Friends of Rainbow Valley - Rainbowlicious Yarns

This is something new I am trying out.  Each month I will be asking a friend of Rainbow Valley to us tell about something fun.  The first guest blogger is Laura from Rainbowlicious Yarns.

How to Hand Dye Wool using Food Colouring and White Vinegar.

I am very honoured to have been asked by Rainbow Valley Crochet to write an article for her blog.

One of the reasons I started hand dying myself was because I really love long colour changes and couldn't readily find them. I specialise in long colour change rainbows and sock yarns that self-stripe when knitted, I mostly use Merino wool blends as I only like the really really soft wool. For years I didn’t knit or crochet with anything other than cotton or acrylic as I found most wools scratchy and itchy, then I found merino and fell in love with it :-) The yarns I sell on my website are mostly Merino based, Merino/Nylon, Merino/Tencel, Merino sparkle and my favourite is Merino/Bamboo, it is so soft and has the most gorgeous sheen to it, bamboo was one of my favourite fibres to use before I found Merino as it has a lovely drape to it. I also sell some Blue Faced Leicester which is beautiful and soft too and a favourite of some of my customers.

Here is an easy to follow tutorial on how to hand paint a long colour change rainbow on wool. The yarn must be animal fibre or at least 50% animal fibre for this tutorial to work, as Synthetic/Cellulose fibres wont dye with this method. I use items that are easy to get hold of and food safe so great for doing with your children :-)

You can buy the undyed wool from eBay. I recommend buying superwash as there is less chance of felting it as you are dyeing it.

What you need:-

Knitted sock blank, Glass bowl, Non-natural food colours, White vinegar, Squirty bottles/small containers, Clingfilm, Microwave/steamer, Kitchen towel, small spoon, Jug, Washing up liquid, Gloves.

Optional:- Syringe, Sponge painting brush, Measuring spoons.

The first thing I do is knit up the sock blank, this takes the longest time and is the hardest part :-) I have a knitting machine but you could do it by hand. If you knit the yarn up double thickness, you will have two identical balls to make a pair of socks.

Once the blank is knitted, soak it for 30 minutes in a glass bowl in a solution of white vinegar and cold or tepid water. I use approx. 12 tablespoons (180ml) of white vinegar to 1500 ml of water.

Once the wool has soaked, gently squeeze out the excess water.

Lay out some Clingfilm on the table with the sock blank on top leaving plenty of Clingfilm all round it.

To make the dyes I use food colouring, you have to make sure they are NOT natural colours. I use Sugarflair paste colours as these are very concentrated, they have a wide range of colours and you only need to use a little bit. You can buy them online or from most cake decorating shops.

Start by adding a small amount (tip of a teaspoon) to approx. 100ml of water, (you can use warm tap water to help the pastes dissolve). The more colour you add, the stronger the colours will be. Mix the colours you want to use with the water. Put them into squeezy bottles or any containers you have if you are using a syringe/sponge brush to paint with. You are then ready to paint your yarn!

This can be done in many ways, different way will produce different effects. This is the fun part, play and see what you can come up with.

You can use a syringe to squeeze colour onto the yarn or use a sponge to press it on or even tip the liquid on little by little.

The colour will soak into the yarn and leave clear water behind. Use the kitchen towel to soak up any excess liquid. If the liquid is clear this is a sign that the yarn can take some more dye if you want it too.

If the liquid still has some colour left in it then the yarn is saturated and taken in all the colour it can.

Repeat the process until you have your desired pattern.

Once you are happy with your design, use the Clingfilm to wrap the yarn making sure there is nowhere for the steam to escape.

Put it on to a microwaveable plate and cook in the microwave on high.

You need to cook it long enough to create steam but not too long as to damage the yarn.

I start with 2 minutes on high, then check it. If it doesn’t look like it has steam inside, I put it on for another minute at a time till I can see steam. This is what sets the colour and stops it washing out.

You can also put the yarn in the top layer of a steamer and leave for 30mins.

After the yarn has cooled down naturally, give it a wash under the tap. Use a little bit of washing up liquid to wash out any leftover dye, rinse until the water runs clear, then leave to dry.

Once the yarn has dried it is ready to use, you can either knit straight from the sock blank or wind into a ball.

Hand-dyed yarn should only be hand washed, there are some care instructions on my website.

I hope you have found this helpful and informative, there are many different ways of hand dying yarns this is just one of the ways it can be done and the amounts and measurements are just my personal preference, Have fun!!

I can crochet a Rainbow

And so can you!

