Aaron's Blanket

A dear friend's best friend has a little four year old boy with cancer (Ewings Sarcoma). With the help of several lovely ladies from Ravelry's Crochet Lovers Victoria, we were able to make him a blanket in green and yellow (which I'm told are his favourite colours). Some of the ladies also made Aaron some cute cuddle toys and hats!

Many, many, many, many thanks to Cathy, Dawn, Daphne, Tess, Sharon, Lyn, Julie and Michelle for all of your help! (aka: CRC, DawnieDear, HappyPeacock, KingsvilleTess, LaughingPurple, lyndymb, Shilo and Yarnplay67)

More Dyeing - Food Colour Attempt Two

This past week I made another attempt at food colour dyeing. This time I was more prepared wtih plenty of food colour on hand as well as my plastic mustard and ketchup picnic bottles to squirt on the colour (a tip I received from someone... sorry, I can't remember who, but thank you whoever you are!). Edited to add: Oh, I just looked it up. It was Meagan who gave me the plastic bottle tip. Thank Meagan - they worked PERFECTLY!

I have been using Queen food colours from the supermarket. This time I used an entire bottle of rose pink, an entire bottle of conchineal (sp?), an entire bottle of blue, and about half a bottle of green. All that for just 200 grams of wool!

I was aiming for mostly red to pink (and varieties in between). When I was squirting the dye on, the red and the pink looked nearly exactly the same and I was afraid I'd end up with more or less just one colour all over. That's fine, but that's not why I was doing home dyeing. I then decided to try and add a little bit of "turquoise" to the mix.

I REALLY saturated the wool because I wanted nice strong bright colours and I didn't want any of the natural colour of the wool showing. I followed the same directions as my first attempt - soaking in vinegar, putting it in cling wrap, squirting on the colours, then microwaving. After giving it a post microwave rinse in tepid water in the laundry sink, I noticed A TON of colour was coming out. And since, from my previous experience, I didn't want a residual vinegar smell, I decided to let it soak in some wool wash for awhile.

Later that night I was on my way out to dinner when I realised - oops! I'd left the wool soaking in the sink and had forgotten to take it out! Not much I could do about it at that stage, so it had to wait until I got home a few hours later. Because a lot of the colour that was coming out in the sink was of the blue/green variety, I believe it affected the rest of the colours.

Although I still have a bit of red and pink colours, more of that has turned to purple. Ultimately though, I am really happy with the colours and I love how they look. I started making a hat with the wool and it was working up beautifully. Unfortunately the pattern was awful and although this was supposed to be a large sized adult hat, it ended up being a good size for one of my niece's doll. I ended up having to frog it and will have to just wing a hat pattern as I go. Can't wait to finish it. Oh, I think that means I have to start it first!

Part Two - I Would Dye For You

In the end, I really love microwave dyeing and have since tried it with Kool-Aid. Yes, I sacrificed some of my precious Grape Kool-Aid to dye some alpaca that was very gray and gummy looking. Can't let perfectly lovely alpaca go to waste!

Jumping back to my first batch, after it was all dry, I realised it was still a bit stinky from the vinegar. I was advised that I might want to give it a hand wash in some tepid water with wool wash (being careful not to agitate it!).

I then balled it up and used about two of my three balls to make myself a tam style beret (which I haven't photographed yet).


As for the alpaca, I followed nearly the same directions as the food colour dyeing, however, this time, instead of squirting on the colours, I microwaved the alpaca in a bowl of Kool-Aid water. I read elsewhere on the internet that you just continue to microwave (in 2 minute intervals, 2 minutes of rest) until the water is clear and your fibre has absorbed all the colour.
I would have liked it to be a tad more purple, but I only had two packets of Kool-Aid for 200 grams of alpaca, and according to the calculations I got off the internet, I should have had about 6 for that much fibre. Ah well! I much happier with it than I was before. And it has a slightly grape-ish odour as an added bonus. :)




Pre-dyeing colour.








Soaking in vinegar for about an hour. (I've read you don't need to the vinegar soak for Kool-Aid dyeing because the Kool-Aid is already acidic. But I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry).

My two Grape Kool-Aid packets from the American food shop (must remember to stock up on Kool-Aid on my next trip back to the US!)

Ready for the microwave.

Outside drying.

I Would Dye for You

Well, I did it for myself actually, but it was so easy, I would do it for other people, too!

I've been wanting to try dyeing wool for quite some time, but it just seemed so messy! I was also very worried about ruining my pots and pans. Then I saw a blog by Laughing Purple Goldfish Designs where she dyed some wool in the microwave - yes, the microwave!

Well I had no idea this was even possible! I was so excited, I had to give it a try. In addition to reading several of Laughing Purple Goldfish's related blogs, I also searched the internet for any other tips and tricks that might come in handy.

