Hand painted yarn

Oh how I love the hand-painted yarns from Malabrigo and Madelintosh !! Wish I could have lots of them in my stash, but the prices are too high to buy these in bulk. So, instead, I thought of trying to hand paint some yarn for myself and see how it turns out. Here is the result of what  I've been upto last evening

It is a total of about 400g ( about 1464 yds), and I know just what I want to knit with it. Now the big question is.....when do I start !!!

 

Yarn dyeing experiment

I have been reading a lot lately about hand dyeing yarn at home using food colours or acid dyes, and I must say, I was really tempted to give it a try. And so I did ! Here is what all I required -

• A hank of undyed pure wool

 

• A bottle of food colour, well I actually used two since I needed a pinkish hue, I mixed some yellow to red to get a lightish red, and then reduced the concentration of colour to get a sweet rose-ish pink. Well I did not quite measure the number of drops, though as an afterthought I think I should have. It was more like a hit-and-trial to get the right shade. Here is the food colour I used



 

• Water
• Vinegar - a tablespoon per cup of water. Vinegar is needed to provide an acidic pH to the colour solution, so that the yarn picks up the colour well and completely.

 

Okay, so I first prepared the required colour, tested it on a dry paper towel with a toothpick, and then added it to the vessel which had about six cups of water with vinegar. When the solution started simmering, I added the dry yarn to it, dry because I wanted the colour to get soaked in varying quantities to the yarn for a slight tonal colouring. Here is my yarn simmering in the colour bath

 

I then covered the vessel and let the yarn simmer for about 10 minutes. I could have kept it a little longer, but I was scared I'd end up with burnt yarn, so I decided to put off the stove after 10 minutes, and let the yarn cool down in the vessel itself to a tolerably hot temperature.

I then thoroughly rinsed the yarn with plain tap water and mild detergent to remove any access colour.

To soften my yarn a bit, I added hair conditioner and rinsed it further

And this is how my yarn looks after drying

Well, it is not as tonal as I wanted it to be, but I am still quite pleased with the result.

I bought about 800 g of undyed yarn, and since I'm quite encouraged with this experiment, I'm planning to dye a sweater quantity for myself. But first, I need to plan a suitable project for this lovely sweet-rose coloured yarn.......any suggestions?!!



A Visit to KnitPro Manufacturing Unit

As a part of my orientation in the company, I had the opportunity to visit the KnitPro manufacturing unit, and see for myself the entire process of making knitting needles and crochet hooks from various materials. It was indeed an overwhelming experience to be able to witness and study each minute detail of the seemingly simple, but very complex process of knitting needle manufacturing. I also got a chance to interact with the staff and supervisors. Many of the women workers were knitters themselves, and I had a lot of fun discussing knitting techniques and ideas with them. I was truly amazed to see how stringent quality checks were applied at each and every step of the entire process, to ensure that only the best finished products reach the customers. Though I was expected to share my knowledge with the staff there, I ended up broadening my own horizons with the invigorating discussions I had with them. We discussed various yarn types and their characteristics, and how each feels on various types of needles and hooks. I also got to test a new type of needles that were under trial before going into mass manufacturing, must say I was thrilled to be able to lay my hands on something even the most experienced knitters had not. And to make my visit even more memorable and satisfying, I was treated to a huge glass of rich ' lassi ' which kept me "fulfilled' well past dinner time !

I shall always be grateful to the organisation for this opportunity to visit the manufacturing unit, and the warmth with which I was treated by the staff there.

Did I rub a magic lamp ?!!!

I'm sure you've heard of dreams coming true, but there are some dreams which are meant to be just dreams, to be thought about and felt good about, but never to realize what it is like to see them come true. Do I sound confused....I guess I still am...quite a bit !!!

Being a physician and a healthcare manager is something I've always taken pride in, but at the same time, I was equally in love with my crafty passions, and got more involved with crafting when I left my hospital job to be at home for my newborn. These last two years of being a stay-at-home-mom have been my best years in terms of finding time for knitting pretty little things for my lovely children and also gifts for near and dears. I got sooo involved with knitting and crochet that I started contemplating having a one-of-its-kind craft store, where a craft lover would find all kinds of crafting accessories and tools, where I could sit, chat and laugh with my Ravelry friends, and where I could connect and meet with people following all sorts of crafts.... So is this the dream which has come true...?? Well, not completely...partly....but I'm surely on my way to realize more soon !!

I was offered a position of a Knitting and Crochet Consultant by Knitpro, the company that manufactures my very favourite and precious knitting needles and crochet hooks. To my surprise, I did not know whether to feel excited about the offer . Afterall, I was a doctor and was supposed to be looking for suitable jobs in the healthcare industry ! Then a little voice in my heart said "Hey, isn't this what you so want to do?? And does everyone get a chance in their lifetime to give up what they are trained to do, and do what they find happiness in ?!!" And that was the moment I decided to take up the opportunity and see how things work from there.

Who knows...it might be the beginning of bigger dreams coming true......I guess I should start asking for craft store name suggestions..just in case !! What say ?!

My experiments with cable hacking !