I has come to my attention that so many people out there can crochet but can not follow a pattern. This is the one that was featured in Scrapbook Inspirations in 2008.

With this in mind, I have adapted my free Rainbow Pattern over on Rainbow Valley to one that is just for those learning to read patterns. It really isn't that difficult when you know how!

Rainbows and Stars

Its finished!!!!!!

My new Rainbows and Stars crochet pattern. And, I must say, I am rather pleased with it. After months of no new patterns, I have finally done one. I have even added to Rainbow Valley. Now all I have to do is let my crochet groups know it is finished, sit back and (hopefully) watch the orders flood in!!!!!

The final set of motifs is the Pot of Gold. I have also included the Mini Rainbow Stars that I have for sale on my site. I have to decide what to do next. Any suggestions?

I suppose I really ought to be finishing off the puppet patterns I have been working on. I could get those done in a couple of weeks if I get down to it.

But I am really loving working with the thread, especially as I am getting more colours.

Rainbows and Stars

I bet you are shocked. This is the third day in a row I am posting.

Don't expect it to carry on!!!!

I really wanted to share what I have been working on - Shooting Stars. You may recognise one of them from this Layout. These are going to be part of my new scrapping pattern. The Stars and their Tails are made separately so that you can add them to your layout in which ever way you want to.

And here are some more Stars. These are a version of the stars I used on this Silk Painting. They are beaded in both the silk and the layout. I also used a finer thread to crochet them with. The ones in this picture are unbeaded and with the size thread I normally use for all my scrapping bits.

I will be adding them all to Rainbow Valley for sale as soon as I sort out some prices and find some time to do it.

And finally, as requested, pics of my new stamps. They are stamped (badly) on to an A5 sheet, just for you!

I have been scrapping!

"Real" Scrapping as well!

Unfortunately, they are not quite finished so you are going to have to wait to see them!

But you can see the digi ones I was sorting out my photos to send off for printing for my A-Z album, when I decided to digi scrap A. Part of the reason is to use the digi versions to "plan" the real versions. And part of it is because I want a digi album to share as well. I can put it on to a cd or online and it will look so much nicer than photos of the real one.

I have also used the journalling blocks from this and added them to the photos to be printed so that I can use them in the real one. This is A for Abbey. There were loads of photos and info for it that I ended up with a double one. The "Real" scrapping is for my Silk Album. I was going to wait until I sent off the other photo to do it but changed my mind.

Sorting out the photos gave me the urge to scrap so I printed them off myself. Besides, I wanted some of them bigger than 6x4 so I couldn't use the free ones anyway.

I have crocheted the bits I need for the embellies and am in the process of making the beaded embellies. I decided to stitch them on to the paper, rather than making wired ones for the rainbows.

I think I will be making a wired Snowdrop one though.

If all goes to plan I will have the Rainbow ones finished very soon and get the photos taken.

Unfortunately, I couldn't do the Snowdrops as I don't have any green handmade paper.

Also, until I start this job, I don't have any money to get some.

They are going to have to wait!

New Silks

I wasn't going to post these until the customer had collected them but as she couldn't come last night and I had the pics all ready to post today, I thought "Why not?"

This one is my favourite of the two. To make it a little different I crocheted lace beaded stars. I did the silk as if I was going to bead them to give the white background and I am quite pleased with the result.

This shows a close up of the medium star.

Here is the other. I crocheted rainbow coloured stars for this one which I scattered about.

I am thinking of adding the stars to my site to use for scrapping.

What do you think?

Nearly there!

My puter is all fixed again. And I think I have installed all the programs on it. However, I try to do something and find I have forgotten one. I suppose that will be happening for a while yet!

Two I have remembered to do are my posh printer with the card reader and PSE. So here is the promised layout!

It is an 8 inch one which i have done for my "sort of" catalogue and I have used some of my recently acquired stash!!!!

The baby stuff will be available from my site soon but, if you can't wait, you can always email me!!!

And talking of my site.......... I have decided to change it over to Lycos. I am getting so fed up of it being hacked. I know the files on my computer are clean but I am getting loads of emails telling me that there are viruses on there.

I did make some preparations when I thought I was going to lose the internet, so it isn't a whole load of work. I have the domain name set up, so all I have to do is forward it to the new site.

This means that if you have a blog roll on your site, you will need to change it. Just click on mine for the new coding. Before the pipex site is completely deleted, I will be putting a message up which will come up in the iframe to give you a bit of warning.

I have set up new Gmail addresses and am in the process of changing these over as well.

