Tie Dyes and More

Again it’s been a while since I’ve posted, so easy to procrastinate and put off writing the blog. Anyhow, my daughter who owns a food truck decided to enter a few butter tart festivals in February to keep herself occupied during her slack time and she asked if I wanted to do a few tie dyes and sit at her booth.

I’ve never tried to sell my tie dyes to the public before so I thought it’d be interesting to try. I did read a forum post about selling to the public and realized from the post that I didn’t have the proper setup. I just had a spot at the table beside the butter tarts. It’s a good thing I didn’t have great expectations because over the two shows I only sold three shirts. People were there to buy butter tarts not summer t-shirts. As one lady put it, “You should try selling these at Campfest.” As I was dyeing shirts and trying to fill in spots for inventory it also made me realize what a big commitment it’d be to run an actual booth at a proper craft show. I need to have several patterns in various sizes, dozens upon dozens of shirts. Then to make back the money for my table I’d have to sell a dozen shirts before I’d even break even. I can see why people sell online.

Here are a few of the shirts I did, not sure why some of the other photos didn’t turn out.

I’ve also been busy knitting and crocheting some winter gear and afghans. A couple of months ago I discovered that the local Dollar stores were carrying Lion Brand’s Homespun Thick and Quick yarn for $4 a ball. This yarn normally goes for $12.99 at Michaels craft stores. I guess they’d gotten the yarn because it was the discontinued colours. I think what happened was each store was shipped three boxes of yarn and each store had random colours. It became a game to find all the different stores in my area and see what colours they carried. The stores only put out a box at a time so I was continually returning to see if anything new was on the shelves. I ended up spending a lot of money over $300 but calculated the same amount of yarn would have cost me over $800 full price.

The first afghan I made was supposed to be a shoulder shrug but I didn’t bother sewing up the side seams deeming the piece looked better as a lapghan. The second afghan I decided to crochet in the typical wave pattern. It was here that I fell in love with the yarn. There was so much more texture with crocheting than knitting and I loved the chunkiness of it all so I went out and bought as many different colours that I could. I had to buy the neutral white and beige to fill in.

Granddaughter showing off knitted Afghan. Lion Brand Thick and Quick colour Herb Garden. Pattern, Emily Bronte Topper by Lion Brand Emily Bronte Topper

Lion Brand Thick and Quick colours Barley, Garnet and Pearls.
Pattern, Spa Garden Ripple Afghan by Lion Brand, Spa Garden Ripple Afghan

Lion Brand Thick and Quick colours Wildberries, Periwinkle and Dove.
Pattern same as above but four rows of each colour repeated.

Lastly here are a few photos of a few winter knits.

Lion Brand Ferris Wheel colour Pink Marmalade and Berroco Alpaca black.
Pattern, Rainbow Maze Hat by Gretchen Tracy.

Lion Brand Wool-Ease Hand Dyed colour Peanut Butter & Jelly.
Pattern Yakima Ear Warmer By Justine Bent.

Catching up…finished projects

It’s been more than a little while since I’ve posted here. Part of the problem is that I no longer use this computer and I’m on my tablet all the time. My tablet can’t download photos from my camera so I’ve slacked off a bit (well more than a bit). Another issue is I’ve been rather slack in the crafting department lately as well.

Here are a bunch of things that I’ve done since I last posted in October. The little animals are called amigurumi and I had a fun time crocheting them up for my granddaughter Kendal for Christmas. The two tie dyes are ice dyed and I made them up for my granddaughter Charlie and her friend. My son requested a hat and scarf for Christmas and lastly I thought I’d make a fun scarf for all four granddaughters with more to come in different colourways at a later time. The scarves and hat were made from Lion Brand’s Wool Ease Thick and Quick. Lovely yarn to knit up but nasty in that the balls have knots from being joined. The amigurumi were made from Paton’s Astra yarn.

Best friends rainbow ice dyes.

Close-up of back.

Back view.