I started with three balls of Spotlight's Basic Harvest Wool (please be advised that if you are using food dye, you want to use 100% animal fibre).

Using the back of my office chair, I wound them into hanks and tied them together with some alpaca I was not particularly found of (a little test to see how the alpaca would take to the dyeing).

As I've read, I then soaked these hanks in the laundry sink full of tepid water with about 1 cup of vinegar. I've read you should soak them for at least half an hour, so I did it for one hour. (By the way, make sure your water is not too cold or too hot or run the risk of inadvertently felting your wool).

While my wool was soaking in the vinegar and water mix, I got the rest of my items ready to go. Food colouring, cups, some old takeaway food chopsticks for mixing, cling wrap, and some more vinegar.

Then I set about mixing my food dye colours with water and vinegar and trying to get some cool colours. (Long story short, these were not the colours I was aiming for at all, but they are pretty fun nonetheless).

I've read that a turkey baster is recommended for squirting the colours on, but I don't have one. Ironically I needed a "potty break" and came across this little dropper thingy in the bathroom that came with a perfume atomizer - that'll work!


So I drained the hanks, gave them a little bit of a "hug" in a towel and then laid them out on a couple of sheets of cling wrap (with some old towels underneath just in case).

Now it was time to put the colours on!!! Weeee!!!! Okay the perfume atomizer thingy was a little small, but beggars can't be choosers. (I reckon I will invest in a turkey baster though for future dyeing).

Then I rolled it up in the clingwrap and popped it into a microwave safe dish.

Cook for two minutes, rest for two minutes, cook for two minutes, rest for two minutes, cook for another two minutes. Obviously since I've just been cooking this thing for a total of six minutes, this puppy was hot. I carefully took it over to the laundry sink with my oven mitts and popped it into the sink. I then very carefully unwrapped it, being sure to avoid any steam burns.

I wish you could see the steam coming off of this thing in the photo!

Then it was time to give it rinse with some tepid to warmish water (you don't want to hot or too cold so you don't accidentally felt it). Then another big hug in the towel to get some of the excess water out - and TA-DA! It's ready to go outside and dry!!!

I can't wait until these are dry so I can put them into balls and then start crocheting with them!

This was just so easy, so fast, and pretty mess-free. Because it's just food colouring, the glasses and bowl were just popped into the dishwasher and the chopsticks and cling wrap were popped into the garbage can. Clean-up complete! Too easy!

Obviously adult supervision is needed for this - especially with the microwaving and post-microwave unwrapping, but I think it would be so much fun for kids to be able to mix their own colours and squirt them onto the wool themselves. And it's totally safe since it's just food colouring. How excited would they be to have something made for them with wool they dyed themselves? :)))

Hip to be square

It seems like I've been making a lot of squares lately. In addition to the block-a-month crochet-along (where I'm actually doing both squares each month), I've also been organising a blanket for a friend of a friend's little 3 year-old boy who has cancer.

Some of the lovely ladies of Crochet Lover's Victoria on Ravelry have made some squares for the blanket (in addition to a couple of hats and toys as well - they are very generous!). I've personally completed three squares for the blanket so far.

Apparently the little boy's favourite colours are yellow and green, so everyone has been making squares in those colours.

I've made one of my 3-5-3-5-3 Squares

A center heart square

And a Mandala square. (I made this one on accident - I thought I was making a different square, and was already too far into it when I realised I'd grabbed the wrong pattern - oh well).
I've also finished my second January square (that Mandala pattern I don't care for.)

And this "two-tone" square pattern.

The center heart square is also one of February's patterns so I still need to make that in the blue and cream for myself now.

"I Felt the Earth Move" Handbag

After making my '2 Bizarre 4 the Car' blanket I had several scrap balls of Cleckheaton Vintage Hues leftover, and nearly 2/3 of one complete ball as well. I'd heard that Vintage Hues "felts beautifully... whether you want it to or not."

I received a lovely felted coin purse kit for Christmas, but have been scared to use it. I've never felted before and I didn't want to screw it up. I decided using these scraps would be the perfect opportunity to practice felting, and if it didn't work - oh well - no biggee.

I know items shrink when they felt, I was going on the principle of about 1/2 shrinkage in size. I wanted a small bag to throw a few things in. I ended up getting a little carried away and the bag got a bit larger on me than I'd originally intended. Here's a photo prior to washing/felting. That's a 12 inch ruler below the bag.


Thanks to the wonderful ladies of Crochet Lovers Victoria on Ravelry, I was able to give it a go! One item that was especially helpful was this blog from Laughing Purple Goldfish Designs.

