Have you tried Ice Dying Yet?

Do you like using hand dyed fabric?  I do, and I love the surprise of dying too.  It isn't a great thing to do in the cool of our winter, but I was so inspired by a recent Craftsy class that I did that I had to have a go. 

The first challenge was to find a tub to use.  After quizzing husband Jim, I realised I had the perfect thing for the job.  Then it was just a matter of making loads of ice and finding some wire mesh (in my case left over from making our chicken coupe). 

This is a picture of the tub with the wire mesh.  I took the picture after I finished dying so the dark stuff you see in the tub is the melted ice (now water) and dye mix before I cleaned up.

If you want to try it at home the first thing you will need to do is to collect all your equipment.

• Procion Dyes (I have my own dye kits which I wholesale and retail)
• Mask and gloves (an absolute must)
• Large tub that will hold the water/dye when the ice melts
• Wire that covers the top of the tub you plan to use
• Lectric soda (this is kinder to you than soda ash, but you need much more of it - I use 1/2 a bag in a very large bucket of warm water)
• Spoon that you won't use for anything else
• Fabric for dying.  I use a beautiful cotton poplin which means I need to wash it to remove the dressing that is put into the fabric when it is manufactured.  The great thing about this technique is that you can dye quite big pieces - you are only limited by the size of your tub.

1. You will need to prewash your fabric, then soak it in the Lectric Soda/water mix for at least 1hr.
2. Prepare your tub by laying the wire mesh on the top.  Make sure it won't move about otherwise you could make a bit of a mess.
3. Place the fabric onto the wire mesh.  I kind of scrunched it up a bit.  I have to tell you that the fabric I started with had already been dyed, and because I didn't like the colour I decided to over dye it.  I was able to dye to separate 1m pieces of fabric in totally different colours because my tub was large enough to hold them on the mesh, keeping them separate at all times.
4. Get all your ice cubes and absolutely cover the fabric with ice.
5. Now put on your mask and gloves because you don't want to breathe in the powder of the dye (it's toxic).
6. Open your powdered procion dye and use the spoon (never use it again for anything else) to sprinkle the dye powder over the ice.  You can use more than one colour, which is great because you get the primary and secondary colours on the colour wheel as the ice melts. Avoid using three or more colours (unless they are variations of the same colour) because this will result in brown fabric! (brown is made using yellow, red and blue).
7. Leave your tub in a nice warm room and close the door on it for at least 24hrs.
8. After 24 hrs you can take the dyed fabric and go ahead and rinse it until the water runs clear.  I usually go ahead at this time and stick the whole lot in the washing machine with a cup of salt to set the dye (just in case I didn't rinse real well).
9. Now dry your fabric and enjoy the wonder of Ice Dying.



Fabric drying on my back veranda

I'm going to make a quick video showing the whole process next week, and I will post the link when I get it done.

Now it is time to head to the breakfast table because Jim has made us bacon and eggs!

Knitting with Fabric

I've been knitting a bit lately. 

Actually it isn't "real" knitting, but a bit more of a free style approach!  I have been messing around with knitting fabric, and although I love the look, I really do need much bigger needles so I can make something a bit more flowing.  This means I'll be unpicking my stuff and trying again.

If you've never had a go at knitting with fabric it is great fun, all you need to do is cut your fabric so that it is in one long continuous piece.  I know it sounds tricky but it isn't all you do is fold the fabric in half so that the selvage is together, then cut through the folded edge, but stop before you cut through the selvage.  I make mine about 1/2 wide, and roll it into a ball or onto some cardboard tubes when I'm done.  When you knit it means that you get a little "tab" when you come to the selvedge but that just adds a bit of texture.

1/2 strips cut into one long continuous piece and then wound onto cardboard ready to knit.

When it is knitted you end up with a really organic looking piece of knitted fabric.

Then it is just a matter of knitting it up.

I've knitted all this using a variety of stitches.  I think that batik fabric looks great as knitted fabric!

At the recent show at Jeff's Shed I brought a book from a favourite designer of mine, the book is "I Knitted My Way" by Teresa Dair.  You can get it on her website (as well as her funky yarns).  I will modify her designs to allow me to use my fabric "yarn", but meantime I am knitting one design in fine crochet cotton. I will ice dye it when I am done.

So that is what I'm doing each evening by the fire.

Now, do you remember that I went to a business lunch with Jane Caro as the speaker the other day?  Well she had a collection of funny ads, and here is another one of them .....

I hope it made you smile!!!

When the Going Get's Tough ... Step out in Purple Pumps!

The past weeks have been such a hectic time for me and my shop.  We had a big show in Melbourne, and that always stretches us all as we have staff split between the show and the shop.

I caught the train into the show to take a look around and was rewarded with buying a signed book from a fantastic designer ... more on that next blog!!!

Now at last things are settling down, and I can tell you I've made three quilts since I last blogged!  Yes 3 and one of them was a Double Wedding Ring!  Does that get me an award?

Today I've made great progress on yet another quilt, which I hope to finish on Friday, then I have two appliqué quilts to do and my deadline is 30th August.  the quilts are all for our AccuQuilt Launch Party and I've enjoyed every minute making them.

And so to my beautiful Purple Pumps .....
this time last year I was still largely wheelchair bound, so imagine how thrilled I was today to step out for a business lunch wearing these glorious shoes.  I've never worn them (although I brought them probably 2 years ago), and with my improved health and weight loss (over 8kg so far thanks to my great Weight Watchers Leader Julie Ann at Myer Eastland) I was thrilled to stride out today.

The lunch was one of a whole series of events run by our local council, Maroondah.  I'm attending workshops tomorrow, but today was an inspirational talk by Jane Caro of Gruen Transfer a brilliant program on the ABC!.  She had a wonderful talk, that really set me to thinking and then finished with some absolutely wonderfully funny ad's (she is in the marketing field amongst a whole  lot of other things!).

Here is my favourite one:

Maybe that is the theme of today - When the Going Get's Tough Step out in Purple Pumps!  .....
....... and be careful that nothing is lost in translation!