Tag: silk

Knitting progress

PiaKnitting

 leap shetsweat1

Been making a bit of progress on various projects, some ups and downs such as making the waist decreases on my sweater at the red stripe only, to find out the yarn is so heavy that it’s actually more the brown stripe that is at my waist. But it’s got a comfortable amount of ease all the way up, so I’ll leave it, maybe block it a bit. Right now the sides are only loosely seamed with cotton to test it on, so it’s looking kinda lumpy. I’m knitting an inner collar of silk (Shetland is scratchy), then I’ll have to spin more yarn before I can continue to the sleeves. This was expected, I just didn’t realise what a quick knit this was on 6 mm.

garn

The remaining sweater yarn is sitting on a quick improvised scarf I did for my mum with some leftover DROPS, nice warm silk and baby alpaca for her vulnerable neck (disc surgery). It blocked way longer than I anticipated, so it could have been wider (used up the yarn to within 20 cm), but I’m not going to redo, I have another scarf on the needles for her. Different yarn, same fiber combo. She needs them light and small as she’s not a very big person. (just under 5′)

sunbstart

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Strikkeri

Det gik hurtigt med at strikke min tykke sweaterkjole, måske lidt for hurtigt, for jeg fik lavet lidt for kraftigt sving på taljen og lidt for tidligt, garnet er tungt og elastisk, så det var svært at beregne den endelige længde på trøjen. Nå, men der er ikke noget der strammer, jeg lader det være, måske blokker lidt eller kigger på sammensyningen. Lige nu er den bare løseligt rimpet sammen med bomuldsgarn for at kunne prøve den. Jeg er i gang med at strikke inderhals af silke, så jeg ikke bliver kradset helt op, og så skal der spindes mere garn før der kan blive ærmer, men det vidste jeg godt.

Er også i gang med tørklædeproduktion til min lille mor, som skal have varmet sin opererede nakke med florlette silke/alpaca ting. Den grønne er bare improviseret med en rest, og blev noget længere end beregnet, så det kunne godt være blevet bredere, men det fungerer. Jeg brugte vitterlig alt garnet, så ingen rettelser der heller.

Mitt

PiaAcid Dyeing

After trying to knit with my predrafted hankies on 2.5 mm needles I decided to give them a bit of twist.  Having done that, I decided to ply them as well…. Too fiddly otherwise, snagging on the join of my circulars, just plain ARGH. I think if I’d drafted them thicker it might have been easier, maybe I just suffer from old lady eyes….

One mitt done, weighing in at 9.6 g. I have a total of 44 g of silk judged from various pattern, so apparently silk weighs nothing compared to wool. I’d originally wanted them really thin, which obviously isn’t happening on 3.5 mm, so I ended up not making individual fingers, not wanting too much material between each. Dunno what I’ll do with the other half of the yarn. Matching earmuffs? LOL. Or just a nicer pair of mittens…

I made up the pattern as I went along, and being my first glove ever, I see lots of room for improvement, but they’ll do their job. When I tried them on before casting off, the 3-finger part seemed longer unfortunately, I would have liked them to extend to the last(first) joint. But I’ve already woven in ends, tough luck.

I’m as yet undecided whether I like to work with hankies or not. I like silk and I don’t mind the rustic look that you get, but I think it’s really hard on the fingers to pull them open, as well as quite boring compared to spinning. I’ve got about 300 g left of them, they don’t cost extra rent I suppose, so they can either sit there or I could dye them and hope someone else will care for them more than I do. I have plenty of silk top to work with instead!

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Fingerløs

Første forsøg med vantestrikning, det gik ikke helt som planlagt, men jeg er ok tilfreds alligevel. Jeg brugte meget mindre garn end jeg havde regnet med, den første vante vejer kun 9,6 g og jeg har 44 g i alt. Den sidder endda ret løst, selvom jeg troede jeg havde strikket den for lille, da silke jo strækker sig. Jeg kan så konstatere, at det strækker sig MEGET!

Jeg ved ikke helt hvad jeg synes om hankies, jeg synes det er hårdt at trække dem ud til tråd. Men jeg har købt 300 g, så jeg må vel hellere få dem farvet og finde på et eller andet.

