Solar Dyeing Project, Part 1

A couple weeks ago, my friend and occastional shopgirl alternate Chloë mentioned that she was interested in trying out some solar dyeing, after reading an article about it (“Kissed by the Sun: The art of Solar Dyeing” by Caitlin ffrench) in the most recent issue of Knitscene, and wondered if she could use my sunny front window as the locale for this endeavour.  I hadn’t read the article yet, but I like having new and interesting things in the windows, so I said Sure! We struck a deal wherein I would provide the yarn and the jars (since I have quite a few kicking around from my hardcore canning days), and she would prepare them and take photos along the way…

The materials were collected: yarn, jars, mordant, dyestuffs, and the ever-important instructions!

We chose yarns as neutral or undyed as possible, and in a range of different fibers. From left, two skeins of Diamond Luxury Collection Pima Lino Lace (cotton/linen blend) in “Natural”, two skeins of Universal Cotton Supreme (100% cotton) in “Ecru”, two skeins of Louet MerLin (merino/linen blend) in “White”, and one skein divided into two of Briggs and Little Heritage (100% wool) in “Washed White”.

Litre-size jars were used, because pint jars would have been too small to fit a whole skein of yarn *and* the dye.

Check to make sure your yarn skeins *will* fit into the jars you’ve chosen. Even 50g skeins take up a surprising amount of space!

Dyestuffs were collected: onion skins donated graciously from friends, plus tumeric, paprika, hibiscus, black currant tea, and black tea.

Yarns were pre-soaked for at least twenty minutes to ensure they were evenly saturated, and therefore evenly damp, so that the mordant and dyes would strike at the same time, providing more even colour.

Prepare the mordant. Chloë chose Alum because it’s reasonably easy to find (Bulk Barn!) and also relatively safe, though rubber gloves should still be worn when handling it. It’s also the one recommended in Caitlin ffrench’s article.

The dyestuffs are added to the jars…

And then the yarns. Where dyestuffs were repeated (turmeric, black currant/hibiscus tea, and onion skins), the yarns were changed, so we’ll be able to compare how different fibers absorb different dyes.

And a nice, warm, sunny spot is the final ingredient! We’ll be turning, shaking, stirring, and topping-up the water in each jar over the next few weeks. It’s difficult to estimate how long we’ll have to wait, but these colourful jars are certainly attracting a lot of attention from passersby on the street!

They are accompanied in the window by my recently completed Citron shawlette, which kindof resembles a little slice of sunshine, doesn’t it? Stay tuned for updates in the SUMMER SOLAR DYEING ADVENTURE! (and big thanks to Chloë for developing this project and documenting the process!)

Sweater Weather Second Chance

After a couple of really nice spring/summer weather here in Southern Ontario, last week we were hit with one of those sneaky cold snaps that happen almost every spring, but still feels like a horrible surprise every time. I saw snow fall from the sky, a sight I was sure I wouldn’t see again until October at least. And it made me wish that I hadn’t so hastily set my cold-weather accessory knitting aside in favour of fair-weather projects…

These little fingerless mitts I’d started in the last of the cold day in April and set aside when the balmy weather and bright sunshine hit. They’re just the kind of transitional garment I tend to wish I had, for chilly morning bike rides or wearing with cropped-sleeve jackets.

knitwear weather = tea weather

This is a nameless, totally improvised pattern. The original inspiration came from a pair of mitts that I had seen on Pinterest, that were a commercial item, machine-knit, and acrylic. I searched Ravelry for a similar pattern, but had no luck finding one. I knew that I wanted to use the new Mirasol Nuna, a sport-weight 40% Merino/40%Silk/20%Bamboo blend, so I checked the stitch counts of a couple other sport- or dk-weight fingerless mitt projects, used the needle size recommended for the yarn and made a couple calculations based on the recommended gauge and the circumference of my arms, wrists, and hands. I settled on a cast-on number of 44 stitches, and away I went! I knit them two-at-a-time (practicing for the Magic Loop 2-at-a-time KAL day I’m doing later in the summer), which actually helped with the thumb-positioning, because I knit them so that the mitt for my left hand *was* on the left and vice versa, so I could try them both on while still on the needles.

