Reconstruction

 

While I was updating Ravelry today, I remembered I hadn't shown you how this lace crochet sample dyed up last week. This project goes back a bit, to the end of last year in fact where I was deconstructing a lace pattern I liked that had no instructions to follow so I thought I'd have a go at writing one out for myself. The aim was to design and make my own lace crochet parasol inspired by these images here,  here and here.

I'm quite comfortable with crochet and the general construction of stitches but I've had less experience with the more complex crochet lace designs. So last year, I was sampling a few out and getting the hang of how pieces increased in the round and how to build the complexity of structure and pattern into a design. There are some amazing patterns out there that are dismissed because they look too 'doily'- like, but I've learned a lot from my doilies! 

Working out the lace pattern design

I learned how to increase evenly around the circumference, and that the tension is sooo important. If you mess this up then your whole pattern can go out of shape, even with strenuous blocking and pulling back into shape when it's wet at the end. I also got the feel of when that was happening before I got to the end which helped a lot!! There was a lot of crocheting and ripping back as I went so this little sample has had a time of it:) 

But once I understood how to make an increasing circle regardless of the complexity of the stitches, I could then become more free with the pattern. As I was following an existing piece rather than designing from scratch, it was quite easy to place the pattern elements into each portion of the circle. This sample uses a filet stitch and chained threads so it is easy to see how it grows as you crochet.

I originally decided to use a silk/wool undyed yarn instead of cotton as I wanted a softer edge to the design. I'm not convinced that this is the best yarn for the job but the sample certainly does have a 'soft focus' look to it! It handled the wear and tear of sampling well but it you can see the slight wool content giving it fuzzy halo - slightly.

Saying that, it isn't as noticeable now it's been dyed. Being mostly silk it has taken the acid dyes well but not as intensely as the sock yarns. The dyeing was another tester to see how well the colour took and how easy it would be to hand paint a pre-crocheted sample. Very easy! In fact it absorbed the dye quicker than the wool and the colours bled into each other for quite a ways. Less is more in this case!

So it's answered the question of  'do I dye the yarn and crochet, or crochet then dye?' Crochet then dye!! As much as I love dyeing yarns, I can get much more control over the colour gradations this way and as the circle gets bigger and bigger, the colour proportions would stay the same width. A pre-dyed yarn of equal colour blocks - like a graduating yarn - would make smaller and smaller bands the wider it got. Not what I want myself but cool if that's the look you're going for:)

Well, that's the testing all done. So am I ready to design and make that parasol? :)

Lemon & Lime Twist

So, I thought I'd surprise you with some more knitting! There is still stuff needing find a home that I really should be concentrating on but I'm very good at ignoring it while I knit my lovely sock:-) Ah, procrastination is my friend - well, my knitting friend anyway!

This lovely sock is a new test knit designed by Karen called Limone Twist (ravelry link). She knitted these in a gorgeous Wollmeise lemon yellow - scrummy! - so I thought I'd do a bit of lemon and lime. You know, I don't think I have a pair of green socks so I think I'll keep these ones for me - if I have any room left in my sock drawer. Well, a girl has to match her outfits and I do wear every colour under the sun so I correspondingly have a LOT of socks. But not green ones - yet:-)

The pattern is a lovely little twisted rib knitted over 4 rows and has a really clever construction.  After knitting through the chart or written instruction - it has both - you suddenly fall straight into the rhythm of it and you are off! This is the quickest I've knitted a patterned sock and I can even watch tv without losing my place at all - praise indeed;-)) I'm only halfway to the heel but I'm looking forward to another new heel to try - a gusset heel on a toe-up sock. I did try this type before, once, but it was so involved with the detailed patterning that it was difficult to appreciate the structure. In this sock I can see how elegant it looks and it will be interesting to knit and see how the shaping is formed. I know! The little things that please!

So lots more tv to watch so I can knit up a sock storm in Lemon & Lime. If the yarn looks familiar, it's the same hand-dyed sweetgrass green I used for my knotty gloves. I had quite a bit left over as well as another skein so I thought the slight stripes would work well on the sole of the sock. Gives it that little lemony feel to the lime don't you think?