It’s ridiculous…

PiaAcid Dyeing

I’m not dead yet! Just slightly woozy from the antibiotics I need to take for the next month… I’ve been doing stuff, but I just don’t have anything to show for it. Nor anything super exciting to tell – maybe in a couple of days, though. You see, I’m waiting for ELVIS!

I did the shoulder strap for my sweater bag, but I didn’t sew it up yet. It’s in the tumbler as of right now. And a slight colour difference, so I think I may throw a bit of dye after the bag itself. Contemplating getting some felting needles….

I have some cloths sitting around wrapped up with leaves.

I dyed some yarn, testing to see if I could get a faded denim look to it, I could, but the skeins are all jumbled up and in the very long process of being wound into balls by hand. But that’s something to play with in the future. And a nice scarf perhaps to match jeans?

I also dyed some silk hankies to use for my cold fingers. Going to knit them as is, not spin them, just pull them out. They’re a bit unclear in the colours due to my experiments into setting the dye. I can’t ever just do something by the book it seems, always have to add a bit of “what if”.

I did have some alpaca I wanted to use for mittens, but it happened to be perfect with another yarn for another project, so we’ll see if there’s enough for mitts when I’m done. Right now I’m having a bit of trouble understanding the instructions for the yoke… Or rather, how to keep track of it all without losing my place. I need something warm and cosy for winter days knitting, spinning and writing, so the summer cardigans are on hold.

I got my lace yarn  for the Sunberry dress all nicely dyed up quite a while ago, decided to do the entire 200 g although I won’t be using that much. It would be such a shame to be 10-20 g short! I’m thinking a matching shawl or shrug could work out, I always get cold very easily. Or if not, my mum has claimed it’s her favourite colour.

I actually wrote down the formula! Although I may dye the actual dress a bit darker when it’s done. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <- wave

And after writing this earlier, I’m now thinking of overdyeing the yarn anyway with the denim effect to get a slight, ever so tiny blueblack effect to the purple. Any opinions on that?

I HALF finished the collar on my ugly sweater, hoping that SW merino is softer than whatever the rest is. My first magic loop project btw.

As for painting, I didn’t even get started yet. But I persuaded the tall guy to perhaps rearrange the living room to leave me a bit of wall space for hanging canvas on! Just need to move some cords and stuff too. And negotiate the light I want overhead which is not overly pretty for a living room (first time he’s ever cared about that, WTF?) And I’ve looked into storage solutions, so I don’t have to cart my paints back and forth each time. I’m much more likely to do something if it’s all up and ready to go. Looks like a trip to IKEA…

And finally there’s my sweater project, I’ve spun the redbrown fiber, moving on to the grey and black asap. And I got more from World of Wool, so off we go, dyeing and spinning. It’s very squishy, more so than I thought it would be, compared to the Gotland I spun last year. I hope I can make all the yarn match this one in style and feel.

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Projektstatus september

Jeg laver en hel masse – men har bare ikke noget at vise frem. Skal i gang med næste farve shetland til Spindeforeningens sweater SAL, næsten færdig med at filte min sweatertaske som lige skal sys sammen og måske farves lidt og dekoreres? Har farvet silke som skal strikkes til fingerløse vanter uden spinding, bare trukket ud til en snor. Har leget lidt med farvning af garn og overvejer at give det lilla en lille tur mere.

Satser på nogen lidt mere inpirerende updates når jeg ikke længere er bimmelim af den antibiotikakur jeg skal tage den næste måneds tid….

Det blev også et temmelig kort resume, den engelske udgave startede jeg egentlig for længe siden, men lige nu må I andre have detaljerne til gode.

Coldfinger

PiaKnitting

I just realized that we’re moving into autumn and after that comes winter.

We heat the house only with the woodstove in the living room, and while the house is warm enough, I do tend to get cold hands sitting in my “office”, typing or just mousing away with one hand.

So, for the last 2 years I’ve wanted to make some fingerless mittens, but never got around to it. I even have some really thin baby alpaca yarn to use, just to get an extra layer of skin but not have the bulk get in the way.

