Leaf Evolution Mystery KAL

Ok, so this is a project that I've been working on for a couple of weeks, but I was waiting for it to 'grow' before I took some photos ...
I'm taking part in Tetiana Otruta's Leaf Evolution Mystery KAL, clues are released every week, and for once I'm more or less keeping up! These pictures were taken in this last weekend's sunshine, and my shawl has grown again since!

 

I'm using Posh Yarn Martha Sock yarn in the colourway 'Barefoot in the Grass', it's lovely yarn to knit with and quite 'swooshy' so until I block my shawl it's going to be difficult to see all the lace detail that I'm knitting. I'm just starting on the next section so hope to have some more pictures soon.
Let's just hope I can keep up with the rest of the knit-a-long!

Where It All Began ...

Like many knitters who grew up in the 1970's, my adventure began with the Ladybird All About Knitting book ... I also had the sewing and crochet books that they published too!
I can remember buying it in Woolworth's with my pocket money, and I also remember my Mum wandering how she was going to teach her left-handed daughter how to knit ... she managed it - taught me how to cast on, and how to knit and the rest I picked up from the book.
I was looking through my 'recommendations' on Amazon last week when I spotted this ...

... a facsimile copy of the original Ladybird Knitting book, so I pressed 'add to basket' and a couple of days later I was re-united with those happy memories of learning to knit - the girls in my street would actually take their knitting 'out to play' - how times have changed!

I tackled lots of the projects in the Ladybird book, but the one I particularly remember is this pencil case, I think I made one every summer holiday ready for the next school term, although I usually put press-studs on mine instead of a zip, not very good for pens and pencils when you think about it.

I hope that copies of the sewing and crochet books are reprinted soon too.

In The Garden ...

Better late than never ... I actually managed to get some work done in the garden yesterday. It's not been the best year so far for gardeners, I still have heaps of seeds from last year that didn't get planted, and they won't get planted this year either!
However I am determined that I will be able to harvest some goodies from the garden this year, so planted purple sprouting broccoli, red onions and rocket in the vegetable patch. My theory is that these veggies will deliver in some form no matter what happens with the weather - at worst I'll have rocket for a sandwich, and a few spindly broccoli sprouts and red 'spring' onions I can add to a stir fry!
I also started off a couple of seed kits, some borlotti beans and four different chillies. I had a Kew Garden Chilli kit for  my birthday last year, but it was a bit late in the year to start it off.

 

The kits are on south facing window ledges now, and last nights rain should have helped the other seeds settle in the vegetable patch ... fingers crossed!

Dyeing in the Sun

So, the weekend came and went, and I didn't get a chance to type up my shawl pattern - work has been busy, and I needed to relax. I've been knitting some gloves for the Yummy Craft Along I've joined, plus I did some baking.
I did manage to take some quick photos (a bit blurry) or my solar dyeing experiment. I mixed food colouring with white vinegar, painted it onto the my yarn and 'fixed' in the sun inside a zip lock bag!
As an extra 'fix' I put the yarn in the microwave oven for one minute and then rinsed it in a bowl of water until no more 'dye' came out. The important bit is to do the rinsing in a bowl of water rather than running water or there is a change that the yarn may felt together.

The finished yarn is a bit 'rhubarb and custard' - created using red, yellow and pink food colouring, now I just need to find a mini-project that uses just 50g of yarn ... that's all I've dyed.

Hand dyeing was great fun, but I think I like shopping at my favourite online yarn stores a little bit too much to do it all the time!

Sneak Preview

Well, this is rare, a Bank Holiday with actual sunshine. I'm wearing sunglasses, there's a blanket on the lawn and the vegetable patch has actually got some soil visible rather than a carpet of weeds.
This weekend I've been finishing off my Bus Knitters Shawl, it needs blocking, but I'm hoping to take photos and upload the pattern before the week is out.

Over the weekend I've read a couple of magazine articles about solar dyeing, which involved hand dyeing yarn, sealing it in a zip lock bag and heat setting it in the sunshine ... so that's my experiment for this afternoon ...

I've collected together some white vinegar, a sandwich bag, some red and yellow food colouring and some white wool yarn from my stash. I'm just about to put the yarn in the bag and 'set' it in the sunshine - fingers crossed that it works!

Yummy Craft Along

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was finishing the Citron shawl I made from the Yummy Yarn I received at Christmas - I've decided to take part in  another Yummy challenge.
This time it's a craft along, so you can spin Yummy fibre or knit/crochet Yummy yarn. Obviously my spinning is still awful, so I'm opting for the latter!
This is my yarn, a laceweight lambswool/mohair mix called 'Greenssleeves'.

Picture by Yummy Yarns

Although it's laceweight, it is quite squooshy, so will work with some 4ply patterns - I'm thnking shawl or wristwarmers here, but I still need to make up my mind!

The yarn is would and ready for casting on at the weekend. Hopefully I will have made a decision by then!

Pink Seed Fish

As promised yesterday, here's my lastest image collection for the Lunar KAL. This Lunar month is Pink Seed Fish. You can see the full image collection on my Pinterest page ...

 

I really enjoyed putting together these images - I love drawing seed pods and fish ... and I love knitting fish!
Looks like i've got a lot of crafting to do before 25th May, the new Lunar month!