Felting wool sweaters

I have quite the stash of felted wool sweaters already, but I have some crafty holiday ideas so I wanted some more holiday colored ones. I went to the Goodwill and found a nice bright red one. In addition, I found a lavender cashmere one, which is not a holiday color, but I have a hard time passing up cashmere.  I also had a few wool sweaters that were in my "need to felt" pile from last winter. This included a pink/white fair isle, a gray cashmere (yum) cardigan, a blue checked sweater, and the body of a yellow/brown cable knit striped sweater. I also inherited a plaid wool skirt from a friend so I tried to felt that as well.

I always use my washing machine to felt sweaters. I have a standard top load. I don't think front load and high effeciency washers will work for this.

I stick my sweaters in zippered cloth bags by color. The pink and red one together. The gray and purple one together.  The sweaters shed a lot of fiber so putting them in zippered bags prevent the fibers from clogging my washer. It also prevents red fibers from getting on a blue sweater, etc. The bags I use are pillow covers, some decorative, some white bed pillow covers. I get these at the thrift store. If I run out of bags I will use a mesh laundry bag, but prefer the zippered cloth ones.I did use a green mesh one in this load, here are all my bags ready to go.

I put them in the washer on hot and I did a super size load to give them room to move around.  Most people recommend stopping the washer after the first drain and spin.  I am not usually hanging out in the laundry room to babysit this, so it usually goes through the whole cycle. They were semi-felted after the first run. They were probably usable after the first run, but I like to make them very felted to make sure they won't unravel when I cut them up.  I also noticed at this point that the blue one had fabric elbow patches. I took them off so the entire sleeve will felt (sewn areas won't felt the same).  I was kind of sad after the second run, as the blue sweater felted so much I couldn't see the checked pattern any more.  After the second run, everything was very well felted, except the plaid fabric. I did not put the sweaters in the dryer as they are so tiny already. I have put sweaters in the dryer before though.  I do turn the zipper bags inside out and put them in the dryer to help get the felt boogers out the bags (see below).

The other thing I've started doing recently is saving the fibers from the sweaters that are in the zippered bags. I call them felt boogers.  I have a felting machine (also called an embellishing machine) and can use these for felted art. I just have a quart size zipper bag by the wash machine and stuff them in there.  I have a separate zipper bag for threads from my dyed fabrics.

Here are my results. These are on a standard size bath towel to finish drying. They look like kid size sweaters now.  

Acid dyeing wool yarn, weekend in Vail

This past weekend we went Vail for the weekend. Allen's niece had gotten married and they were in Vail for their honeymoon, so we met them for dinner on Sunday and wandered about town for a couple days.  The only Aspens that we saw that were still gold were in the town, all the ones on the mountain had already shed their leaves.

Artsy photo in town.

Here is the happy couple and Allen.

We went to Lancelot for dinner with them on Sunday. On Saturday night we went to Ludwig's for dinner and it was really good.

When we got back, I decided I wasn't too fond of this green kool-aid dyed wool yarn and decided to do a variegated acid dye on it.

I mixed three different colors, Chartreuse, Sky Blue and Sapphire Blue. I used 2 tsp for each and the dye looked really dark. I poured 1/4 of each in a cup and watered it down. I used both the concentrated and watered down dyes on the yarn.

I put my yarn in a couple layers of grocery bags to contain any dye that went through the yarn. I poured the concentrated dyes on in areas, then filled in any spots with the watered down dyes.  I put the yarn in my steamer. This steamer is for dyeing only and can never be used for food. I got this pot at the Goodwill a couple years ago. Steamed it for 40 minutes? I was doing other things so did not watch the clock.

The yarn is still drying but here are the results. It is a bit darker than I wanted but it still is lovely.

Thanksmas, Christmas at Thanksgiving

My sister likes to have Christmas at their house for the kids, but my Dad can't travel for health reasons. So we all go to my parent's house at Thanksgiving and celebrate our family Christmas then (dubbed Thanksmas).

I am not much of a pre-planner when it comes to Christmas shopping. I often wait until the week before Thanksmas to shop for gifts (we are talking mid-November, so I am not fighting the Christmas crowds). This year I have a lot of handmade gifts planned so I have to kick it in gear now.

As luck would have it, I have some gifts that I started for last Thanksmas that did not get finished in time, so they are already done or partially completed. I am only going to post projects for the kids and projects that the recipients know about, so I don't totally ruin the surprise.

We always seem to be short on stockings at Thanksmas so I thought last year I'd make some for my sister's kids. They were not done in time but I did finish them when I got back. I made these out of felted sweaters. As you can see I had to put a seam in the darker one as the sweater was not big enough, but I think it looks like part of the design. I did make sure to align the stripes when attaching them together. I hand embroidered their names at the top. I think they turned out great, but feel I should have made the stockings bigger and also used thicker thread for the embroidery.

