shibori!

i did it, i dyed and discombobulated my scarf and it looks great! I'll show you each step so that you can use shibori too!

first: knit the scarf

i used cascade ecological wool in it's lightest color. it's untreated with chemicals which guarantees a good felt and it will take up dye easily. plus, they give you 478 yards which is a steal for 15 bucks.

then, place the scarf in warm water until all the air bubbles are out, and slowly add heat and dye (i used four packs of black cherry kool-aid.)



to achieve the gradation that i wanted, i slowly lifted the middle of the scarf out of the dye and continued to add dye to the rest of the scarf in the pot.



i added more and more dye while pulling the scarf out until i reached the end.



i rinsed it in warm water, then layed it on a table to figure out the bead placement.



i pressed the beads into the wrong side of the scarf so that the bubbles would appear on the right side and stretched the fabric tightly across the beads. i wrapped them with rubber bands and then i smelled very bad, like a wet sheep that swam in black cherry kool-aide.



next i threw that sucker in the washing machine with some detergent. i made sure that water was hot hot hot! and out popped a fabulously felted scarf.



i took off the rubber bands, popped the beads out and presto! cool scarf!



nice

it's about time

i'm recovering from some bad blogging disorder. i'm gonna try to update this more often, i've simply gone too long without an update. so here it is...

I finished my first pair of socks! ever! even the strings are all darned in!



nessie is the half-dog in the background. she was pretty excited about the socks too. she tried to eat them.

i'm currently testing out some dye colors. i mixed a packet of cherry, black cherry and grape together and played around with concentration to make this.



the darkest concentration turned out a bit too maroon for my taste. i'll probably test a few more colors and concentrations until i find a winner. once i find the winner i'll dye this scarf



then (this is the exciting part) i'm going to go shibori on it's ass. that's right people, shibori. i'm gonna tie some rocks to the ends of the scarf using rubber bands then felt it. i really hope it turns out cool, otherwise it will become a new tug o' war toy for the pups. they do love their wool.

i'm working on ANOTHER pair of socks (am i turning into a sock whore? how does this happen?) Kyle, my BIL demanded a pair of black socks which he will be getting for his birthday on october 4th. i knit these almost exclusively at school (we're on week 4)



speaking of school, i'm not loving it. my classes are mostly lame and require unholy amounts of reading. it's not worthwhile reading though, it's mumbo-jumbo repetitive junk. all junk. boo.

which reminds me, i have to go to class.