Les Sylphides

On June 14th 2017, Knitpicks and Crafts Americana is publishing a new collection, called Luxurious Lace! And guess what??  One of my designs is included.  The piece as shown is a full circle, but the pattern includes directions for 1/2, 3/4 and full circle options.  This is knit in Knit Picks Luminance, which is 100% silk lace weight decadence. 

I hope to get some photos of the other options up on my Ravelry page soon, and I will add links here, but for now here are the "schematics" of the 1/2 and 3/4 versions.

3/4 after blocking

1/2 while blocking

So we have beads, nupps, leaves and mesh.  What more can a lace knitter want?  A copy of the new book, you say?  I will be doing a book giveaway (thank you Knitpicks!) and all you have to do it like and share my facebook post about Les Sylphides, on June 14th.  Then you will be entered in my random drawing, with a winner posted on July 4th.  I will be halfway across the globe so my Facebook post might be a few hours later in the day.  Please be patient!  

Rainbow Dye Party!!

This project was inspired by the gift of some food coloring and a skein of white yarn.  Thank you Mary Rose!  When my daughter was young we dyed in the kitchen using Kool-Aid all the time.  It was easy and safe and we didn’t need special pots. We never tried food coloring before, but were eager to, as my friend Sheila does the most amazing gradients and transitional colorways using them!  If you want to see some check it out: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/lacesheknits/annapurna

So when my daughter was home over the holidays we had a dye party in the kitchen.  Easy, safe and so much fun!  Food coloring works like acid dyes, so this recipe will work for any protein fiber.  That means a fiber that comes from an animal; wool, cashmere, alpaca, silk, angora, mohair.  Plant fibers (cotton, linen) will not work well with this type of dye.

This is all the Dye you Need!

 

Materials

1 skein KnitPicks Stroll, fingering weight; 75% superwash Merino, 25% nylon; 462 yards/100 grams.

1 set of 4 food coloring (4 x 0.3 ounce bottles) in Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow.

9 ball jars, at least 600ml each.

One canning pot or other large pot to hold all jars, with pot cover on.

Disposable chop sticks or stirrers you do not mind getting color on.

Niddy noddy and waste yarn

Waste yarn to tie skeins.

Towel.

US 4 (3.5mm) needles: 10” straights are good (if you are making the simple scarf.)

This shows the yarn skeins and ready

Almost Finished in the Dye Bath

Skeins Hanging to Dry

 

Create

Once the skein(s) is/are really dry, you can wind it/them into a ball(s) for easy knitting.  Try this easy scarf, which will give you a garter mesh with a bias, with long color blocks of each color in sequence. 

Easy scarf not your thing?  Pick any project you love that wants to be a rainbow!  Or try the Lichen Moebius, available through my Ravelry Shop: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lichen-moebius-scarf

This is Lichen, Full Rainbow Treatment!!

Get the full Dye Party Directions along with a pattern for a simple scarf for FREE at my Ravelry pattern shop.  There is a coupon code in the free file for a discount on the Lichen Moebius!