A trip down Memory Lane

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid when it was rainy outside, instead of playing video games and watching tv; we would make crafts. One of the things we made were Shrinky Dinks. A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a few people at Craftster that had made jewelry with this wonderful and exciting product. After being inspired by their work, I searched through my local craft store, but to no avail.

Yesterday I noticed I had a 50% off coupon that was about to expire and decided to go shopping. After circling the craft store about 3 times, in hopes of finding something that I "needed" and could save a few dollars on,... I looked up at a peg on the wall (that I had passed a few times before) and what did I notice?!?! SHRINKY DINKS!!!!!!

Of course I bought them, brought them home, but could not decide on what I wanted to draw on them. So I slept on it. This morning, my excitement couldn't wait any longer so I just jumped right in.
I think the most exciting part is watching them shrink in the oven! There will definitely be more to come! I think with my next 50% off coupon I'm going to buy the Shrinky Dinks you can put through your printer, so I can play with images on Photoshop.

It's amazing what you find when you're not looking..... well .. looking for the specific item! hehe

Cedar Bark dyeing

I love natural dyeing. The colors always seem to amaze me because you never know what you are going to get from leaves, roots, or in this case, bark.



On the right is the original Merino fleece that I used. I think that I would have got a better, darker color from the cedar bark if I would have scoured (cleaned) the fleece first. I have lots of cedar bark left so I will definitely try it again.

Great Find!

I love thrift store shopping! I think you can find some really cool things for fairly inexpensive. Here is an example:
On the left is 100% Italian Mohair, and on the right is 100% Cotton. I absolutely love the mohair! It's a bit more pink in real life, and the label is so adorable!!!

Inspiration: Courtney Brims

WOW! That's all I can say when I see her artwork! I especially love her portraits! There is so many little details that make the whole picture absolutely amazing. Here are a few to show you what I mean:

Please check out Courtney Brims' website!

Indigo Day - part 2

This is a continuation from this post where I blogged about my Indigo Day with a few lovely ladies from my Textile Art program. In the post I mentioned that I also dyed some fleece. Well, here it is:

Left: Merino, Middle: Local sheep from Ontario, Right: Merino dyed in a Potassium vat

I absolutely LOVE the merino! I've have very little experience spinning with merino, and now that I've worked with it more (mostly dyeing), I need to buy another pound of it! lol I'm hoping to work up the courage to spin these lovely braids, but it's hard when they are so soft and squishy the way they are. Sometimes I spin too tight and it takes away some of the squishy feeling.

I wish the Merino on the right would have turned out darker. The dye vat it's self is a very very dark brown, and when I dipped the fleece in, it soaked it up right away, but when I pulled the fleece out, it was how you see it now. I'm not sure if I should have soaked it in a mordant before I died it, but we have never had to do that with fabric before. I don't see why fleece would be treated differently. We have more vats at school, so maybe I will have to try again.

Coming Soon: Cedar Bark dyeing

Acid Dyes! Finally!

All of my at home dyeing has been with either Kool-Aid or food coloring. It's not that I haven't had the knowledge or skills to use professional acid dyes, but I just never got around to mixing the stock solutions, until last Tuesday. I bought the acid dyes awhile ago, (I didn't realize it was in January until I connected the link to the post! wow! hehe) and because you have to take quite a few safety precautions, ie. particulate mask, big rubber gloves, etc I've stuck with the easier methods like Kool-aid (plus the Kool-aid smells good *wink*)

Anyways, I played around a bit with the acid dyes, and I forgot that the blue takes awhile to "stick" to the fleece, so a lot of my reds were supposed to be purples. I know next time I will probably over dye instead of just mixing the red and blue together to get purple. Or maybe buy a purple dye to save time. Here are a few pictures from my wonderful and colorful day.

Local Sheep fleece from Ontario, Canada

Local Sheep Fleece from Ontario, Canada

Merino

Polworth

Every time I try to be adventurous when I dye, and use different colors together that are not in the same color family, ie. complimentary I always end up with "Swamp Fleece":

Polworth

Wenslydale

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the "Swamp Fleece", but It would be nice to have some pretty colors like you see in the stores or on Etsy. I think I'm going to try drum carding the "Swamp Fleece" and see if it makes it any better. hehe

Indigo Day

Last Monday, well.. not LAST Monday, but the Monday before that, I went over to Janna's house for an Indigo Party. There were quite a few of us, mostly from my Textile Arts course at Capilano University, including Ana from "Dreamy Isabel". We had a great time! I've never seen so many things dyed Indigo, even on our very first day of dying with this wonderful vat at school. I did dye a few ounces of Merino and a local sheep fleece from Ontario (from a Craftster swap) and they turned out beautifully, but unfortunately I haven't taken pictures of the fleece yet (hopefully tomorrow), but I DO have some pictures of the party.

You can see my local sheep roving on the back corner of the drying rack. hehe

A beautiful dress dyed indigo. It was originally white.

Mini Update

I had a big dye day yesterday. And last week I went to an Indigo Party. Pictures are soon to come.

Knit Project: "Every Way Wrap"

I have started a new knitting project! I'm very excited about this one. It's probably going to be the biggest knit project to date; in both size and work.

It's from the Fall 2009 issue of Interweave Knits:

Sorry the pictures are bad.

This issue has lots of beautiful designs! There are a few projects in it that I might have to muster up some courage to work on

Photo Adventure!

Yesterday I went to UBC Research Forest (which apparently now called Malcolm Knapp Research Forest?) with a friend and we photographed our hearts out! I was looking for a little inspiration because my creativity has plummeted since I left school in April for the summer. Well, I ended up taking 195 pictures, and I definitely could have taken more if we weren't on a time limit. Here are a few of my favorite pictures:














It was hard just to pick a few pictures! lol ... We have tentative plans of going back next week.