As so many of us out there, the Boye Needlemaster was the first interchangeable needle set that I bought....one, because there was a discount, and second, it was being shipped to India without me having to spend a fortune on shipping. Also, like so many of us again, I absolutely loved my Boye needletips, but hated the stiff cables.

A friend of mine who lives in Colorado mentioned to me that she had a Knitpicks harmony interchangeable set and she loved the slick cables that Knitpicks offers. I looked up the website of Knitpicks and found the needles and cables very desirable. I placed an order for the Options interchangeable set immediately since I preferred metal needles to wooden, but to my misfortune, Knitpicks did not provide shipping outside the US. I was disappointed, but then my friend said I could buy from Knitpicks and give her shipping address, so she could reship the needles to me once they arrived. This seemed very do-able and I placed an order with her shipping address. Now I started waiting eagerly to be able to lay my hands on the KP set, and when it arrived, it was like a dream come true....I had the KPO set, and it was love at first sight.....I absolutely adored the KP needles and the cables were awesome. I could do magic loop so easily on them. Now I started using the KP set for all my knitting projects...but, somewhere, like you love your first born the most, I still loved my Boye needles, but found the cables even more aweful after using the KP ones. I felt sorry for my Boye needles and wanted to somehow be able to use them....but...if only I could get better cables !!!!

Thus began my research for flexible cables for Boye needlemaster. I would have read every word and every blog available on the topic. I was inspired by Rheatheylia's blog a lot, so I started searching for supplies that she had used. I found everything at Amazon, but to my misfortune, they wouldn't ship to India. I tried finding similar things out here, but no luck !! Then one day I came across this blog byKat, and my imagination started dancing again. I started researching where all I could order the taps from. I did find a couple of stores who shipped internationally, but the shipping was way too high to be acceptable. I thought maybe my Boye set was destined to lie neglected forever.

Again one afternoon when desperation got me searching again on the net, I read Fleegle's blog. Now it was time to hunt for gunsmiths in New Delhi. I found one easily, but he did not have the required taps since his technician had decided to retire, leaving him out of tools and work! I thought maybe I should just stop worrying about the Boye needles and concentrate more on my family rather than cable reassignment projects. So I told myself that this was an end to my research on flexible cables for Boye needles. But fate brought me to this discussion on Ravelry, and I got thinking again. I approached a few Ravellers who had leftover supplies after they made the weedeater cables, and were willing to trade their supplies. There were quite a few wonderful Ravellers who volunteered, but then, the shipping cost to India was far too much as compared to the cost of these supplies. Now my patience was wearing down, I thought, is living in this part of the world a crime, do I not have a right to access craft supplies that so many people world over are finding so easy to get?!!!

Thankfully, I did get some very good suggestions, even links to stores who shipped internationally from fellow Ravellers, who probably loved their Boye needles as much as I did and sincerely wanted me to be able to use them with better cables. So, finally, I ordered the required supplies to make weedeater cables from ebay on a Sunday morning. By Thursday, I had received only the Sullivian screws. I was generally going through some discussions on Ravellry, and I found this forum. I thought, hey, I do have the KP cables, and I have the screws as well, so why not give this idea a try while I wait for the remaining supplies..!!!!

I began by collecting together everything that I needed right now. Here's what I used :



The things that I used were - empty refills from a ball point pen ( I cut 20 mm pieces for each end ), sullivian screws ( which were originally an inch long, but I cut them into two equal halves ), nail buffer, wire cutter for cutting the screws into half, and scissors for cutting the refill.

Here is a picture of the cut screw and the refill tube

After cutting the screw and the tube( the refill tube), I screwed one end of the screw, the smooth end, into the Boye needle, like this...

The screw was about 12 mm long, and almost 6 mm of it went into the needle tip. So I screwed the remaining 6 mm into one end of the tube, which I had already filed smooth using the nail buffer and some sandpaper.

The above needle is the Boye size 2 with the tube in place, screwed securely with the screw to the needle tip. Since the screw was wider than the refill tube, I did not have to use any glue. I had put in some effort to screw the tube, I know that it would stay in place even without an adhesive.

Next, I screwed the KP cable to the other end of the tube.

You would notice that the join is pretty smooth, and again, I did not need glue on this side either, since the KP cable screw is wider than the tube, and was quite secure without any adhesive.

By repeating the above steps for the other Boye needle of size 2, and the other side of the KP cable, I got this lovely circular needle of Boye size 2 with the very flexible KP cable.

I have no words to describe how happy I am feeling right now, after all the research, disappointment & frustration that I have experienced in the last 8 months. Ofcourse I will eventually make the weedeater cables in various lengths once I receive the remaining supplies, but for now, I am very happy with my work. Although this can be a permanent solution for the Boye needle tips if one makes a separate set of adapters for all Boye needle tips which are permamently atached to the needletips. Then all you need to do is to screw in the desired length of KP cable to the other end of the adapter. The advantage of using these adapters over the weedeater cables is that one can use a lifeline with these cables.

I hope that reading this blog would prove to be inspiring for anyone who's out there looking for a solution to make their Boye needle tips more usable, and I whole heartedly pray that no one goes through the struggle that I did for finally bringing justice to my Boye needles.

Happy knitting, and thanx for reading.