Progress report:-)

So, I've got to dye some more yarns soon so I can start my new shawl, get some more sock yarns in the shop - if I don't divert them for my sock drawer:-) -  and get Vivian and some baby knits started. Nothing huge then, she says wryly!

Vivian is on hold at the moment as the lovely deep teal just isn't knitting to gauge - sigh. But I've got my eye on some chunky yarn on Ebay so hopefully I can be up and running in a week or sooner, depending on the post.

The lovely baby yarn I ordered arrived but wasn't quite as soft to the touch as I'd hoped. Lovely colours though. Maybe I can mix and match with other yarns I already have. But baby patterns have been earmarked and should be appearing soon. The good thing about baby knits is they are quick!

So thats us all up to date I think. Going into town tomorrow so I may have a hunt for some Sirdar snuggly. It is SOOO soft! But I'm not sure if the wool shop has it in stock so fingers crossed or it's back to shopping online. See you tomorrow!

Coral pinwheel flowers:-)

I've been up in my shed doing a little dyeing of testers and these cute little mini-skeins are the result from yesterday. Yesterday was a coral pink day. Since I've been asked for a skein of coral yarn, I thought I'd investigate and play with this colour - who knew coral pink could have so many tones? I love pink but I tend towards the magenta/purple pinks myself so this was an exploration into pastures new:-) If you type coral pink into google images, you get the full gamut of orangey pinks to pinkier coral tones, from pales to deep rich colourations.

So if you asked me to dye you a coral pink yarn, which tone would you mean?! My first impressions of what colour to dye just widened dramatically!! The world of colour seems to grow the more I really study it - it's fascinating and I'm glad I've moved out of my colour comfort zone to explore a new palette of colour.

I'm loving this rose - look at the tones of pinks and orangey pinks, just lovely. I'm wanting some of these for my garden now - although I didn't think I was a rose girl personally. But then since I've had a garden of my own, I've discovered I tend towards big and blowsy flowers like Dalias and Peonies:-) So this one is very much in keeping - and it's very bright and in your face!!

My first attempt at coral went a lot orangier than I wanted so I overdyed with a pinkier tone to get this deep orangy coral. It matches the heart of the rose perfectly! And it definitely comes under the coral colour umbrella;-) But is it the right tone of coral for my request?

I also dyed a test skein of 100% silk worsted weight using the same dye colour which came out a lovely soft crab pink/coral - you can see it at the bottom of the pinwheel garden pic at the top! But the light failed today as I was photographing so it would be best if I waited to do the yarn justice - it's just so gorgeous and soft with a lovely sheen - yum! Hopefully I can capture it in better light tomorrow.

I used the mini-samples to explore the differing tones of coral, from orange tints to more pinkier tones in a cross range of semi-solids, subtle and strong variegateds. So, now I'm going to knit them up and see how they turn out and maybe they will make it into my shop as a new colourway - we'll have to wait and see.

Ultraviolet Yarns!

The Ultraviolet Yarn shop is now open for business!! At the moment, I have supersock fingering weight yarns for sale - both semi-solids and variegateds, as well as some stitch markers:-) Each skein is individully painted so if you are looking for more than one of any colour, just let me know as I can paint up a 'batch' for you.

I also want to introduce a wider variety of yarns such as silk blends, 100%silk, and worsted weight 100% merino as well, once I get my new yarn order in. But for now, there is a selection of yarns in the shop and tomorrow I will be adding more.  Hopefully it will be brighter day for photographs because today was a bit of a washout and all my pics have had to be dumped:-(

So, hopefully tomorrow you will see all these yarns in the store. Please do pop in and have a browse around and tell me what you think. I'm just finding my way around Etsy right now and I'm sure I will tweek the shop appearance and blurb as I go but, to be honest, I needed to take the plunge or I'd be 'tweeking' till this time next year:-)

Til tomorrow.... yawn.... time for some shuteye........

Yarns for sale!!

Well, I didn't mean to be away so long! Between dyeing and knitting my cowl I've been a busy bee:-) But I've got some new yarns finished, lots more bright semi-solids planned, some designing going on and a finished knitted cowl to show you this week, so its all been happening lately!

