Skeins and DimSum.

Moody Blue-ish and Phoenix Fire

This is how the skeins look like all wound up nicely. Well, as nice as I can wind them up really cause it was not very easy doing it. I also had a hard time re-skeinning them cause the yarn was sticking together at some spots, which lead me to think that the yarn might have felted a little?? But it didn't matter, it's all an experiment, for now.

I took Jonas to Manchester yesterday, to the Stitch & Craft show. I was hoping to get there early, walk around and then take him into Chinatown for some DimSum. Well, it started off quite well in the morning, we got on the train, and then was informed that it won't stop at Deansgate, where the G-mex was. Darn!!! Trust British Rail to spoil my plans. Quick text to Sebastian and got the info that I could take one of the free shuttles from Picadilly there. Nice!

Got to the G-Mex and Jonas was ..... disappointed!!! Why? Cause he thought it was a stage show of some kind. Guilt ridden, I tried to encourage him to look around and see if something might take his fancy. We walked about a bit and ended up at an Oxfam stall, and what did they want us to do? Sew up squares for the less fortunate. That was something Jonas said 'yes' to very quickly. He's always one to help out. After 15 mins of sewing, we both handed in our proud looking squares and headed back into the crowd. I think our rumbling tummies just got the best of us as we spent only the next half hour looking about before agreeing that it was time to go.

Tai Wu, that was the place which we went to for our Dim Sum and it was the place which Gi suggested we go to. It was loud, efficiently staffed and had great food. Jonas loved everything I ordered (a pat on the back for Mummy) and the day was saved. Yey! I think the both of us would have loved to have eaten more, but our tummies were near bursting.

After an hour of walking about Manchester, Jonas had had enough and we decided to head home. At 1611, the crowd was already gathering for this 3 coached train. Why on earth don't they add more coaches during peak times is beyond me. Beyond quite a number of people actually. As soon as the train opened its doors, Jonas squeezed in and saved Mummy a seat. We were joined by two other ladies, who were travelling in a group of 4 to Blackpool for the weekend. Must be because Jeremy Clarkson was going to be lighting up the Illuminations. Anyway, they were a friendly bunch of ladies who were having a nice laughing time in the stuffed train. Jonas then mentioned to me in German that they were really thirsty since they kept drinking their Cola Light. He was slightly shocked when I told him that they were drinking Vodka with their Cola Light, told him that the white liquid in the Cola Light bottle was not exactly water. He wasn't very sure about it till .... when the plastic bottle ran out, they brought out the real Vodka bottle. They even offered me a drink but unfortunately, it was our stop and out in Preston we got.

Half hour later, we were back home. As we settled back in, Niklas came running down the street into the house, into my arms saying 'I played computer in Pre-School today!!!' which was something he knew would start me tickling him. It was his last day at Pre-School yesterday and I don't really know if it has hit him yet. Oh well, school starts for both boys next week. We'll just see how it goes ..... !

My first two skeins

Phoenix Fire (top) and Moody Blue-ish (bottom)
I'd say not bad for a first and second time around. Still, I've a long way to go I think from dyeing something that I, myself would deem purrr-fect.

Did it again .... !

Yes, I dyed another skein. Just couldn't help it. I think I'm slightly addicted now. Gi came over today, so I dyed it with her around. She showed me some really lovely alpaca yarn which she bought in France for her next project. Wonderfully soft!

Anyway, today I did red and blue, and purple where it bled together. I added salt to the blue dye mixture because I read on the Ravelry group thread that it needed a little kick to help it absorb into the fibre. The colours are less intense as yesterday, so I might call it moody blue-ish.

And yes, picture to come when I get it dried and re-skeined.

So let's try this out!

So, the idea of a blog is so that one can put down ones thoughts and go ranting about what comes to mind. Mhm ... don't know if I can keep it up but I guess I'll just give it a try.

What did I do today? Apart from feeling jetlag from lack of sleep, I've managed to dye my first skein of Bluefaced Leicester with food colouring from SuperCook. I've been playing around with the idea of dyeing my own yarns now for some time. Button on Ravelry sells wonderfully coloured, cuddly soft hand-dyed yarns and I thought to myself, 'Could I do that?' Being a knitter, although I don't have as much time as I would like to have to enjoy my hobby, I guess the next logical step would be to learn how to spin yarn from roving, and then dye it. As I'm not a person with much patience, I thought I'd skip a couple of steps and dive straight into dyeing.

Button was really helpful and steered me to the right groups on Ravelry that would help me with questions I might have. After reading up and having an information overload migraine, I decided to take the plunge today. I had bought undyed yarn in a cone from Texere which arrived last week, and was pretty stump as to how to get a 100gm skein out of it. And without a niddy noddy, I was pretty much faced with the idea of either using the back of a chair or my arm (got this idea from YouTube). I chose my arm. With the cone on a weighing machine, I skeined my 100gm till my arm protested.

I first soaked the yarn in vinegary water, more water than vinegar cause vinegar really stinks. The idea is to wet the yarn to take in colour and the vinegar helps absorption faster. I then mixed up my yellow and red dye colours, with some water and vinegar (just a touch). I then dyed the yarn on cling film, yellow on one side and red of the other and orange in the places when they bled together. I then re-wrapped it in new cling film and moved the whole thing to my steamer, and steamed it for 40 mins. I think 30 mins would have done the trick but I really wanted to make sure it worked.

40 mins later, I had my first hot phoenix fire looking yarn. Well, it felt really hot coming straight from the steamer, and with it's bright colours (I need to experiment more to get more subtle colours), it looked more acrylicky than pure wool. I waited a bit then rinsed it, and then washed it with a little wool detergent. Mainly to get the vinegary smell out. It's now hanging on the line and I'm waiting for it to dry. I'll post a picture of it as soon as I can figure out how to.

Well, guess that's it for the first blog. :-)