This is a very different process for me – usually I fall in love with a pattern, and while I may not follow a pattern exactly as written, I usually prefer having the guidance that a well-written pattern provides. But I have to say, the adventure of knitting these little mitts without the safety net of a pattern was pretty enjoyable! Sometimes it’s worth it to take the risk. 

Because it was still cold by the time I finished these garter-panel mitts (which means I actually got to wear them!), I decided to keep going on my fingerless mitts tangent and cast-on a pair of Camp Out Mitts as a shop sample.

I’ve wanted a pair of these mitts in the shop for a while, they’re a perfect solution to the I’ve-fallen-in-love-with-one-skein-of-Noro-and-I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-it problem! I cast-on for these on Tuesday and was weaving in the ends mid-afternoon yesterday, so they are a swift and easy project. One skein of Noro Silk Garden or Kureyon will make a pair, but a fraternal pair. I know of a few knitters who have knit these in double pairs with two balls of the same colourway – one mitt from each skein will usually match pretty closely with one of the other skein. Or you can just have fraternal mitts! Who cares? All of Noro’s colours are gorgeous anyways.

it’s *REALLY HARD* to take pictures of your own hands!

These mitts will be hanging out in the shop now, lurking near the Noro. The pattern suggests a couple of different options for the garter stitch band, so on one mitt I did a 3-needle bindoff and did backwards loops to cast on the stitches for the thumb. On the other mitt, I Kitchener stitched the two sides closed and used the cable cast-on for the thumb stitches. Each mitt is labelled with the techniques that I used, so you can check them both out before you decide which technique you want to use!

 

As a side note, the shop will be closed this Sunday (and Monday, of course) for the Victoria Day holiday. So pop in sometime before 5 p.m. on Saturday for everything you need for your May long weekend knitting project!

 

Channeling Gatsby

Maybe it’s all the hubbub about The Great Gatsby (which opens tonight!), or maybe it’s because I’ve been watching Boardwalk Empire at home, but the 1920′s are on my mind these days, and awesome knit pieces from or inspired by that era keep popping up before my eyes…

There are still some original patterns from that era you can find floating around the internet, like this adorable jumper:

“1923 Summerland Sweater” by Mrs. Edna Weeks, from Needlecraft Magazine, July 1923

but the problem with original patterns is that they read more like vague recipes, the terminology is usually very different and the authors usually make a lot of assumptions about the skill level of the reader. I prefer modern patterns that are made up in a 1920′s style:

“Maxine Elliott Shell” by Emily Johnson

I’ve had my eye on this pattern, the Maxine Elliott Shell, for a couple years. I haven’t quite found the right combination of yarn and beads, but it’s definitely on the to-do-one-day list. If you’re not familiar with Emily Johnson’s Family Trunk Project, you should check it out. I’m not sure if she’s still actively collecting for it or working on it, but Johnson has amassed a lovely collection of original designs based on vintage memorabilia and family history. Read more about it at: http://www.familytrunkproject.com/

“Clair de Lune” by Carol Sunday

More recently, designer Carol Sunday posted this pattern, “Clair de Lune“, on Ravelry. It’s based on one of her previous designs, a lace shawl pattern (“Pachelbel“), but with short sleeves inserted into the rectangular shape. As Sunday describes it,

This loose 1920’s-inspired shrug is worked using a combination of two stitch patterns that are at the same time exquisitely beautiful and deceptively simple. Elegant and relaxed over a chemise or equally awesome with a tank top and jeans.

I love the idea of being able to throw on a garment like this and instantly look a little more elegant, so I’m hoping to knit this before the end of the summer (and I’ll let you know how it goes!).