But I've also got to the point where I'm running out of blank yarn stock so I'm going to have to use what I have left to sell so I can afford to buy more - and keep dyeing! So, from now on - including today - all yarns I post will be for sale. Each skein will be $28 and I will try and work out a paypal button to make life easier. ETA: yarns now available in my new Etsy shop - Ultraviolet Yarns

Please note there is only one skein of each colourway of today's yarns so it will be on a first come first served basis. 
ETA: All sold now-sorry!

But I'm happy to dye anything in the yarn gallery in as many skeins as you need - just contact me to let me know what you fancy.

'Sweetgrass'

First up, a lovely subtly variegated grassy green I've called 'sweetgrass'. This is a bit yellower than the emerald I knitted my Veyla mitts with but I really like it. I'm thinking nice subtle tonal stripes for socks or autumn mitts would work well.

'Rich Plums'

And my favourite of this bunch, the rich plums mix - definitely my kind of colour palette this one.  It's a more subtle blend of harmonious plummy tones giving quite a soft feel overall. This would go with most of my autumn/winter wardrobe!

'Cranberry and Plums'

And then, using the same colours as the plums, I painted this skein with definite bands of colour rather than blending the tones. Quite a contrast - much clearer and more definite colour sections. It will be interesting to see how this knits up in contrast to the other one.

I've also added a yarn gallery on Flickr which has all the colour schemes I've dyed so far to the sidebar on the right - near the top - due to a request to see them all together. I'll keep adding all my new yarns here so you can find them easier than trailing through blog posts:-)

Oh, its all exciting! I've actually taken that first step!! Wish me luck!

All the reds

This weekend, we have some dyeing going on! Using those reds I was playing about with over the last week or so, we have a scarf blank called 'All the reds' especially commissioned for EJ. I would like to thank EJ for being so understanding this month with me being unwell which has delayed her receiving her especially commissioned yarn. But at long last, it is dyed, rewound into a skein and ready to go.

I really love these colours -very intense but still with the feel of Autumn. This blank is painted from light to dark in the middle back to light again at the other end. Very similar visually to the calm horizons in the giveaway last month.

I dyed a couple more skeins, one semi solid and one variegated, in cranberries, plums and purples but they are still drying so photos soon - well, depending whether it stops raining and I get some decent light!

On a shed note, the water has mostly dried out and doesn't seem to be flooding again even after a full day of rain. I think it must have been a flash flood after a month of dry weather hardening the ground so the water ran off the hill instead of soaking in. But, just to be on the safe side, the shed is getting a waterproofing inside. Haven't quite figured out quite how yet or just how expensive that will be but I think it is definitely necessary to stop everything getting ruined once I move in all my work stuff if it happens again.

Got a bit of startitis for a few new projects too so more this week as they progress.... Happy knitting!

The story of the plummy red yarn.....

I've been playing around with the red dyes a bit more this week and spent a bit of time trying to get subtle tones of mid to dark red. They don't look the same on paper as they do on the yarn but if you give them a coat of PVA glue they come up a treat! The brush can drag the dye as well though so a spray varnish would probably be a better idea next time.

I've been keeping colour notes as I go along to go in my dyeing notebook - see, getting organised:-) And having fun playing with tones on a colourwheel too. There are so many online charts you can work with - this tonal version is from Itten's book on colour. Simple and clear tones, easy to read and use. I like this one for its clarity.

And this much more complex version if you really want very subtle gradations of colour. Its a shame my printer has run out of ink as this one is pretty comprehensive to work with. I need to laminate a copy and stick it on my workshop wall - when the shed is ready, that is.

So after my foray into colour, I narrowed my colours down to three tones of reds and three tones of plum purples. Then played with colourwashes:-) The red wash was a lot more subtle before I killed it with glue - sigh! I also had an idea to stop the colour varying on paper and yarn by using thin mini test blanks. You would have had some lovely pictures as they painted up beautifully. It's just a shame I set fire to them in the microwave -BIG sigh!

