Scarf - Holy LOUD Orange

While I wait for my next colors to arrive I thought I would move the project along.  Looking at my color swatch from the last post.  I decided to use the SOFT ORANGE for my weft.  The sample looks nice, a little understated and I planned to use less dye than I should to dye the weft for a slightly lighter color.

Let's just say that dye strikes amazing well on tencel.  I may be buying more of this yarn I Love the feel of it and the drape of the yarn.  So excited to get this woven so I can see how it turns out!

I had previously measured out 400 yds. of the bamboo weft and tied it in a nice easy skein for dying.

400 Yds. 16/2 Bamboo rayon

I prepared my soda ash solution.  This was a bit of a chance.  Regular rayon does not play well with soda ash.  It weakens the fibers and can tear when wet.  I did not see bamboo mentioned in the list so figured we were good to go.  I soaked the skein in the solution for 18 minutes and then wrung it out pretty good.

In the meantime I prepared 1 cup of dye.  The concentration calls for 2.5 tsp of dye but figured I wanted a lighter tone to the color.  I used 1.5 tsp of dye powder.  I pasted it up with the urea solution (water and urea) and then mixed the dye.

I soaked it for 8 hours in the dye bath.  I then drained the dye.  Rinsed it until the water ran mostly clear and then hung it to dry completely.  Next day I hand washed it in the sink with a bit of industrial detergent and a bit of Downy softner.  I hung it to dry again.

Bobbin winder in the cordless drill!

I used the umbrella swift to hold the skein and my ball winder to turn the skein into a center pull ball.  Using that and the winder attached to the drill allowed me to wind almost 4 full bobbins to weave with.  I think it too much weft.  However, I think I will need more than my project planner says because i think this is going to pack a bit tighter than the original yarn specified for this project (see the yarn debacle here).  I want to be prepared!

As you can see in the photos the color is much more intense than I suspected!  Its a gorgeous color and I love it but it might be competitive in my scarf.  I am going to have to include either the ORANGE CRUSH or the DEEP ORANGE as one of my colors to balance this baby out!

Soft Orange is a bit LOUDER than I thought

Next up:  It's all about the warp bout the warp bout the warp...

Baby Hanten - Redux

I am almost done with the sock yarn Baby Hanten.  It has been a surprisng simple knit, looks great and shows off the variations int he yarn.  The pictures below are for 1 of 3 I am making (can you say triplets).

The sweater is sized for 12 months, so I am hoping they will not have to wear them until next fall and should still fit.  They are due to join us in late the May-June time frame and they might be light enough sweaters for chilly summer nights as well.  We will see.

I have been making the three kinda of in a round fashion.  i did the front panels for the first one.  I then started the back for the first sweater (pictured here) and in the meantime started the front panels for the second one, finished those and have the back going for the second one while finishing the sleeves for the first one.  Once the sleeves are done i will move on to the front panels for the third sweater.

I would like to get back to the Knitte's edge for the seaming class.  I need help with finishing for better looking grments.  Hopefully, zi can catch one before I am done with these.