Painting Yarn

In my last post, I promised to tell you about my process for the Pepper Flat.

It started out as a 100 g ball of Trekking Pro Natura, in white. Pro Natura is a wool/bamboo blend, so I wasn't sure how it would take the dye, but I figured since it's mostly wool I'd be okay. I cast on about 100 stitches and knit until I ran out of yarn. (Yes, I know you can buy already knit blanks. But in this case, I think the miles of stockinette were actually good for may sanity.)

To prepare it, I soaked the finished blank in a sink of warm water, no soap.


While it soaked, I prepared my dyes - in this case Paas Easter Egg dyes, mixed per Paas' instructions with vinegar and light on the water.


The actual painting was a bit messy. I spread the damp (I squeezed out most of the water from the soaking) blank out on my counter (granite countertop) and used a teaspoon and a syringe to paint the blank with random blobs of color. The goal was to have no white yarn left anywhere.


To set the dye, I spiraled the flat up to fit into a Pyrex pie plate with as little opportunity for dye seeping to fabric below it as possible. I stuck the whole thing in a plastic bag and microwaved it, I think for about two minutes.


Then I let it cool (keeping it covered), and nuked it again. After cooling from the second application of heat, I rinsed it out in cool water and spread it out to dry.


I can't wait to hear from my sister how it looks knitted into something else.

P.S. I did finish the Arabesque stole in time to send home with my friend! Pictures soon.

Hello September!

September's here and it's already starting to feel like fall. It's no longer oppressively hot during the day, and at night it's cool enough that long pants and sleeves are warranted. With little exception (ragweed comes to mind), I love fall. I like the cooler weather and the changing colors. I like the farmers' markets and that it's cool enough to knit sweaters again.

Speaking of farmers' markets and knitting, I was poking around one of my local ones recently in search of peaches (found, and made into cobbler!), where I saw this:


Which reminded me rather strongly of this:


I knit and painted the flat as a gift for my sister (it was for her birthday, and yes, it was late). I'll share my method later, but for now, I'm off to knit furiously on a stole. The recipient's going to be in town this weekend, so if I finish it, I don't have to mail it to her! I just have to finish the edging and block it, which is totally doable. I think.