But there is some good news!!!! I am in SI this month and can't wait to see it. They will be putting my Rainbow pattern on their blog along with links to my site!

Full Frontals!

Sorry but after the last post it just seemed appropriate! LOL

However, I know these "full frontals" are ones you have been waiting for. Sorry, the pics are not the best but I did them quite quickly and, as the silks have been collected, I can't do them again. So, here are my latest silks in all their glory! I was rather pleased with this one. And I have some paper and ribbon with stars on so I needed something just like this to scrap!

This is a close up of one of the mini shooting stars. I bought the star beads for Christmas tree earrings!

And a close up of the other beads

And now the snowdrops. Unfortunately, I didn't take any close ups of this after it was mounted so you will just have to do with one from before.

I wasn't as happy with this one but there is only so much you can do with white flowers. However, the lady who ordered them was pleased with them and wants two more with Rainbows and Stars on. But she would prefer them different rather than all similar.

I was wondering about incorporating crocheted stars.........

And, while I am here, some more good news.

I entered some of my silks in and Art Exhibition for Chatteris Medieval Fair and sold the Dolphins!!!!

Still no news on the job front though.

The light at the end of the tunnel.

I haven't blogged in nearly two weeks! Apart from not having the time, I didn't have the inclination.

Mark got told on the Thursday after the last post that it was him who was going to be made redundant. Then they sent him home on "Gardening Leave". This meant he has been home since then driving me loopy. Of course, it would have to be at a time when I have a lot to do anyway, both on line and off.

He wasn't too bad the first couple of days but as time when on I could see he was getting more and more stressed over the situation.

We spent the following Monday and Tuesday rushing about and getting no where! The Job Centre is as much use as a chocolate teapot and people just don't return your calls. All we wanted was some help with a CV. Neither Mark nor I are any good at selling ourselves.

On Wednesday he had to go to work for a "Consultation meeting" at 10am then had an appointment at an employment agency in Huntingdon in the afternoon. So he went for lunch at his Mums.

He came home in a bit better mood from the meeting. They told him how much he would be getting and, if he starts a new job while he was still working for them, they won't penalise him by reducing his payout. He has worked out that we will have enough to pay the bills for the next 3 months as long as we don't spend anything else.

I was looking forward to a days peace but ended up with a sort of interview at 10.30am. It was actually more of an informal chat. It is only part time but looks like a fun job and right up my street. It is activites organiser at a local OAP home. Wonder if I could get them scrapping????? I have filled in the application form they gave me and am now waiting to hear from them.

Now he just needs to find a job.

Well, maybe........

I want him to be a plumber. He knows the trade, he has worked in it for the last 6 years. He actually knows more about the products than the plumbers. He has to, to be able to sell them to him. He designs bathrooms for both the retail and trade customers and has fitted ours - which is so posh it belongs in a 10 bedroomed house!!!!

He is very dubious about it. Actually, its more of a case of being scared. He has never been in the position where he doesn't have a payslip at the end of the month and the thought of not having one is scary.

His other problem is that he is the only one who doesn't know how good he is!!!!!

He went out the other night to meet up with some plumbers after I had insisted that he phone some of them to do a bit of networking. One of them turned around and told him that he would be "Unfair Opposition" as he knows too much. So finally, he has agreed to give it a go. After all, what has he got to lose? He is out of work in 6 weeks anyway!

I haven't been idle even though I haven't been online much.

My domain name has finally been sorted out after a lot of hassle. It is www.enfys.me.uk I have made new banners and updated them on my links page with the new addy and the new location of the banners. I have put them all in Photobucket.

I am in the process of uploading everything to free web space. Then, if things do take a turn for the worse and I lose the internet and the current site, the banners will still work and all I will need to do is get the domain name to forward to the new site.

I have finished the pattern for the Rainbow and sent all the information off to Scrapbook Inspirations - complete with the new domain name.

I now need to make a whole load of new business cards with the domain name on.

Its just all go!

The lady who ordered the silks from me came to pay me a deposit and bought the "Four Seasons" at the same time!!!! She also liked what I have done so far and will be wanting another two of the Shooting Star. I have finished beading that one, want a sneaky peak????

Ups and Downs!

My life seems to be full of Ups and Downs at the moment.

First of all, there is the prospect of appearing in Scrapbook Inspirations. I still don't know any details but have to have all the info to them by June 25th.

Then I won the UKS photography competiton. Totally unexpected but very exciting!

FenVAC are holding a one day art exhibition at March Town Hall on Saturday, 14th June as part of the March Summer Festival celebrations and I was asked if I would like to participate.

