Friday, June 29, 2012

Here Comes the Sun

 Now that the sun finally came out for a few minutes, its time to get the dye pots going.  I purchased 2 BFL fleeces this year, along with my left overs from last year and the mohair, silk, icicle and all the other bits and pieces that I have.
Actually it began with green because I am planning on making Luka a blanket in the fall and I decided to over dye some of my plant dyed yarn with chartreuse because he wants a green blanket. That dye pot kept me on the green journey.
First I used emerald green (left side) and when it more or less was used I added more wool and it absorbed the blues left in the dyepot. Then I added yellow and got the middle colour. Since i have already dyed all these colours once, I thought by mixing and adding to existing dyepots I would get new colours...Looks like its going to work. The next colour choice is blue. Luckily the weather report says the sunshine is finally about to arrive.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Ok..Truth...will I really finish this?

 There are some projects you start because you have an idea and want to try it out....but...part way through you realize you don't like it.Are we obligated to finish it?...Absolutely Not. I started this baby sweater...loved the colours...hated the yarn. Then one day my coffee spilled on my mittens that bled onto my knitting and left a red stain on both the yarn and the knitting. This was, to me a sure sign to stop.
I am a yarn snob and I realized that I have to love the yarn to finish the project. I can buy a cute acrylic sweater, but I can't buy a hand dyed superwash merino one,  made in a yarnlike Madeline Tosh. Now that there are so many        beautiful superwash wool yarns,
I don't want to knit in a synthetic fibre.
Sure people say they don't want the wool to irritate the baby, but very few people actually have a wool allergy. A wool allergy consists of being allergic to the lanolin in the wool. Most people have an ïtch factor" problem and that can be resolved, for a baby, by using a yarn like Madleine Tosh or Mulberry Yarns which are superwash merinos. Merino is the softest yarn available.
Needless to say, the orange and yellow baby sweater will never be finished...
On the other hand, I have been working on this crochet blanket for years....still love it, the yarn is cotton and I know |I will finish it when the right       reason comes along.

Monday, June 11, 2012

One Hundred Felted Soaps



I did a 100 felted soaps to be used  in gift packages for the opening of the BO.TTEGA The Bottega is a modern farm inn set against the backdrop of beautiful South East Kelowna. I was given  a white alpaca fleece from their herd to use. I mixed it with some fibres that I had in the colours green and teal. The alpaca was beautiful, soft and fluffy. It would be awesome to spin up and knit into something.
This was a fun project to do. 100 soaps seemed like a lot while I was felting them...took quite some time..but in the end they all fit into a shoe box.