Black Beans

Ravelry sure is a source of inspirations. A whole thread of how to dye blue yarn/fiber with black beans.

Worth trying!

Tags: naturaldyeing, plant dyeing, dyeing, yarn, fiber

Permanent?

Do you know the feeling after finishing a big project (aka sweater)? When you are pleased wearing your new knitwear and at the same time long to start a new project. If only you knew exactly which one…

So instead I decide to blog. About the dyeing yarn. Together with the kids I dyed some old superwash yarn. With Kool-Aid.

And knitted mittens for the kids.

Now, Boy was so fond of his half-mitts, that he wore them all the time. They needed a wash. Superwash – so I put them in the washing machine. And that’s the result.

On the left one mitten of Girl, never washed. I read several times that Kool-Aid is permanent – but look at the difference. (And I didn’t use any bleach!)

Experiences?

Pentagons and Steeks and a Pullover

Finished! Just in time (= before Spring!).

The Pentagon Aran Pullover from Knitting Nature. Knitted in Size Small and  without any modifications to the pattern. I did change the way to knit it tough. Instead of knitting the back and the front separately I knitted the body in the round. That way, the pattern was way easier (You don’t have to twist your mind: points are purled. Always.)

Coming to the armholes, I had the choice: steek or twist. I decided to go for steeks, after my Vossajakka that felt more natural.  Didn’t make my mind what kind of steeks, but used 5 st for the steek. For the neck I decided just to knit the stitches in plain stockinette instead of the pattern and do the steek thing as well.

So far so good. For my Vossajakka I just followed the pattern, took my sewing machine and seamed the steek. Easy. Fast (once you have your sewing machine prepared). I marked the neck and sewed along the markers as well. Cut the thing and added the sleeves/neckband. The not so beautiful seam was hidden behind a knitted seam.

For the pullover however I decided to try crochet steek. First because it’s something new for me (Eunny Jang’s steek chronicle was very helpful) and second because I didn’t have to get out the machine. Not complicated as well. As for the neck, in the front I crocheted along the neck shaped and picked up the stitches for the neckband.

Lessons learned:

• crochet steeks look nicer
• but they tend to flare
• and they are bulky
• for the armhole, 3 st are enough (I first try to seem the steek down, but with the bulky steek the pullover started to look like a knight’s armour. So I had to crochet everything again and cut away the first steeks)
• For the neck the croched steek was convenient, because of the huge neckband the steek can be left as it is. Still next time I probably would do the same as for an armhole. BO the st required and CO some steek stitches.

Conclusion:
I absolutely don’t agree with Eunny that machine sewed steeks don’t go together with handknits. It is possible to sew them that they keep the stretchiness of the knitwear. For me it is the trade off between hiding the machine sewed steek in a seam (extra effort when knitting the sleeve) or having a slightly bulky steek (may be that could be avoided by using a thinner yarn. But I didn’t had any thinner yarn in the same color and didn’t want to risk another color showing).

AND I ABSOLUTELY LIKE THE RESULT

Tags: knitting, norah gaughan, knitting nature, pentagons, steeks, crocheted steeks