I have new projects planned as well. I went to a rockin' 50% off yarn sale the other day. I bought yarn to make scarves for the kids (blend of Merino wool, cashmere, and acrylic). As I was knitting along on the first one, I realized that one skein was not enough yarn. So I decided to make it a neck scarf, the type that has the hole in it to pull the other end through. I've made good progress on the first one and may have enough yarn to get to the recommended 22" final length. I tried it out and I hope my 6 year old niece has a skinnier neck than I do!  I think it will be okay, and I will make sure to block it when I am done. This is a simple pattern, K a row, then K2, P2 (repeat) across the second row, and repeat these two rows. The hole is from 14" to 17". I used 26 stitches across, the original pattern was for 30.

I think I will be making my nephew a hat instead as it's a bit girlie.

More iDye for polyester

I made another purple dye bath with the iDye polyester dyes. I had some polyester fleece I was planning to use for a pillowcase for my niece but in the end I decided the fabric was too small (I decided against a patchwork pillowcase).

From top left going clockwise, pink velvet with leaves on it, poly fleece, some kind of heavy upholstery fabric, a wine colored mesh, white poly curtain with black pattern, piece from what used to be men's swim trunks(brown background with orange leaves), green sheer from previous iDye batch, maroon fabric from previous iDye batch.

The pink velvet looks like it got redder, but not much. Polyfleece is bright purple. Heavy fabric is hot pink.  Maroon mesh did not change. Poly curtains are purple. Swim trunk leaves now look a subtle dark orange. The green sheer is now maroon at the pattern but grayish at the sheer part.  Maroon fabric is no change.

I just never know what I am going to get. I just keep experimenting!

Dyeing wool with Kool-Aid

I have been a bit under the weather the last few days, but that did not stop me from dyeing some wool yarn with Kool-Aid.  It is fast and easy and does not require a lot of babysitting.

Knitty.com has a fantastic post about the basics of Kool-Aid dyeing here.

I did mine three ways.

First, I wanted a variegated yarn but with long runs between color changes. I made piles of yarn that were about 10 to 15 ft of yarn in each, then combined different piles together to make a total of four piles as I was going to have four colors.  I did not cut the skein to do this.  My yarn is Cascade 220, which I had gotten at a 50% off sale. I was hoping for white, but they did not have stock so the yarn is the color of spaghetti (Color 8412).  My four Kool-Aid colors are lemonade, orange, cherry and dark cherry. I soaked the yarn piles in water in four bowls, then squeezed out the water and emptied the bowls. I mixed a color in each bowl and filled about 3/4 of the way with water. I put the yarn back in and nuked them in the microwave for two minutes. I let them rest for a while and then nuked another 2 minutes. 

 I let the bowls cool down in the microwave as they are super hot. Once cooled, I poured out the water from the bowls and rinsed the yarn in cool water, just to make sure there isn't any remaining Kool-Aid that did not get absorbed.  My yellow color did not change, it is still the color of spaghetti. The Dark Cherry was a little muted. My yarn was a bit tangled with all the separate piles, but aside from one horrible tangle in the middle, it was not too bad to make it into a skein/ball once it was dry.  I was willing to risk it and it wasn't horrific.

 Next, I decided to do a two tone variegated on this Lamb's Pride bulky. After I bought it, I was told this color (White Frost) does not felt, which was a bummer.  I might as well color it.  I am going to make it half cherry and half orange. I soaked the whole skein in water in the sink.  Once it was thoroughly soaked, I squeezed out as much water as I could. I mixed two packets of orange in a cup of water and pushed one end of the skein slowly into it, to absorb the color.

 I let it sit for a couple minutes to sink through all the layers. Then I took it out, emptied the cup and mixed up two packets of Cherry and stuck the other end of the skein in the cup.

I put it in a Pyrex dish and nuked it for 2 minutes. The colors were a bit muted. I mixed a packet of orange with about an inch and a half of water in my cup and put the skein's orange end in it. Then I did the same for the Cherry. I nuked it in the Pyrex dish for another 2 minutes and here are my results. I then rinsed it with water and squeezed out as much water as I could and set it on a towel to dry (which I assume will take a while since it is still a tight skein). In a couple days I will work on making it a loose skein to help it dry faster and will know then if there are any white areas towards the middle. I feel pretty good that it is colored throughout.

Update: Here is the yarn in a loose skein, there are some white-ish areas but they are well spaced with the color.

Third, I took my other skein of spaghetti colored Cascade 220. I soaked it in water and wrung it out.

I put the yarn in a pot with one pack of yellow (lemonade) and three packs of Ice Blue Raspberry lemonade. I let it simmer for about 10 minutes then took it off the heat.