So, how did I manage that, you ask? Um, well, I chopped up a long knitted length and stapled card on the ends to stop the yarn unravelling before dyeing. What's wrong with that, you ask? Didn't dawn on me that the staples are of course metal until I saw the flames:-) Luckily the microwave still works - god knows how! - if a bit smelly for the next few uses but its all fine now. It took longer getting the burnt smell out the house. Luckily I still have the blowers that are drying the floor in the living room - still! don't get me started on that subject:-) I'm ignoring the fact that the water leak has taken over a month to dry out so far... But the blowers came in handy to shift the burnt smell! (NB - I only use this microwave for dyeing! I never use it for food, so don't worry:-)

But it was worth it as I got a lovely plummy red skein of variegated yarn ready to go. No idea what I want to make from it, I'm just living with it for a while till the right project comes up....

Calm horizons

Running with my landscape theme I wanted to try out a less busy pattern and have strong areas of pure colour blending in to one another. I removed the purples and concentrated solely on a monochromatic colour palette running from dark to lights. I didn't go too light though to keep the contrast from being too extreme when knitted up. So this runs from darks to mid tones of blues.

This is the blank painted, it's slightly darker than the final colours as its still wet but you can get a very good visual idea how this will knit up. If you want a long rectangular scarf, it will run from light to dark to light blue again - light blue tips and dark around the neck. If you want a narrower scarf than the width of this blank - 5ocms - then you will just get slightly longer sections of colour before it moves on to the next tone. There is something so calming about simple gradations of colour - simple, no busyness, just calm and floaty. It looks like deep blue layers in the sky as the sun is going down, before any red creeps in there.

I have seen some lovely shawls knitted up with simple colour gradations and they look just like butterfly wings - gorgeous. What a lovely way to add character and colour without killing the pattern. Or maybe a small stripey bag like this one? You can imagine the colours drifting into each other easily for this pattern - although I think fingering weight may be a little light for a tote bag:-) But it would look great!

So thinking larger bands of colour, what do you think this yarn would knit up best as?

Look forward to hearing all your suggestions and see you tomorrow for our final giveaway.

Tuesday giveaway

Today's yarn giveaway is called 'Butterscotch' - 100gms of fingering weight supersock yarn 75% merino 25% nylon. I was thinking more of an autumn feel - richer, warmer colours that were close enough tonally to be used for a complex lace shawl as well as socks or gloves. Its also more of a unisex colour so is more flexible overall.

I think some rich, deep socks would be lovely with this - cookie A's designs especially. Or maybe a so-called scarf like my sunflower one to let the variegated pattern meander across the surface of the knitting.

Sunflower scarf

There have been some lovely suggestions already so please have a look at some of the pattern links. The nereid fingerless gloves based on Cookie A's pomatomus socks look lovely or you could knit the pomatomus socks instead:-) There would be enough for a small shawl or scarf like these lace scarf suggestions - Madeira Cascade and the checkerboard lace scarf.

my small magenta Ishbel shawl

Or if you feel up to a more complex lace challenge, you could get a small Ishbel shawl designed by Ysolda out of one skein, but you have to pay for that pattern, or knit up a gail aka nightsong shawl - like the one I'm presently working on over on the sidebar - but you have to be in ravelry to access that one but its free.

I've not finished my nightsong shawl yet but you can have sneek peek:-) I just love this pattern!

I'm getting into the swing of it now so it shouldn't take me that long to finish! Just got to remember not to knit this when I'm tired as I spend more time taking back my mistakes than actually knitting the lace!!

Good luck for today's competition and in answer to a query, you don't have to add a link to your entry, only if you had a specific pattern in mind. But it's very interesting to have a look at all the pattern ideas that are coming in from everyone - lots of knitting ideas to add to our to-do lists:-)

See you tomorrow!

Grande Final giveaway!

Well, we have arrived at the last week of the giveaways and this week is going to be slightly different - a grande giveaway:-) ie, lots of prizes for you to win! So many of you have entered my competitions and have given such thoughtful answers, thank you, and I feel bad that only a few can win, so this week I am giving away 5 prizes so there is a much better chance of everyone winning something!!

But more on that in a minute. First, let's announce the winners from last weeks competition, picked totally at random by John from the textile blog:

The winner of the Aquamarine semi solid yarn is..... Kate!

And the winner of the Deep Orchid is..... Purple-power!

