highlandheffalump

YOP11 Week 22/52 – FO Minion #2 and LOTS of dyeing

Crochet

My 2nd Minion is finished.  He has slightly different hair, smile and fatter arms but pretty similar to his buddy. That’s all my blue and almost all of the yellow acrylic yarn used up.  I will probably give away the remaining white, grey, black and brown. I don’t enjoy the feel of knitting or crocheting acrylic yarn…but I love these guys.

My buddies!

Dyeing

Lots and lots of dyeing! So much so it deserved a separate post on Tuesday, where I talked about doing some self striping yarn dyeing. I then did more dyeing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday!

For my own record, here’s what I dyed this week (over 2kg!):

  1. 100g 4 ply BFL/nylon in Candy Apple (self striping)
  2. 50g 4 ply BFL/nylon in 2 tone Mauve (self striping)
  3. 50g 4 ply BFL/nylon in Blues (failed self stripe so tonal)
  4. 100g 4 ply Merino/Baby Alpaca/Nylon in Blues (tonal)
  5. 100g 4 ply Merino/Baby Alpaca/Nylon in Rusty bike (variegated and speckled)
  6. 100g 4 ply Merino/Bamboo in Salmon pink (speckled with blue)
  7. 100g 4 ply Merino/Bamboo in Rusty reds (variegated)
  8. 200g super chunky BFL in Berry (tonal)
  9. 1 x small silk scarf in hot and warm pinks
  10. 700g Aran Shetland woollen spun yarn initially dyed an orange/red, then 600g was over-dyed with a darker . I accidentally missed the 7th skein 🤦🏻‍♀️ Luckily I can usually get a jumper or cardigan out of 600g! Its still uneven colours…dyeing lots in one batch is difficult!
  11. 100g BFL/Seacell fibre in Holly Berry…it’s so pretty I don’t want to spin it, I was wondering about using it for a wreath!
  12. 200g Norwegian wool carded batt in Raspberry. It’s going to be used in felting a handbag on a ball!
  13. 50g Portland handspun in mauve. These mauve odd bits were just some early practice spinning used to soak up remaining dye from the big pot project (#10 above).
  14. 25g BFL/trilobal nylon handspun in mauve
  15. 19g White faced woodland handspun in mauve
  16. 100g Shetland fibre in shades of teal
  17. 100g Shetland fibre in shades of purple
  18. 100g Merino/Suri Alpaca fibre in shades of purple
  19. Lots of Corriedale fibre in sea green and blues.

I have some more protein fibres to dye, plus some plant based fibres, so will probably dye that next week.

Felting

I finally got around to signing up to Natasha Smart’s Felting a Bag on a Ball online workshop. Its £75 but it is really comprehensive and seems excellent value having watched it through once so far. I’ve ordered some bits I also need to make 5 handbags! At the moment I’m thinking of using my inkle loom to make the straps or make some felted ones, as I don’t want to buy leather if I can avoid it.

Knitting

Amazingly I also found time to add some rows to my jumper. It’s still making me nervous, it being a bottom up project, trying it on isn’t giving me much information. It’s a tunic style jumper so I’m trying not to worry about the body fit too much.

I also added a few rows to my habitation throw, I’m wanting to use up all the scraps and mini skeins I have left.

Other News

I updated my yarn stash tracking spreadsheet and my incoming yarn is less than my outgoing yarn 🥳. (This is my 3rd year tracking it and the first year usage will be more than incoming).

After calculating this I managed to sell a 1kg cone of weaving wool yarn (that I have no idea what possessed me to buy it). It’s so fine and undyed so I would never use it. Now with these 8,000m gone my figures look even better. On my current average annual knitting and weaving usage, I still have 7 years worth of yarn in my stash, plus masses of fibre I could spin into more. Do you know how many years your yarn stash could last you?

I have been trying to have a think about some projects to use up my various handspun. It’s different colours, different fibres and odd small amounts too small or wrong colours for hats etc. I used quite a bit on my Smitten mitten advent garland, so perhaps another project like that. I wondered about some sort of Frankenstein blanket…perhaps using mosaic crochet so all the different colours and lengths don’t matter? Please share if you have any suggestions.

I hope all my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday week. Countdown to Christmas is around the corner! My baby camel & silk fibre advent has arrived 😀

This is a Year of Projects post.  Officially the Group is in its 11th year, but this is my 4th year participating.  If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry.  Year 11 list.

17 comments

  2. Great colors on the dyeing! I love dyeing yarn. I’m going to go back and read your dyeing post. My goal is to accumulate some yarn to do a big dye day with my daughter in the spring. (Our workshop is not heated, so I want to wait until I can be sure it’s warm :)). The Minions are adorable. I love your organization of your stash. It must be great being able to track exactly what you have and what you’ve used.

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  3. Your minion is so cute. Bottom up knits are kind of scary. Hopefully yours will be just fine. Your habitation throw is looking good too. There are quite a few scrap blanket patterns online. You might want to make a ‘wonder ball’ with the bits and bobs and just start knitting away and let the colors change without worrying about them. I am doing a scrap granny blanket with wonderballs and it is kind of fun to see the colors pop up.

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    • I’m almost out of scraps now and haven’t been worried about yarn placement or how many rows I get. Because I make 2 pairs of socks with one skein my scraps are pretty tiny and I’m sewing in the ends as I go, so it will soon be back into hibernation until I knit some more socks. 😀

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  4. Wow what an awesome week on the dye front! Do you consider that stash nueutral, or is it adding to or removing from stash?
    Do I know how many years my stash would last? Hmm no not really, though it’s probably not too many if I ever actually knit just from stash lol! One day I will actually start to use it and primarily build up more of a garment stash.

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  6. How did I miss that you ALSO dye yarns! ? Goodness gracious!!! They are beautiful! Ok, your stash beats mine. I know I have at least 2 years of projects already in stash and likely more but fingers crossed I don’t have seven. That is a good idea though. I will have to tally my stash to see how many pairs of socks and sweaters/tops I already own.

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  7. LOVE those minions! (But I’m not a fan of working with acrylic yarn either so I can see why you are ready to move on). Loads and loads of dyeing accomplished and it all looks great.

    I have actually run my numbers and based on my current yearly usage the last couple of years, I’ve got 16 years of knitting supplies available. :/ Which is why I’m here for YOP.

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  8. Those guys are too cute! I wouldn’t know where to start figuring out my yarn stash and usage. Good for you! Your dyeing turned out some lovely yarns and fibers. I need to look up that Frankenstein blanket. I love the name. Did you get that big storm? It was on the news here about how bad it was. Have a good week!

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