For now though, I’ve just finished this:

the season of Gatsby

This was made from the “Patsy Flapper Hat” pattern by Laura Mathy. The pattern isn’t super straight-forward, but with a little experimentation and some help from the comments made by other Ravelers who have knit it before, it turned out splendidly! This was my first time felting with Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca (in the new “Slate” colourway), and because I felted it by hand in the bathtub (rather than in a washing machine) I was able to watch it grow (which is normal but still a little alarming!) and then slowly shrink, becoming more dense and uniform.  It’s finished with a Kawartha Wilds Stoneware button on the side – lovely! And now that we’re back to sweater weather in Southern Ontario for the next few days at least (brrrrr!), I might just get a chance to wear it out on Gatsby weekend!

Have a GREAT weekend everyone, Gatsby or not!

Knit Along Fever!

It’s the end of April (can you believe it??) and two of our four summer Knit-Alongs are already in progress!

My Rock Island Shawl in-progress. This one is supposed to be done for Sunday, so I better start cracking! One of the nicest things about this pattern is that it’s worked from the outside-in, so it’s only going to get smaller from here!

 

My Que Sera cardigan swatch and the first few rows of the body cast on! This KAL started last Sunday and I’ll be working away on this for the next couple o’ months!

 

I’ve also been working on a shop sample of the Coral top, the KAL for which doesn’t start until July. Zipping right along, I’m hoping to finish it up sometime this week!

 

And new news relating to the Color Affection KAL – the class schedule has been updated to include a few summer classes taught by Kim McBrien of Indigodragonfly, among them a Colour Theory class conveniently scheduled for June 1st, two weeks before the Color Affection KAL starts. Plus, she’ll be delivering some Color Affection colour-packs in her Merino Sock and MCN Sock yarns that day! I think June is going to be pretty colourful indeed! Check out all of our class and KAL listings on our website here: http://www.needlesinthehay.ca/classes.html

Weekend Yarn Update!

I have coffee in my cup, sunshine in my window, and new yarn on the shelves – what a great day already!

Here we go:

Kim and Ron from Indigodragonfly stopped by yesterday with a box o’ yarn for me! Merino Sock and MCN Sock goodies!

 

New yarns from Berroco include Remix – a wool-free recycled-fibre blend of cotton, rayon, acrylic, silk, and linen! Tweedy summer cardigan anyone?

 

And Berroco Karma, a bulky-weight cotton with a tape-like construction keeps it nice and light. There’s a very cute short-sleeve top pattern available for free on Berroco’s website here:

http://www.berroco.com/patterns/pulina

Keeping that one in mind for some easy mid-summer knitting…

 

New colourways in Berroco Linsey as well, a self-striping cotton-linen blend!

 

And two new pattern books from Berroco, “Comfort Knitting and Crochet: Afghans” and “Comfort Knitting and Crochet: Babies and Toddlers”. As the names suggest, both books feature both knitting *and* crochet patterns, and all are gauged for Berroco’s very popular Vintage yarn.

 

For more weekend reading material, three new magazines arrived this week: Knitscene, knitwear, and Knitting Traditions!

 

New Zauberballs in bright spring colours in stock…

 

And tons of new Trekking XXL colours! I’m definitely feeling the sock-knitting vibe for the warm-weather months!

 

And a few new colourways in Universal’s Cotton Supreme, just in time for the Que Sera KAL starting later this month! (The Remix listed above would work really well for that pattern too!)

 

There’s a few new needles hiding in the needle rack now – the Chiao Goo Lace needles in 24″ and 32″ lengths in some of the most popular sizes, including the 4mm size required for the Rock Island Shawl! Our KAL for that starts tomorrow – I’m so excited!!

 

And a restock of needlefelting supplies! Just in time for our next Intro to Needlefelting workshop next Sunday, April 14th! There’s still space available, so send me a word if you’d like to register – info@needlesinthehay.ca!

Have a great weekend everyone!