Well done to you both and if you could contact me at labellehelene@btinternet.com with your contact details, I will get the yarns off to you in the post as soon as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, this weeks competition is going to run a bit differently. Instead of everything being listed today, the 5 prizes will be listed one a day from this monday to friday so you can leave a comment on all or just the ones you want to enter. If you want to enter all, please leave a comment on all. As this will mean a lot more comments, I have kept the question simple for this week. All you need to say is what you think each particular yarn would look nice knitted up as - or woven, crocheted, etc, - and maybe a link to a pattern? That's all.

'Peacock Blue'

And today's yarn is called 'Peacock Blue' - 100gms of fingering supersock yarn 75% merino, 25% nylon. This is a rich mix of deeper blues and greens that will knit up in a much softer variegated yarn. With the tones being so similar, there will be less tonal contrast of lights and darks with this yarn but the colours will blend nicely, drifting from blues to greens and back again.

This would be lovely as a rich wrap or shawl, like Ysolda's new Damson shawl or the Feather Duster shawl by Susan Lawrence - who designed the forest canopy shawl I'm still knitting:-) My personal favourite is the Peacock shawl designed by Jae Koscierzynski - just lovely but requires an awful lot of yarn to make and I imagine you would need a lot of free time too! Gorgeous though and well worth it! It's on my to-do list - sometime!!

I've also been meaning to try the lovely glove patterns by Julia Mueller such as Gordian, Entangled stitches, and Glows. Somehow a deeper, richer colour for Autumn seems more appropriate as the weather changes.

'Gordian' by Julia Mueller

Although I just love the red, I can imagine these in a lovely petrol or peacock blue too - all that complexity of the cables - mmm! Yes, another one for my to-do list! You can see the subtle tones in the reds so a semi-solid or subtle variegated would work well for this. Maybe the peacock would be a little too strong in variation but maybe not. It all comes down to personal taste:-)

All this weeks competitions finish on sunday night - 6th September - and I will draw all the final winners first thing monday morning. You can enter all or as many as you like, remember, so good luck to everyone!

Giveaway number 4!

Well, we're on to the fourth giveaway already out of five! This month is going by faster than I'd like and I'm enjoying myself dyeing yarn for the next weeks prize! Thank you everyone for entering so far. I have really enjoyed reading all your answers and hearing about the places that are special to you. I must admit wanting to visit the grand canyon now for the spectacular scenery and that 'take your breath away' feeling!

So without delay, I will announce the winners of the variegated yarns from last week:

First up was the lavendar Blue and the winner drawn totally at random is Rachel O! Which is totally weird given you were convinced you would win this, Rachel!!

And the winner of the Deep Fushia, again drawn completely at random, is Sylvia!

Well done to you both and if you could contact me at labellehelene@btinternet.com and send me some contact details I will endeavour to get these yarns off to you as soon as possible.

Aquamarine

For today's giveaway, I have some semi-solid yarns for you. These have just enough subtle differenciation in the tones to give the colour a lift but also won't take away from a detailed lace or cable pattern. Cookie A's sock patterns would look very nice in either colour. A definite statement:-) Or a delicate lace shawl like Ysolda's Ishbel would look lovely too - more subtle and intricate. The yarn is fingering/4ply supersock yarn - 75% merino wool & 25% Nylon - for better wear and less felting when washed!

Deep Orchid

So todays competition question - Whose work inspires you the most or has been the greatest influence on you? Is it a well known artist or designer, or maybe your mum or family members making away when you were small? There are so many people's work I admire, and I find inspiration from a lot of different types of work like quilting, fine art, collage and knit that its hard to narrow it down to a few or just one. So I'll be trying to think of an answer to this one as well this week!

Again, the competition closes this sunday, 30th August and you can enter for both yarns:-) As the next monday is just inside august, we will also have a final grand giveaway starting on the 31st and finishing on the 6th Sept. I'm thinking a few more prizes than normal to be won......

Good luck to all and I look forward to hearing about your source of inspiration! If you have a link to a picture or website for visuals, that would be wonderful. (I know the comments don't let you add a hyperlink but we can always cut and paste;-)

Monday giveaway!

Today is monday again so I have some winners to announce and some new prizes to be won!

Okay, the winner of the green stripey yarn is..... Elaine! (not me!) And the winner of the firestarter socks is Ann G. If you could both drop me an e-mail with your name and address to labellehelene@btinternet.com, I will get your prizes off as soon as possible for you.