Since I didn't have much to bash around the item in the washing machine, it took four rounds to get all of this puppy to felt.

I am sooooooo happy with the end result! I love the shape, I love the size it ended up being in the end. Even MrElle, who tries his best to be enthusiastic about some of my crocheted items, seemed genuinely impressed with my final result.

Here are some post felting photos. The bag is still wet in these photos (and stuffed with plastic bags so it will retain it's shape while drying). Check out the difference between the first photos (the size of the bag in comparison to the ruler) and the post felting ones.

This was my own improvised design. I'm quite happy with how it came out. A few people have asked me for the pattern, so I'm in the process of putting it to paper (or screen?). Watch this space....

PATTERN ADDED 20 JANUARY 20089

"I Felt the Earth Move" Handbag Crochet Pattern

Copyright January 2009 by Letitia Sherriff

*Although I am happy to offer this pattern to you for free, please do not reprint this pattern or make this pattern for items for sale. Pattern is written in US crochet terminology.

Materials Used

• Cleckheaton Vintage Hues 50 gram balls (Shade 1268)- 3 balls should be more than sufficient. (If substituting yarn, please be advised it must be 100% animal fibre for it to felt) (ETA: 2-March 2009, I have been advised by someone who made this bag that they used 5 balls of wool, though I am not sure what type/brand they used - FYI).
• 8.0mm crochet hook

Directions

• Chain 50
• Starting the second chain from the hook, sc in each chain across and 2sc in the last chain (50 stitches made). Remember to crochet loosely (not too tight) so that the item will felt properly.
• Continuing along the OTHER side of the chain, sc all the way across and 2sc in the last chain (50 sc made).
• You are now going to continue crocheting "in the round" making a very elongated oval / rectangle. Do not join or fasten off at the end of a round, just continue working in a spiral. You may wish to use a stitch marker just to keep track of where you are in terms of rounds.
• At each corner (4 corners total) you will do 2sc into the same stitch. All other stitches will just receive 1sc each. You are currently making the base/bottom of the bag. (Please note, pattern originally called for 3sc in each corner, but found this to be a bit too bulbous).
• Continue in this manner (2sc in each corner, 1sc in all others) for 10 rounds
• Now do one round of surface crochet on each stitch of the previous round. (Stitch explanation - surface crochet: If you are doing single crochet and lay the item flat on a table, the "V's" will be facing away from you. When you do the surface crochet, instead of putting the hook through the top of the stitch by the V's, you are actually going around the stitch itself. As you can hopefully see in the photo below, the purple is done laying flat, with the V's facing away, and the yellow is done on the surface, with the V's FACING THE CEILING). Hook in the photo is placed where the next stitch would go.

• Working into this surface crochet that you just did (like it is a regular stitch now), you will do 1sc into each stitch. You are now working up the sides of the bag.
• Continuing in a spiral, do 12 more rounds of sc - 1 sc in each stitch.
• #*For the next round, do a sc in each of the next 8 stitches, then sc2tog to decrease* continue from * to * for two rounds. Then do one round of sc in each stitch. # Repeat from # to # two more times.
• Now you are going to be decreasing only at the short sides of the bag. Although the bag is technically more of an oval than a rectangle, if you think of it as a rectangle the "ends" of the bag are the short sides.
• #*sc all along the long sides of the bag. When you get to the short end you are going to do 2 sc, sc2tog. Do this three times on the side of the bag. Now continue along the other long side of the bag all in sc. When you get to the other short end, do the same as you did on the other side (sc, sc, sc2tog, sc, sc, sc2tog, sc, sc, sc2tog). * Repeat from * to * one more time. Now do one round of just sc#. Repeat from # to # two more times.
• Do one final round of all sc, ending on the short side of the bag. Do NOT fasten off.
• You are now going to start the handle. SC over 10 stitches, making sure they are centred over the short end of the bag. Ch-1 and turn. *SC once into each of the previous 10 scs. Ch-1 and turn. * Repeat from * to * another 48 times (or more depending on how long you would like the handle to be).
• Now sc the handle to the other short end of the bag to attach the handle. (Don't worry, this will "disappear" when the bag is felted.) Fasten off! Your done!
• Now you are ready to felt it, baby!

January Block-a-Month

I am participating in a crochet-along (CAL) through a Ravelry group. The idea is that you make one 12 inch square per month and end up with 12 at the end of the year. Each month, two different patterns are posted and you pick the one you'd like to do.

Seeing 12 squares would only make a 3' x 4' blanket - which isn't of too much use to me - I've decided to do both blocks each month. That's 24 squares by the end of the year instead, which will make a nice sized 4' x 6' blanket instead... much more useful.

Here's the first of my two squares for January from a pattern called Esther.