Cat – Super-Super Easy Crochet by Brigitte Read

My favorite, crocodile (Super-Super Easy Crochet)

Peppa Pig

Robin, Super-Super Easy Crochet

Whale, Super-Super Easy Crochet

Dan’s hat Eagle bay hat

Dan’s scarf English Rib Scarf

Unice Unicorn hood I made it into a pony scarf as requested so left off the horn.

Heidi May is the designer and has some very nice patterns, check out her website. You can also order the patterns through Ravelry.

That’s all for now. I still have three scarfs to knit and I’ve also put together another Minions quilt that needs to be machine quilted and I’ve also finished another quilt top made from one of the box kits put out by Moda so it’ll probably be a few months before I get all those projects finished and posted as well.

Karen

Tie Dyes by the Grandkids

The grandkids came over on the weekend and we finally got around to doing some tie-dye together. I’ve had the shirts for a while and you’d think I’d get them done in the summer when it was good weather but alas it was not to be. It took about six hours from start to finish. Not only did the kids dye the shirts, pick out the colours but they also helped in folding and tying them as well. Even the littlest one who is 2 1/2 helped to squeeze the dye bottle and she was pretty good at putting the elastics around the swirl shirts as well.

Fuchsia, green (intense blue + lemon yellow) and lemon yellow

Fuchsia, green.

Green, lemon yellow and deep orange.

Intense blue, black and green.

Intense blue, lemon yellow and black.

Deep orange, scarlet and Better Black.

Deep orange, scarlet, lemon yellow and black.

Deep orange, Lemon yellow and a stripe of scarlet down the orange.

Purple, lemon yellow.

Lemon yellow, fuchsia and purple.

There is a bit more intensity of colours off camera but I wasn’t very scientific about making up the dye liquids, I just tossed in the dye and added water, a bit more water than I normally do so it’s possible the blue and purple were washed out a bit but the dyes are now ten years old so it’s possible they are starting to fade a bit. Mind you  I’m still getting good colour for the dyes being that old. I went to the internet to look at colour combinations and it’s a whole new world since I stopped tie dyeing several years back.

I used to do snow dyeing on fabric but now people are doing ice dyeing on t-shirts and some of the effects are pretty neat I’m going to have to give it a go and see what happens. Some other shirts have a water colour effect where the dyes look like they’ve broken (instead of one colour the dye separates into it’s components). One of my favourite shirts is one where I applied dye to a plain shirt and then tossed the dyed shirt into a pail of soda ash water to set the dye. The colours broke and separated much like what I’m seeing on some shirts so I wonder if it’s the same idea.

Karen

Twirly Skirt and T-shirt

Thought I’d post a couple of pictures of a skirt and matching t-shirt I made Charlie. I’d made a skirt for Charlie over three years ago Charm Square Skirt and her mom says that it’s getting a bit on the short side but she still loves it so could I please make her another one.

I thought about making the same skirt but decided to go with different fabric since Charlie is a big fan of pink. The matching t-shirt is dyed with Grecian Rose from ProChem. You can find the tutorial for the skirt over at the Simple Simon & Company blog. Easy Tiered Skirt

Karen

Summertime and Tie Dyes

I had a request from my son-in-law for a new tie-dye shirt for my grandson as he’d out-grown his so I dug out the blank shirts and got busy doing some dyeing over the past few days. Really it’s amazing how many white shirts I have squirreled away in the closet. This is the last of the child-sized shirts but I have plenty of adult ones left. So I’m just going to photo bomb the blog and then write down the dyes used to make the shirts.

Group of shots of some of the tie-dyes in bags on the sunny deck and front porch. Even though the day wasn’t that warm the sun did it’s job.

Group of family rainbow spirals made with Light Red, Turquoise and Lemon Yellow.

Group shots of tie-dyes on drying rack on the deck.

Individual shirts:

Boysenberry, black and eggplant spiral.

Boysenberry, violet and eggplant spiral tank.

Caymen island blue onesie.

Family rainbow spirals, turquoise, lemon yellow, light red.

Fuchsia and grape spiral.

Pink heart with turquoise outline and grape and violet onesie.

Rainbow scrunched onesie, turquoise, lemon yellow, light red.

Toddler size 4 scrunched tee, turquoise, lemon yellow, light red.