Well done and thank you for all the very interesting comments to my question! I particularly liked the idea of having a bag packed by the door just in case:-) But I don't think I have a big enough bag!

Anyway on to today's competition....

Lavender Blue

Today we have two skeins of sock yarns for you. The first is Lavender Blue. It's a softer mix of cornflower blues and pale lavender purples with a touch of sea green. The colour drifts subtly into the next but there is enough contrast to give a variegated knit. I should mention all my yarn is superwash sock yarn - 75%wool and 25% nylon. The nylon stops the wool from felting which is just perfect for socks.

The next yarn is Deep Fuchsia. I think I must have been subconsciously inspired by the large fuchsia plant in the garden as the colours are very close!

This yarn is a rich mix of strong fuchsia pinks and purples. The colours blend smoothly into each other and this will knit up as a highly contrasting variegated knit.

Please feel free to enter for both:-) or specify which you would like to be entered for. The contest ends this sunday evening (23rd Aug) and the winners will be drawn monday morning at random. So, my question for today is....

Where do you love most in all the world? Somewhere you went on holiday? Somewhere you would love to pack up and move to right now if you could? Home is where the heart is:-) but if your partner and family came with you, is there somewhere out there that would have a special meaning for you?

Good luck everyone and I look forward to reading your comments. Apologies to those who had trouble posting a comment over the weekend - problem all sorted now. Thank you Elaine for alerting me to the problem and thank you Gill for your kind comment on my sock blank post. Unfortunately the hiccup wiped both your comment and my reply! Well, at least its all working again in time for today's giveaway!!

Good luck!

Dyeing sock blanks

Everywhere I go recently I've been hearing about sock blanks. 'What's a sock blank?' I thought. Is this something I should or want to know about? After a little bit of research, I've found out it's a long knitted length of sock yarn, knitted with two strands at once. This 'blank' is then hand painted/dyed in whatever pattern or colours you like and once you have fixed the dye and left it to dry, you can knit up two identical socks when you unravel the blank - clever, huh?

The intention is you can knit both socks at once if you want using this method but I've not tried that technique as yet so I can either knit one sock and wind the second thread into a ball as I go, or I could unravel the whole lot and wind into balls ready for my two identical socks.

So, I've got the gist of sock blanks. First thing to do is knit myself a blank. Out comes the knitting machine. The looser the knit, the easier it will be for the dye to get into all the stitches and not leave any white bits, so I selected every alternate needle on the loosest gauge and knitted two 50gm balls of sock yarn together for as long as it lasted. I cast off with a chain stitch so it will unravel easily after dyeing. I guessed as to the right proportions of height and width here - I'm not sure how this compares to shop bought ones. I could change the width to get different effects too but for now I'll stick with this size and see how I get on.

Understanding the theory and applying that knowledge are two different matters:-) What type of pattern will give what effect? I found a really helpful link at Knitpicks that gives you an understanding of how stripes, dashes and zigzags will look knitted up. Exactly what I needed. So on to the dyeing....

I used some already mixed colours - greens, aquas, blues and purples - and started with a basic stripe pattern. I tried to make it repeat the colour order but it doesn't really need to as it's more like a canvas. Both socks are being painted at once so you could paint a landscape - that would be interesting! - and they will still knit up the same.

Each colour band was broken up a bit more with some tonal variation. You don't need to load a brush with dye, it goes through the knitted fabric easily so no turning over and smudging your work of art! And you can get some fine detail in there.

Then wrapping up in cling film, just like a painted skein and blasted in the microwave (or steamed if you prefer) until the colour is fixed. I gave this about 15 mins just to be sure as it was more of an unknown quantity. A little colour came out in the first rinse but not much more than that. So good result.

Dried, it looks a little paler in colour but has still retained some of the finer painted detail. If anything, the purple has receded and the greens now dominate. I think both the aqua and the purple dyes must have been a weaker solution. I also got a few little blobs from either some sediment or dye on the edge of the cling film. This hasn't happened before so I'll have to remember to wipe the excess dye off the edges before wrapping and mix fresh dyes each time from now on.

But all the same, I do like my little experiment. Now, the exciting bit - what will it look like knitted up? Tune in tomorrow:-)