3rd Annual Peterborough Fibre Arts Festival

A quick Friday afternoon update to let you know that all of the KAL projects and dates have been added to the Classes page of our website HERE. I’m going to be posting more about each project as we get closer to them, but for you eager rabbits out there, the dates are posted!

Moreover, I thought I’d let you know that I’ll be hanging out at the 3rd annual Peterborough Fibre Festival tomorrow…

I’ll be there at the Peterborough Public Library from 10 ’til 4 tomorrow, and I’ll be bringing some of our newest yarns and magazines, as well as some brand new fabric-covered buttons and other little goodies. However, for your regular LYS yarn and needle needs, Chloë will be holding down the fort at 385 Water Street in my absence. I hope to see you tomorrow!

Purlez-Vous Dispatch (springtime colours!)

It may be snowing (ugh!) yet again outside, but I’m feeling a springtime vibe in here tonight…

“Mini Gerbs” as the tag said, I couldn’t pass up these sunny faces!

spring-inspired treats for tonight’s knitters, mini-eggs, sour gummies, and ginger slices…

my own spring-colours knitting at the ready…

“Amelie” soundtrack playing…

And presto! My knitters are here… Let’s hope this snow doesn’t stay long. In the meantime, keep knitting to keep warm! ♥

Spring KAL and other shop news

After much conferring and calendar page-flipping, I am pleased to announce our first knit along (or KAL) of the warm-weather season:

ROCK ISLAND SHAWL by Jared Flood

An all-knit (no purl!) triangular lace shawl knit from the outside edge inwards. The border is knit back and forth with a yarn-over selvedge, which are then picked up and knit up in garter stitch with an open-work lace panel. I knit this pattern a couple years ago, and while it *is* demanding, it’s also really fun, it’s a perfect warm-weather project, and the end result is stunning. My first one was in gray-blue silk, and I’ve wanted another in yellow (surprise!) for a while. So I figured I would invite you to knit it along with me!

Dates:

Sunday April 7th, 2 – 4 p.m.

Sunday April 21st, 2 -4 p.m.

Sunday May 5th, 2 – 4 p.m.

(this way, if you really push through it, you can have it done and blocked for Mother’s Day. Though, mothers-of-knitters be warned: they may not be able to part with it when its done!)

More information about KALs is available on our website here: http://www.needlesinthehay.ca/classes.html (You’ll have to scroll down to below the class listings!) And let me know if you’d like to sign up! Email: info@needlesinthehay.ca

Rock Island requires about 680 yards/622 metres of lace-weight yarn, and as it happens, I just received some new colourways in the Malabrigo Silk-paca Lace and the Diamond Luxury Pima Lino Lace:

 

And just for fun, here’s a look at some of the spring/summer yarns that arrived this week!

Mirasol Nuna, a sport-weight Merino/Silk/Bamboo blend. So shiny and drapey! Spring scarf anyone?

 

Elsebeth Lavold’s Hempathy! A Hemp/Cotton/Rayon blend in a dk-weight. I’ve seen so many great summer tank tops knit out of this yarn, it’s been on my want-it-in-the-shop list for a while… and now it’s finally here!

 

And Universal Yarn’s Cotton Supreme, a squishy heavy-worsted weight cotton in 100g skeins! I have KAL-related plans for this one, so you’ll have to stay tuned for that news next week!

And one final note about a change in our hours for this weekend: I’ve decided to close (or rather, not to bother opening) this Sunday, as it is St. Patrick’s Day. Normally this isn’t an issue at all for the shop, but because the holiday falls on a Sunday this year, it will also be the day of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, typically one of our slowest days because of all the craziness downtown. So instead of fighting my way through the crowds, I’m going to take a mental health day and stay home and make some springtime decorations for the shop! And do some knitting. Of course.

So Happy Friday, Happy Weekend, Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all! I’ll be posting more KAL news next week!

Off the Needles – Buckwheat!