After all that hassle with Tesco they refunded the service charge. Big deal! I thought after that headache they caused me. However, in the post this morning came a £10 gift card and another apology. That will pay for the veg this weekend.

And last, but by no means least, I have had a commission for two silk paintings from the lady who bought the one from the local florists. She wants one with Snowdrops and one with stars and rainbows.

So guess what I have been doing today! These two pics are painted and backed. I have basted white behind the snowdrops and star so that they stand out. Of course they still need quilting and loads of beading before they are finished.

And now the Downs!

Last Thursday Mark had a letter "inviting" him to a meeting to "discuss how the downturn in trade affects his role in the company." That meeting was this morning. After making us stew all over the weekend about whether or not he would still have a job after today, we still don't know. He and the other manager were told that one of them would have to go and there are certain criteria they have to follow to decide which one. We will know Friday.

Journalling Pattern Finished!

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!! And here it is in all its glory! Its no wonder it took me so long to write, there are 20 pages in this one. It includes upper and lower case letters, numbers, punctuation and the doodling that I have put up as free pattern. Now the question is "What next?"

I have been thinking of a "Weather" set. I can include my Rainbow in it. I was thinking of Raindrops and Wellies. Possibly a Brolly.

I can also put the Sun, Moon and Stars in it. But that isn't going to fill a pattern. So if anybody has any suggestions, please lave them in the comments

Another thing that has cheered me up is that I won the photo competition on UKS. I got really excited about that!

Thank you to everybody who voted for me.

Just a quickie!

I have lots to do!

I had my free copy of SI this morning and rushed straight to page 71, just to see my name in print!!!!

So now I am working on the pattern for the Rainbow. I did have a double sided version up on my msn group, which I altered to make one I used for scrapping. Of course, being me, its all just notes and not a proper pattern.

It isn't going to take long to do, but I do need to make some more and block them to take pics. But, wouldn't you just know it, I have run out of the thread I need!

I was debating on whether to get some new thread - now I am going to have to! And, as it is pointless just getting one ball, I had better sort out what other colours I fancy!

In anticipation of some visitors from SI, I have been re-arranging my msn group so that all the scrapping patterns are on one page. The rainbows will be added as soon as they are sorted.

Also in the post this morning, came some lovely stash. Thank you Jay. I will take pics later and post them soon.

And finally, my "Trolleys" pic got short listed in the UKS photo comp!

Last time I looked, I was joint 1st with 3 others!

Now I need to get to the bank, then order some thread then get on with some work!!!!

Catching Up!

It has been a busy couple of days. On Friday we went out with a friend and her daughter to HGL for brekkie. They had a BOGOF on so we decided to take advantage of it. It was scrummy! And I was stuffed!!!! Afterwards the children played for a bit then we had a look around. I very nearly bought some "Chocolate Mint". It was only £1.59 and smelled just like "After Eights"!

While there, I also got a couple of pictures for the UKS Photo competition. Joanne suggested this one when I explained what I was doing.

The brekkie offer runs for another 2 weeks and I have a spare token so we are going again - when the kids are in school! I think I am going to get that mint as well.

That afternoon we went to Skylark Garden Centre. Joanne didn't realise there was one there. She hasn't lived in the area long and has only just passed her driving test, so I was telling her about some of the local stuff. The kids had a great time playing outside, even though the bouncy castle wasn't up!

I also managed to get the picture I needed to finish off another letter in my A-Z photo journal of Chatteris.

I just need to sort out the pics before I post them.

After seeing all the excitment about a LO in Scrapbook Inspirations which used one of my crocheted Rainbows, I thought I would do one myself. I checked out this weeks challenge for inspiration and this is what I came up with. And, while on the subject, keep an eye on SI because I might be in it soon! I emailed them concerning my Rainbow and got a lovely email back.

I am really excited about this! It might be just what I need to get people to my site. If I can sell a decent amount of crochet each week, I wouldn't need a job!

And if that does happen, best you get your orders in before the rush!

Rainbows

Monday again! Is it me or is time seeming to speed up? At least the sun is shining this morning.

Nothing exciting happened this weekend, apart from Lewis Hamilton managing to get on the podium yet again. Not that I am a big F1 fan but as my Dearest watches it I tend to as well. At least I understand a little more of what goes on now as he answers all my questions.

I spent most of the weekend crocheting Dreamcatchers for Scrapping. Unfortunately, they are not ready to be photographed yet as I still need to ad beads to the small ones and feathers to them all. However, the Rainbows are all done.