Loop the loop

Well, this is working well! Hand-dyed silk thread, hand-dyed silk charmeuse scarf.

Here are a few things I have learned:

1. Silk dyes much more easily than cotton. I would have thought it was the other way around. This means I’ll have to change up my technique and dye concentrations to achieve the results I want.
2. I do not like dyeing finished doilies. I like dyeing the thread first, and then working with it. That means I have to think much harder about silk vs cotton thread, and about the option of using colored thread instead of hand-dyed thread.
3. Twisting and twirling something that’s knitted and stretchy does not yield desirable results.
4. I can loosen up my rigid thinking a bit regarding tartan patterns.

It may not sound like it, but it was a successful weekend!

UPDATE:

This look promising.

New pretty pix on my Flickr site!

I just posted a few more photos on Flickr. I’ll do more soon when I have time — that’s been in short supply lately! I’m terribly pleased with this colorway.

I am working hard to increase my inventory before the Contemporary Handweavers of Houston Annual Sale later this month, September 24-26 at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. If you’ve never been to this, you really should go and see! The variety of merchandise is just breathtaking.

Here are my current thread colors. I’m making tiny things as fast as I can, and then shooting them. Come out and see!

I just cross-referenced my Flickr to my Etsy and found a pair of earrings that weren’t listed. So if you’re into purple, and into stars, have I got some earrings for you!

I kept my promise, finally, and put several doilies under glass for purchase at my Etsy shop. Later this week, I’ll put up more earrings. Coming in July, or even as soon as late June: clearance sale on select jewelry items!

Top, left to right: Blues and greens came out great! I was shooting for a darker green. Turquoise always sells almost as fast as I make it up. I was hoping for a blood red, and this is kinda on the pinkish side. The purplish colors are fine, and purples always work up nicely.

Bottom, left to right: I think this mushroom/taupe color may be just about right. The very dark color is essentially a really dark mauve. It’s pretty, and it’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to charcoal gray or black. The two in the middle were intended to be combinations of blood red and black, and are instead funky maroon things. Not sure if either of these will get very far. But the painted red/purple looks fantastic.

These will be completely dry later tonight, and I’ll wind ‘em up on my little bobbins. Wish list: charcoal gray/black, bigger variety of greens, bluer purples, a nice rust color. I wonder if I could even get close to recreating my handpainted corals thread. I still have enough of it for a pair of earrings.

You can always see more at my Flickr site.

This weekend I’m doing a big batch of dyeing. I hope, hope, hope I get some of the colors I want out of this. I’m sure whatever colors I end up with will be really cool, but I’d like to get better at accomplishing my intended shades!

I forgot that I need to make little crocheted doodahs to keep in my sample notebook. So I gotta crank out about a dozen of those before I fall asleep tonight.

Update: Not happening this weekend. There are too many other things to do, and I couldn’t get started early enough on Saturday. So I’ll reschedule for weekend after next.

Update 2: Re-reschedule. I did the dye part this evening (Sunday) and I can do the fixing and rinsing Tuesday evening. The beige/mushroom I’m trying to accomplish looks kind of pale. The black looks good, but it has before, too. The red is a little on the hot pink side right now. It’ll be interesting to see what all of it looks like on Tuesday night.

Here is one of my favorite designs in one of my favorite color schemes. It’s hard to believe that the pattern for this, barely an inch in diameter, is actually a coaster pattern in its original gauge.