My little sweater is actually finally done! I honestly thought it would take me months and months to finish, since I wasn’t really working on it in any sort of dedicated fashion, but once I got the pooling situation sorted out (more on that here) it was smooth sailing.

Pattern: Buckwheat by Veera Valimaki

Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in “Ochre”

This was my first time working short-row sleeve shaping – you pick up all the stitches around the circumference of the sleeve opening, and then work short-rows back and forth to shape the cap, and work the rest of the sleeve top-down in the round. I’ll definitely be using this technique again in the future, especially for sweaters where I have concerns about having enough yardage (yes, even yarn shop owners have those problems sometimes!)…

I already know I’m going to get a lot of wear out of this little sweater. The fabric is thin enough to wear under any jacket or even another sweater, and Malabrigo is just the softest and squishiest. I have just shy of a full ball left of the Ochre; I’m already considering striping it with something else for yet another sock-weight sweater… yikes!

And just for kicks, here’s some of the new stuff in the shop!

Noro Taiyo Sock is back! This gradual-colour-sequence yarn is %50 cotton, nice and light for summer scarves…

 

Plus new colourways in Noro Silk Garden!

 

And new colourways in Aslan Trends’ Royal Alpaca (left) and King Baby Llama and Mulberry Silk (right)!

 

Plus a restock of favourite colourways in Sirdar’s Baby Bamboo…

 

And Debbie Bliss’ Eco Baby sport-weight cotton.

The summer-weight yarns are starting to arrive, with more on the way! More updates soon!

 

Recent Arrivals: January & February

Things have been so busy around here I haven’t had a chance to post about some of the awesomeness we’ve been stocking here at Needles in the Hay. So if you haven’t been in recently, let me introduce you to some of the new kids!

Malabrigo Rastita! Like a mini-version of Malabrigo’s very popular super-bulky “Rasta”, this is a sport/dk weight semi-felted single-ply…

Malabrigo Baby Silkpaca! A 70% baby alpaca/30% silk blend lace-weight yarn, hand-dyed in gorgeous colourways as we have all come to expect from those yarn wizards at Malabrigo…

And new Tanis Fiber Arts is in stock now, too! Some fresh springy colourways in the Yellow Label DK, 100% superwash merino…

… as well as new colourways in the TFA Blue Lable Merino/Nylon fingering weight and the Purple Label Merino/Cashmere/Nylon sock weight, woohoo!

And back in stock, fresh colours in the TFA Pink Label merino lace-weight and luscious Silver Label  100% silk lace… Start queuing your summer lace knitting projects now!

We also have new roving colours in Merino fiber in addition to our regular Corriedale colours for all of you needlefelting fanatics (you know who you are!)

Brand new issues of Interweave Knits and Knitscene with some great warm-weather garment ideas…

And new books from hat designer Woolly Wormhead, as well as one of shop-favourite  Stephen West’s newest releases: Made for Movement! Seriously, can we just name Stephen West as official honourary shop-boyfriend?? We love him so much!

And here are two new hat samples on loan from Monica, our crochet instructor. These hats, “Divine” and “Phannie”, are two of the four projects featured in the Crochet II class. Just choose your favourite pattern of the four, choose your yarn (and sign up for the class!), and Monica will guide you through crocheting in the round. Crochet II runs Wednesday March 20th and 27th! More info, and our updated class schedule, is available on our website here: http://www.needlesinthehay.ca/classes.html

And just for fun, since he couldn’t stick around for very long, here’s an ice duck!

A friend-of-the-shop and general awesome knitter, Marit, revealed a hidden talent recently: making frozen duck-likenesses out of ice, adding food colouring for green, blue, and orange ice ducks, as exterior temperatures allow. She brought over this little guy, who sat dignified and proud (as only a duck can) out on my stoop during that big snowstorm a couple weeks ago, and tragically melted away during the thaw. Farewell little ice duck! You were the king of Water Street, if only for a weekend.