Home Made Dyelots and Attempts at LaceMaking

When you dye your own yarn, one thing you dread is running out of that yarn 1/2 way through the project. It is just SO difficult to dye a 2nd batch of yarn to the same colour.

That is exactly what has happened with the vintage style dress I'm knitting for granddaughter in wave stitch and yarn I dyed an aqua colour - previous post. I got a bit confused with translating ounces to grams and I've made the skirt very generous and full and 'girly'. There is enough of the original 200gr to complete the bodice but not enough for the sleeves which will be generous, full and 'girly' puffs. So - I stopped knitting at the waistband - procrastinated for a few weeks then plucked up some courage & another 200gr of the yarn & my dyes.

Luckily, after more than 4 decades of crafting I am beginning to learn the importance of taking notes and had done so with the 1st aqua dye job. Here are the results - skirt of dress next to newly dyed skein.


Not bad huh! the new dyelot is very slightly bluer but I think it'll be quite acceptable given that the break from one to the other will be at the waistband - and I've enough of the original to do that alternating 2rows from each ball of yarn trick. Big sigh of relief!

Meanwhile, I'm trying to learn how to make lace - bobbin or pillow lace. Because I really do need a new craft :-)

Here is my 2nd "bookmark" of whole stitch, half stitch and something else - tension is horrid and there are lots of mistakes ...

However, time to move on to "Torchon Ground" and after much brain strain trying to follow the instructions in Jennifer Fisher's book "Torchon Lace for today" (thanks for the loans of equipment and book Jay) ...

Those who know will see the mistakes - and yes there are knots at the top, I was conserving my thread !!

Purple-icious

I do like The Colour Purple - in all her many shades and variations. There are so many gorgeous purples in nature - from the soft tints of lavender, there's wonderful wisteria (and that mauve contrasts so beautifully with the fresh green of the new leaves), the amazing glow of jacaranda trees in bloom, through to the darker purples of irises and the regal purple of aubergines.

And here are most of those purples - all together on some hand-painted yarn

I handpainted / dyed 2x 200g of Bendigo Woolen Mills "Luxury" 4ply, originally "Cream". I had such a lovely time with all those purples, but I'm not sure how it'll look knitted up (planning a twin-set for my granddaughter) as sometimes a hand-painted yarn with short lengths of colour can look really messy when knitted. But, if I don't like it I can always pop it back in some more dye :-)