lack of anything resembling a craft/needlwork/yarn shop anywhere nearby - maybe I should open one hmmm….) I was moaning about having to just decorate the white bra when my DH said “what about that Kool Aid stuff you got sent?)

My lovely pal, Evelyn, from the Winter Scarf Knit Kit Swap sent me some sachets of Kool Aid some time ago and I’ve been wanting to try my hand at dyeing with it for some time. Well, the bra is acrylic so I wasn’t sure how it would work but I’m only wearing it once so it doesn’t need to be perfect or colour fast so why not give it a go.

This is my first dyeing experiment then -

This is the yarn and bra getting ready for dyeing and all the ingredients laid out to go. First I washed and rinsed the yarn and bra and then left them soaking in warm water whilst I mixed up the Kool Aid.

This is the bra in the saucepan with  “Swirlin’ Strawberry Starfruit” flavour which I hoped would give me a bright pink colour. Heated up to nearly boiling then left to soak for about 45 minutes.

Whilst the bra was stewing I tackled the yarn, I decided I wanted to try handpainting and, using the colours from my clogs as inspiration, I mixed up Grape (purple), Orange (orange!) and Tropical Punch (red) flavours in three sports drink bottles.

I used the bottles to squirt on each colour and then spread it through the whole skein

Each strip is about 3/4 inches wide except the purple at the end which is about twice that width. The colours ended up like this -

Then I steamed over boiling water, unfortunately DH’s cousin has my steamer at the moment so I improvised with a colander which isn’t very big so the skein was squashed in a bit with colours touching each other. I tried to minimise this as much as possible

After 45 minutes steaming I took the skein out and laid it out to cool and it looked like this -

here are some close ups

I like the effect where the red meets the purple and where the two were obviously touching and it’s ended up very dark purple

not so good here where the purple met the orange and there are some green patches - they’re quite small and hopefully when knitted up they’ll not be that noticeable

The bra has turned out fairly pink by the way -

(actually looks pinker than this photo) I’ll post some more pictures when it’s fully decorated.

All in all quite pleased with my first try at dyeing…..definitely going to do some more, I’m going on a natural dye course at The Natural Dye Studio in a few weeks time so really looking forward to that now!

technorati tags:dyeing, dye, koolaid, moonwalk

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I took the “The Nine Muses“ quiz on gURL.com
		My muse is… Melpomene Melpomene is the patron goddess of tragedy. Melpomene is often represented by a tragic mask and is sometimes depicted with a crown of cypress leaves and a club. Despite her tragic side, Melpomene means “The Songstress” because her chanting and singing inspires listeners. Read more… Who is your muse?

Apparantly, Melpomene was also the mother of the Sirens who lured sailors to their dooms….I am wont to have a somewhat maudlin view of the world at times, and I love to sing so Melpomene may be a good muse for me.

Thanks to ambermoggie as I found this on her blog.

The Prize Draw has now been running for a week and I’ve had lots of entries, there is still plenty of time to enter as the draw will not be until 9th June. The cause is very worthwhile, sadly I expect all of us know someone who has been touched by breast cancer and Breakthrough do wonderful work. Entry in the draw is £1 and you can have as many entries as you like - please tell all your friends, mention it on your blog, link from your website!

I have today updated the prize list as I have had two Dye your Own kits by Chrissy at Bright Dyes

Each kit contains 100g 4ply machine washable wool, 4 packets of Kool-Aid, pair of gloves, instructions for dyeing. One kit is Orange & Yellow and the other Blue & Green. If you fancy trying your hand at dyeing your own yarn this is a good starter kit.

technorati tags:prize, raffle, competition

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Just got back from a lovely weekend break in the English Lake District with DH and BB. We were camping on a wonderful site near Boot in Eskdale

when we arrived on Saturday the site was packed - it has 75 pitches and all were occupied. By Monday afternoon there was just our two tents, two camper vans and two other tents in a different field!!

The weather was pretty good, we had rain at night a few times but only one afternoon when we were actually caught out in wet weather and that was just for the last mile when we were heading back to the site.

Did some beautiful walks along Eskdale - here’s a sneak at some photos, just click to see them in flickr.

I did manage to get a little bit of knitting done in the evenings - working on the Sock Madness sock (I’m out of the competition but still knitting the patterns) This round came out on Friday just before I left so I printed it out and took it with me -

..this is as far as I got, it is a very short sock - the small pattern band is the “leg”, the second larger band is on the foot, the picture on the right is the sole of the foot with the heel to the right (yes there is a pattern on the sole!). The pattern is called Mad for Fair Isle and is based on batik patterns, the pattern is by Tina Lorin

I’m using 4ply sock yarn from Angle Yarns in Denim and Rose Pink and 2.5mm bamboo dpn’s.

technorati tags:sockmadness, knit, knitting, sock

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Thought I’d let you see my current project (well one of them) -

The pattern is by Debbie Bliss from her book Cashmerino DK, however I’m knitting it was published in Simply Knitting in December 2006 which is where I’m knitting it from. I’m knitting it in Merino DK rather than Cashmerino because it was in my stash and I fancied a pillar box red cardigan.

I’m afraid the colour doesn’t photograph well but the lovely cable details do -

the cabling pulls the waist in to give a lovely fitted shape. It looks much longer and thinner than it will be when finished as the ribbing needs blocking out.

However, I don’t think I’m taking this project with me to the Lake District tomorrow - we’re camping so I think I’ll need to take a pair of sock, much more portable. Let’s see how much I can embarass DH and Baby Brother (6′3″ and 35 but always Baby Brother to me) by knitting in the pub in the evenings.

The plan is hill walking during the day, back to the campsite for a wash and a glass of wine outside the tent then pub for dinner. However, looking at the weather forecast last night it seems the glorious sunshine we’ve been experiencing for the past week is about to end - oh dear…

Oh yes, and Star Wars - it’s 30 years today since it was released - I remember to this day going to see the first film, one of the defining moments of my childhood and I still watch the films on a regular basis.

An exhibition of Star Wars props and costumes opened in London today so I may have to drag DH there!

May the 4th be with you!

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Would you like to win some brilliant yarn! Of course you would!

I am running a prize draw in support of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and it’s just £1 to enter. I am sure that all of us know someone whose life has been touched by this disease, or indeed have been affected ourselves so you’ll agree it’s a wonderful cause.

These pictures are just some of the prizes on offer, one entry in the draw is just £1 and you can buy as many entries as you like. Please spread the news about the draw and if you can link to it on your own blog/web-site/message board/knitting group please do - just grab the link and the badge from the side bar on the right.

Click here or on the badge in the right hand bar to find out how to enter and get in with a chance of scoring some swag.

Oh yes, and I need to say a BIG thankyou to my wonderful DH who helped me with building the page into the small hours of the morning….big kisses!

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