Wednesday, November 18, 2009

All the Kool kids are doing it!

Last night's Knitting is Knotty was held at Maiya's house. She taught the girls how to dye wool yarn with Kool Aid. Instead of writing out what we did, we can recommend some other blogs and tutorials that followed the same or very similar process.

Knitty.com has a great tutorial.

Snow Angels has good pictures.

And Streets and YOs shows how to do self-striping yarn.

We had a great time! Ate good food. Cheese, bread, trail mix, Toby's tofu spread, hot cocoa, smores, cookies... and after we all dyed our yarn, we played a few rounds of Apples to Apples!!

Christina used 3 packets of Grape Kool Aid to dye her yarn. A rather fortuitous mistake had occured. Her yarn soaked up all the dye before she could completely saturate it. So parts of her skein ended up not being dyed or was a faint blueish color. It looks great! Can't wait to see what it looks like knitted up. Christina thinks she might knit gloves for her husband Chris.

Spring did a two color skein. She used Grape and Fruit Punch. The Fruit Punch looks soooo bright! She's thinking about what to crochet out of it. Again, can't wait!

Mary did three colors! Lemonade, Lime and Ice Blue Raspberry. She left a little bit of the natural yarn color in between. The colors look so good together! She thinks she might knit these into hats for her two sons Chase and Eli.

Maiya also used Lime and Ice Blue Raspberry. The Lime is such a gorgeous green. She is going to use this yarn to knit, then felt slippers for her husband Brandon.

If you have any questions on the dyeing process, let us know! We'll be happy to help! We'd also love to see any dye jobs you've done with your yarn!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Confessions of a Yarnaholic

Last night's Knitting is Knotty went back to the coffee house. A lot of us didn't get very much knitting done while drinking beer at the last meeting. What did we talk about this time? Pretty much everything. Children, family, Twilight, health, schools, art, money....

Candice brought roving, foam and felting needles and showed us how to needle felt. It's so easy and so much fun!! Here she is crocheting a cord.Maiya was knitting socks, but took a break to try needle felting. Candice said a great place to get supplies for felting is at ETC, here in Eugene. By the way, Maiya ordered a Chai Nog. It's chai tea mixed with egg nog. Very recommended!!Spring was working on several crocheting techniques. She crocheted a flower using a lot of chain stitches.
Kelsey is knitting with a HUGE ball of yarn! This yarn was upcycled from a sweater. She took a used sweater apart, then unraveled the yarn and wound it into a ball so she can knit what she wants. This is a great way to get good wool for very little money. Check your local thrift stores.
Sandra was super tired last night but she made it anyways! We're very glad she did as we love her company.
And lastly, Mary came for the first time. She has been knitting on and off for the last several years. She was frogging a baby blanket to reuse the yarn. Here baby is now 3 years old. (Hey, we all have those UFOs- UnFinished Objects.) She learned how to use circular needles to magic loop so she can knit herself a pair of Alice Mitts.
Next meeting, we're going to have at Maiya's house. Maiya is going to show everyone how to dye yarn with Kool Aid!