What I can’t decide it whether to just make the tube variety with a thumb hole or real gloves with just the fingertips off. Plain rib for a snug fit or some elaborate lace or cable pattern…

Which do y’all prefer? And why? (apart from the fact that I’m not looking forward to knitting fingers, I have an idea it may be warmer)

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Fingerløse vanter

Jeg bliver lidt kold om fingrene om vinteren når jeg sidder her ved PC’en, så jeg har længe tænkt på at lave fingerløse vanter i tyndt alpaca garn for at de ikke er i vejen men lige giver et ekstra lag hud. Det er bare ikke blevet til noget, men nu er vinteren jo på vej igen!

Så jeg vil lige høre, bortset fra, hvad der er nemmest at strikke, hvilken slags foretrækker I, med eller uden fingre, altså bare et rør med tommelfingerhul eller rigtige vantefingre uden spidser? Og hvorfor?

Vidste du, at man kan kommentere min blog uden at være wordpress medlem? Bare udfyld navn er nok. Det er så hyggeligt med dialog fremfor monolog!

Solar silk

PiaPå dansk

My first venture into solar dyeing, this grey, cold, miserable summer, was a couple of jars with silk and dye from Dyer’s Chamomile.

We did get one week of warm and sunny, but I didn’t actually think of moving my jars into the greenhouse until afternoon on the last day… Pretty typical of me.

After about a month I pulled it out, since nothing much seemed to be happening. (forgot to register, sorry)

I didn’t get any orange from the Tinctoria this time, but not necessarily due to temperature, but rather the fact that I was using 1/1 dyestuff to fiber this time as opposed to 3/1 last time. Bit of a shame since I wanted the orange shade as part of the silk project. So I fixed it by adding a handful of frosen coreopsis to some of the silk and a pot of hot water.

There wasn’t much difference in colour in the copper mordanted silk compared to the alum mordanted, so since I needed olive for my spinning project I dunked it in my horse shoe bucket. Voila presto!

Unfortunately I ran into another problem with the silk. I’d used two different batches, and the bit that I’d been gifted in a swap was really, really odd even as I soaked it before dyeing. Didn’t get wet properly, didn’t “float” and smelled odd. Did I pay attention? Nooooo… So what happend to that portion was, after it’s all dry and ready, the silk was completely brittle and rough to the touch. I can tear the fibres into short, short bits and it just feels unpleasant even after a wash. Not going to spin it. At first I thought it was the iron, but when half the coreopsis dyed silk ended up the same and the other half didn’t I guess it has to be the silk itself.

So I had to take some more of the yellow, that was supposed to stay yellow, and dunk that in iron to get the greenish tint, and then I gave up and acid dyed a new piece for orange. Easy to spot in the crowd I think, but probably won’t be noticed once they’re blended.

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Koldfarvet silke

Ikke helt SOLfarvet, eftersom vi ikke har haft så meget af den, i hvert fald ikke sommertemperatur, men dog farvet uden opvarmning af fibrene. De stod i glas ca. en måned, men der skete ikke rigtig den store udvikling de sidste par uger. Farvebadet er gåseurt, det ene glas med kobberbejset silke.

Jeg fik ikke orange denne gang, formentlig pga mindre plantemasse pr. fiber, ca. 1/1. Kobberglasset var en ret mørk gul, men ikke den grønlige farve jeg skulle bruge, så den kom lige et dyp i min hesteskospand og så blev det ellers oliven på nul komma fem. Orange fik jeg ved at lige opvarme en håndfuld nedfrosset skønhedsøje – coreopsis tinctoria og putte noget af det gule silke i.

Desværre viste den ene portion silke sig at være mere end underlig, så både den grønne og det meste af den orange er fuldstændig sprø og ru. Jeg kan trække fibrene over i korte, korte stykker helt uden at anstrenge mig. Silken var også anderledes allerede da jeg havde det i blød før farvningen, men jeg havde ikke regnet med det ville gå så galt.

Så jeg var nødt til at tage lidt af det gule og dyppe i jern igen, og for at have nok til mit projekt syrefarvede jeg så lige en portion orange. Jeg håber den ikke skiller sig ligeså meget ud når de bliver blandet.