Dye wool yarn with food coloring Filed under: kids, knitting and crochet When I was a youngster, I remember days where I was bored beyond measure. I would listen to the click-clack of my Mother's knitting needles as she would tell me stories of her youth in Germany, while I would unravel the ball of yarn for her. Most kids won't sit long enough to help with mundane tasks, but I bet you could get yours to sit still on a rainy day if you ask them to help you dye yarn with food coloring... Read Full Story
If you're like me you know what felt is, have used felt plenty of times and could reliably pick it out of a line-up but haven't a clue on earth how felt is made. Well today is your lucky day because I'm going to show one way it's done (and it's soooooo easy!) I found a book at our library: Hip Knit Hats by Cathy Carron which has terrific patterns for all kinds of knit hats--some felted, some not--and I spent a couple weeks knitting like a madwoman, making hat after hat in the middle of a... Read Full Story
The other day after rereading my last post, I remembered that I knit a pair of socks with handspun yarn a few years ago, the yarn with similar colors to the shibori I finished last week. Here it is:This pair is 100% wool, dyed with acid dyes. And while I was shooting these, I decided to include these other handspun, handknit socks as well for your viewing pleasure...The black pair is also wool, natural black merino and hand dyed romney.The orange pair is wool and silk, also hand dyed.The last... Read Full Story
My research about felting led me to a website call All Fiber Arts, where I found the following step-by-step instructions for making felt. You can make your own felt easily, in your bath tub. To make a 20" square piece of felt, you will need : 1. A flat surface to work on that you don't mind getting wet. 2. Access to hot water. An electric kettle will work fine or a hose attached to your hot water tap. 3. Approx. 5 - 6 oz. of pure wool roving (For this project I used dyed merino wool top.) 4... Read Full Story
Finally getting around to taking some pictures of the handspun yarns. Truthfully, I had to figure out the digital camera first. Capturing the color is not easy, but really I want to show the spinning right now. This is a sample of the uncarded wool I have been telling everyone about. This yarn and others will be for sale on my website: http://summerlandfibers.etsy.com, so visit to see more yarns even if you just want to see the dye colors or spinning samples.
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