Toddler size 4 made with turquoise, lemon yellow and black. Turquoise + lemon yellow gives the green.

Toddler size 6, fuchsia heart with lemon yellow outline and grape background.

Toddler size 6 rainbow spiral, turquoise, lemon yellow, light red.

Toddler size 6 turquoise with lemon yellow vee design. The turquoise laid down first and the lemon yellow on top.

Turquoise and lemon yellow tank.

Youth size small rainbow spiral, turquoise, lemon yellow and light red.

Youth size small vee, turquoise, black, light red and grape.

Youth size small, lemon yellow with turquoise spiral.

Lots of fun and colour. The dyes are still working after 8 years so I’m happy with that.

Karen

Rainbow Tie Dyes.

It’s been a while since I lasted blogged because I’m still working on several projects but my daughter asked me to tie-dye her a shirt for halloween and while I was going to the trouble of doing that I figured I might as well pull out some other items I’ve had sitting around so here goes.

Working in the laundry room.

Something new a scrunched shirt that I squirted stripes across both front and back.

The washed out shirt – turquoise, colbalt, intense blue and grape.

Ladies rainbow tee – turquoise, mixing red, bright orange, lemon yellow and grape.

Pleated onesie.

Blue onesie in turquoise, colbalt, intense blue(cerulean).

Rainbow vee onesie.

Rainbow onesie.

Rainbow onesie.

Toddler rainbow tee.

Rainbow vee.

Blue toddler t-shirt.

Since the onesies and toddler t-shirts were going to my grandsons I tried to make them match. I used elastics this time instead sinew to tie the shirts because I was lazy and I have to admit that the shirts seem to turn out anyway. And here are a couple of pictures of Chase in one of his shirts.

Carter and Chase playing on the floor.

Another shot of Chase and Carter but this time you can see the t-shirt.

Karen

Vacation Tie-Dyes and Homemade Pillowcase.

I have to admit that I’ve played hooky for the last few months from this blog. Part of the reason was we went on vacation and then the big catch up in the garden, which I admit is an excuse but sometimes it’s just nice not to have to do something.

Anyhow, we went on holiday – 4 days in Rome and then 11 days on a cruise to various ports of call. The hubby has always wanted one of my lemon yellow and turquoise t-shirts so I made up a batch of tie-dyes to take on holiday. It’s always easier to pick out family when they are wearing tie-dye simply because the colours are so bright and no one else is wearing them.

Tie-dyes batching in plastic ziplock bags in the sun.

More batching tie-dye.

Black, seafoam green and grape adult tee for my niece.

Grecian rose, Island green and grape for my sister-in-law.

Matching socks.

Rainbow shirt made for my husband it looks fantastic on him, very nice.

Scaly dragon shirt, Tom and Martine’s pattern from TrueTieDye It hasn’t found a home yet.

More socks.

Black and turquoise shirt.

Turquoise and lemon yellow, this is a fantastic combination and you can see it from half a mile away, trust me.

Turquoise, black and seafoam green. The green was rather muted on this one. The black was a solid on one side when applied as opposed to being applied in pie shaped wedges on both sides. This is why you get spirals of black in between the other colours unlike the black and turquoise spiral previously.

I saw this neat idea for a pillow on the Moda Bakeshop site and adapted it for my own use. I’m sure there have been lots of pillowcases made like this but it’s my first one and I’m rather proud of it. I like to use feather pillows because you can fluff them up nicely. The only problem is I like a lower loft pillow and the ones I buy from Costco are big. They say they are queen-sized but my pillowcases are several inches smaller than these pillows so when I force them into the case it gives me a really fat pillow. Anyhow, long story short I decided to make my own.

Pillowcase made with Kona percale cotton and various fabric’s from April Cornell’s Nature’s Notebook collection.

Close-up of the material. I really like these colours and when I get around to it I will be making a quilt probably dresden plate out of the fat quarter bundle I bought. I just need to buy some larger yardage for borders before it all gets sold out.

And lastly because I took a couple of before and after pictures:

Junk from desk top.