 Yellow + Blue = Green.  The yarn towards the bottom of the pan is a bit darker than the top, even though I stirred it occasionally.  I rinsed it and it is now drying on a towel as well.

For dinner last night, Allen made steak and twice baked sweet potatoes with Dukkah seasoning which my mom recommended. It was delicious!  As you can see, my idea of cooking in the kitchen is very different than my husband's! His results are yummy, mine just smell good.

Day of the Dead, shadow box

Here is my finished Day of the Dead shadow box, Momento Mori. I finished this right before we went to Chicago so I did not have time to post it.

If you look at my previous post, I had a perfume bottle shaped like George Washington. The head was removable so the original buyer could use the spray. So poor George's head was removed and the skeleton head was added. I used Milagros paper for the interior of the box.

Both this shadow box, Momento Mori, and my Skull (below) have been accepted in the 29th Annual Day of the Dead exhibition at Pirate Contemporary Art. The show is October 26th through November 11th, and the opening reception is November 2nd. The gallery is located at 3655 Navajo Street,  Denver. Hope to see you at the opening!

Visit to Chicago and good eats

We went to Chicago this past weekend. It is great to go someplace and hit the "refresh" button.

Some friends went as well so it was fun to hang out with them.

Tony and Ashley

We did a lot of eating in Chicago. How can you not get a dipped beef sandwich or pizza?  The first thing we did when we arrived is go get a hot dipped at Al's.  It was messy but delicious.

Then Allen and I wandered over to the Art Institute. We had been there before so we concentrated on the Modern and Impressionist art.  We wandered through Millennium Park to get back to our hotel so visited the "bean"  that is in the park.

And took lots of pictures, the distortion inside the bean is super cool.

Everybody has to take a picture of themselves reflected from the bean. (The bean could use a good scrubbing or meet a bottle of Windex).

Friday evening we splurged and went to TRU for dinner.  I am not going to go into details (and it is too nice a place to take pictures of the food), but it was amazing.

Our friends Tony and Ashley were running the Chicago marathon on Sunday. Allen had planned to run, but during training he was having too many pain issues in his ankles and knees. He decided to go ahead and run some of it since he was already registered.  We went over to the Expo on Saturday morning to get his race packet and look at all the booths. From there we decided to walk to the Field Museum.  I didn't really read up on it but they said they were having a fashion exhibit so we went to check it out.  I did not realize it was basically a Nature Museum with lots of taxidermy. They did have quite a bit of other exhibits so I still found it very interesting. I really liked this totem pole with faces on it's hands.

 
 I've been thinking about doing some fiber art with eyes on it so I was really digging this piece.

Since I was making Day of the Dead art last week, I thought this Tibetan piece was interesting.

 

Right outside the museum was a hot dog stand so we got Chicago Dogs.

For dinner we went to Hugo's Frog Bar and Fish House with Ashley, Tony, and some of Tony's family. Of course we got frog legs. They were good, but I think I'd rather have a chicken wing.  Allen got the Sea bass and I got the Fillet Medallions Oscar. Mine was tasty, but would try something else next time. Allen's sea bass was delicious.

Sunday morning was the marathon. I stood a ways up from the start, but never did see Allen, Ashley or Tony.

While they were running I wandered around Millennium park and the blocks to the west and played with my new camera. I did go back to the "bean". I think this was the most empty I have ever seen the plaza it is in.

I tried out the panorama feature.

 Nice skyline reflection. 

 After Allen finished his run, we went to the Contemporary Art Museum. There was a special exhibit (that did not open until the 20th) that looked interesting. There were quite a few pieces on display that I enjoyed, but this is one of those museums that makes me scratch my head.  One piece was a blown up photo of a magazine cover that had toothpaste smeared on it (on the cover of the magazine, not on the photograph), and it made me wonder what kind of art is considered to be museum worthy.

In the afternoon, we wandered over to the Navy Pier, then wandered back to the hotel. For dinner we went to Giordano's for pizza. Their specialty is a "stuffed" pizza.  It was very good.  I think I like Gino's East better as they have a thicker bready crust that has a dusting of cornmeal. 

Monday I made Allen go to two art stores. Dick Blick did have the Setacolor transparent paints I was hoping to get during this visit, but only had the small bottles. I picked up six of them as I could still take them in my carry-on and would not have to check my luggage if I only got six. I did finally get a packet of Black Idye for Polyester at Utrecht, but they only had one left.

We went to the Purple Pig for lunch.  We had fried pig ears (tastes like meat flavored potato chips).

I had the pork jowl on a piece of bread with some kind of sauce, sliced tomatoes, frisee, and an egg on top.

Allen had the tripe.

All and all a great trip.