2019 marks the start of a huge change for me. I’ve now said goodbye to my job of 15 years to work on my patterns full time. Which is both exciting and terrifying! I decided I needed to focus more time on Experimental Space than it was getting so have taken the leap! I am very much looking forward to spending all of my time on something I enjoy so much.
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me so far. The sewing community is so lovely, like a big welcoming family. I can’t wait to see what happens in 2019
You might have noticed the website is looking a little different now. Well it was long overdue for an update and this time around I am working on making it easier to read on phones and tablets, yay! If you are like me and have your phone or tablet next to you on the sofa while knitting hopefully the changes in the days to come will help you use this site better. I thought for now at least have the content still available and a search area at the top and most people should still be able to find what they are looking for. Shortly I will work in an easy way for further navigation and seeing related posts and whatnot.
So it’s done! We had a beautifully sunny day on Saturday so it was the perfect opportunity to do the dyeing as I didn’t want to completely destroy my kitchen by doing it inside. I set up a dyeing area outside in our garden, laying a bin bag over the table and then covering that with cling film. Here’s the steps I took:
Laid the yarn carefully on top of a sink full of tepid water which had a couple drops of washing up liquid in it.
Left the yarn to sink to the bottom by itself (about 30 minutes)
While the yarn was soaking I prepared the dye by mixing 1 packet of kool-aid per 8oz
Once the yarn was soaked through I carefully pressed down on it to get rid of any final bubbles that were trapped within the yarn.
Lifted the yarn out of the sink, carefully and gently squeezing the yarn to get rid of some of the water
Laid the yarn in a circle on the table
Created a very basic guide to help me space the colours properly
Took the first colour and poured it wedge-style onto the chosen sections of the circle.
Gently rub the mixture through the yarn, lifting and making sure the underneath is coated as well
To finish each colour I took the spray gun section of a normal squirty bottle and had it’s end in the measuring jug holding the juice, this way I could carefully and accurately get the remaining spots of white with the colour
Work through the rest of the colours in the same way
Wrap the yarn in the cling film, folding it over itself so the yarn is separated in layers from the other sections of the yarn (so colour doesn’t mix)
Put the whole thing in a microwavable bowl and in the microwave on high for 2 minutes, then rest for 2 minutes and then put it on high for another 2 minutes. You should find the water in the bowl is clear at this point, if not then after a 2 minute rest pop it on high for another 2 minutes.
Leave it to cool COMPLETELY. I found this bit very hard to do, I really wanted to unwrap my yarn and see it but if you do there is a chance you’ll felt your yarn and then it will be ruining, so leave it til it’s cooled
Fill the sink with water that is the same temperature as your cooled yarn and carefully push your yarn around in it a bit
Pull the yarn out, gently sqeezing it and then hang it up to dry
In one of the recent sites I’ve been working on, I found that a bit in the sidebar wasn’t applying the appropriate css and pushed the site out further, leaving a little gap. After trying different css tricks I found that the true problem was this:
[!– Run on view –]
A comment which gets put above the doctype after our cms system includes certain files. I took that stubborn comment out and the alignment problem is fixed.