Clean desk, needless to say my desk is messy again but not quite as bad as before. A never ending flow of stuff migrating on and off the desk like a tide washing in and out on the beach.

Karen

Tie-dyed Toddler’s T-Shirts and Baby Onsies.

I had a request to tie-dye a shirt for a toddler I know. I’d given his mom one for him to wear a while back and he’s grown out of it but it’s his favorite shirt so I got busy the last couple of days and dyed up all the baby stock that I had. The shirts all came out okay but wouldn’t you know it, the one requested shirt with the rainbow swirl had a small hole in the front argh, it’s always the way.

Karen

Vacation and Shibori Pillow

Well I’m back from vacation and a good time was had by all. Thought I’d post a couple of pictures of my most favorite place to be in Vancouver and that’s the Spanish Banks. Think of Vancouver as being in the centre of a horseshoe and the spanish banks along the one side of the horseshoe.

When the tide is out you can walk out from the shore about a kilometre or so and the sight is phenomenal. I always love going there and if I only had one spot to visit this would be it.

Starting out at the shore of the Spanish Banks, Vancouver, Canada.

Looking out to the middle channel from the shore.

The beach is a popular place for dogs and owners so the shore is divided into an area for the dogs to play.

Looking east along the tidal flat to the city of Vancouver.

Starfish stranded at low tide.

Yours truely, its all about the tie-dye.

In front of a harbour signal light.

Close-up of the above shot standing about a couple of yards in front of the signal light.

Dead crab.

Looking back to shore from the edge of the channel at low tide.

One more picture of another harbour light that marks the opening of the channel into the Vancouver harbour. At this point the tide has turned and is starting to come in and now it’s a race back to the shore before we get stranded.

Back at the car, big owie. As we were rushing back to shore I turned back to see how far we had come and ploughed into a log mid-stride. You get submerged logs from the logging industry spotted along the coast and ships and boats really have to keep an eye out for these hazards. This log reminded me of the ones you see along the roadside as telephone poles. It was partially submerged and I didn’t see it until I was on top of it. I had a choice of either falling face forward or twisting backwards which I did but unfortunately my leg brushed up against it as I fell. LOL, I hadn’t planned on taking a swim.

Another favorite spot of mine is Granville Island. It’s an artsy spot with lots of little craft shops and a wonderful market that has the most yummy fritters full of apple or raspberry filling. The amazing thing about these fritters is that they are huge and one fritter will easily satisfy three people and they are made fresh on the spot. Another favorite shop is of course Maiwa that sells all the dye supplies that a person could want.

Maiwa also has a shop where they sell clothing and linens and while I was there I bought a pillow case that I became enamoured with. Lol, I admit to buying it so I could try and figure out how to do the same process at home…well that and it was gorgeous.

Pillow from Maiwa.

Flip side of the pillow.

Close-up of shibori work.

I have an idea of how the pillow was made but I’m not positive so if any one has any ideas let me know.

Karen

Gradations and a tee.

It’s been a while since I last posted but I’ve been on a reading jag for the last month or so. My daughter passed on the twilight series and then I went on from there.

I bought some baby onsies and toddler t-shirts to tie dye and decided that since I needed some more lemon yellow to go ahead and order a few extra baby colours as well.

I have four gradations below:

Baby blue > Wisteria > Baby pink > Seafoam all from Dharma. Colour corrected with Photoshop because they were so pale. The pink is a bit to intense at the darkest level and the Wisteria is a very subtle blue with a hint of purple in it. This is a colour that might do better at a more intense level.

The colours are pretty light to start off with so it was somewhat of a waste to do a six level gradation with them but I’m glad I did the gradation because I like the baby pink and blue at a less intense colour. The only problem being that a tee-shirt usually does better with a more saturated dye as it’s thicker material so I’ll probably go with the darkest shade and see how that turns out. I thought the Wisteria would be more purple but I was confusing this colour with the samples of ProChem’s wisteria.

I have been doing crafts but they are all things that I’ve done before so I haven’t posted them but I did do a tie-dye tee for my son’s girlfriend so thought I’d post that as well:

Basic turquoise, fuchsia and lemon yellow.

Karen