Purple Skirt

Well I have not been doing a whole lot of knitting or spinning the past week or so, but I did manage to make a new skirt to wear to a bellydance event. It's a simple 10-yard 4-tiered cotton "gypsy" style skirt made out of some inexpensive 44" quilter fabric from JoAnn.

To make these skirts, I buy 5 yards of the fabric. I cut the fabric lengthwise while it is still folded over in half the way it is wrapped on the bolt. And then cut down the center, with 11 inches on each side of the cut.



Next, I unfold the top half and cut down the fold line with 11 inches on each side. Now I have 4 strips of fabric that are 5 yards long and 11 inches wide.



I always use the 2 fabric strips from the bottom of the first cut to be the bottom tier. Those edges are already somewhat finished when they come off the bolt and won't unravel. That way I do not have to make a 10 yard hem at the bottom of the skirt. The fabric edge is my hem :)

So I take those 2 strips and sew them together to get a 10 yard strip that is 11 inches wide. Then I sew a line of wide stitches with my sewing machine along the unfinished 10 yard edge to be the top of the bottom tier's gathering spot. Then comes tons of gathering. I sit and pull on one string from the machine-stitched line and gather the fabric down until it is half its width (now 5yd).



Next, I line up the 5 yard gathered edge of the bottom tier with the bottom edge of another 5 yard strip of fabric and pin them together. Then I sew those 2 pieces together. After that, I gather the top edge of the second tier the same way as I did the first tier, taking it down to 2.5 yards in size.



Next I cut the remaining 5 yard strip of fabric in half vertically to get 2 x 2.5 yard/11" wide strips. I line up one of these 2.5 yard strips with the gathered edge of the 2nd tier, pin and sew to make the 3rd tier. Then I gather up the top of the 3rd tier to about 1.5 yards. Now, at this point you could make it whatever width you need. I think the last skirt I made I took it down to 1.25 yards, but this one I left a little roomier. You could also make it bigger and gather to 1.75 or 2yd or whatever you like if you want it fuller in the top or need more room for hip size etc.



I cut the remaining 2.5yd strip of fabric down to desired length, pin and sew it to the top of the 3rd tier creating the 4th tier. Then I line up the left and right edges with right sides facing and pin them together and sew up the side.

After that, the only thing left to be done is to fold over the top edge and sew along it to make a casing leaving an opening for a strip of elastic to run through for the waistband. I used 3/4" non-roll elastic for mine.

Since I am tall, the 44 inch fabric is the perfect width for me. By the time I have sewed all my seams and folded over for the waistband it is just the length I need (I measure about 39 inches from my hip to the floor for my bellydance skirts), If you need it shorter, you could fold over more at the top for an easy fix. You could also cut the fabric strips thinner than 11 inches but that seems like a good deal more work, and I wanted a skirt that was as quick and simple as possible ;) If you're really ambitious you could experiment with the math and more yardage to make a 15 yard or 25 yard skirt. That's a little too much gathering for my liking.

I wait until I get 40% or 50% off coupons for JoAnn to buy the fabric. So with thread, elastic and fabric included these skirts generally cost me maybe $12 to make. It takes me a couple hours with all the gathering, but it's worth it.

Here is the finished result!



Other skirts I have made using this method:

LED Sheep?

I think these sheep have got to be tired.

LED Sheep


A sheep farmer puts on an incredible display you have to see to believe.

(They make you sit through an idiotic few second commercial first)

A Wool Dyeing Adventure

On Friday I got the dyes I ordered from Dharma Trading Company. I went out and got the last things on my list of supplies that I needed and then Friday evening I dyed my first 4 ounces of corriedale wool roving.

Here are some of the supplies: jars of acid dye, plastic cups for mixing, measuring cups, a spray bottle of white vinegar, some squirt bottles from the beauty supply store, wool soaking in a cleansing solution of synthrapol and water. Not pictured: a stock pot with lid and a steamer basket, a salad spinner, a colander, a drop cloth, newspaper, and saran wrap.



I mixed up 3 colors of dye - purple, turquoise and dark grey. I put a cup of water into each of 3 plastic cups, added less than 1/4 teaspoon of dye powder, and then stirred with a coffee stirrer. Then I poured the dye into the squirt bottles.

I left the wool soak in the synthrapol solution for about an hour while I got everything else ready. The synthrapol is supposed to clean the wool and make the dye be able to adhere to it better I think.

I took the wool out of the solution and put it in the salad spinner and spun out a bit of the water. Then I laid it out on the kitchen table which I had already covered with a plastic drop cloth and a line of newspaper for absorbing spills. I put the wool on top of a strip of saran wrap.



Then the kids and I used the squirt bottles to put the dye onto the wool in sections. We doused the top and then I used saran wrap to cover and flip the wool over so we could douse the other side. Then I sprayed the wool generously with the vinegar to activate the dye (like what you do with Easter egg coloring).



I wrapped the saran wrap over the wool and rolled it up from one end to the other. I think I used too much water this time because I had a lot of it leak out. Next time I will use less.

I covered the bottom of the stock pot with probably 1/2 inch or so of water, placed the steamer basket on the bottom and put the pot on the stovetop. I placed the wool wrapped in saran wrap onto the basket and put the lid on and turned on the heat to low. I let the wool steam for probably around 30 minutes and then removed the heat.



I took the steamer basket out of the pot and placed it on the counter until the wool was cooled off enough that I could unroll it.



Then I left it sit unwrapped so that it would cool to room temperature.



Once cooled, I placed the wool in a dishpan of like-temperatured water to rinse out any excess dye. I had surprisingly little dye bleed into the water. Once rinsed, I put the yarn back into the salad spinner and spun out as much of the water as I could.



Then I hung up the wool on a plastic hanger so that it could dry. Here is the finished product photographed the next day when it was dry:



I think it came out really pretty. I was worried that too much handling of the wool while it was wet would cause it to felt and clump together but it seems to be ok. Now I just have to see how well it drafts out when I spin it on the spinning wheel. Can't wait to see what the finished yarn will look like!

Purple maize

I decided that I wanted to do some more spinning this past week so I worked on my "Purple maize" corriedale that I purchased online from Mary Jane's Attic. The braided roving was extremely compacted, so I split it into a bunch of thin strips in order to make drafting it out a bit easier. I spun it onto 2 bobbins worth of singles and then plied them together, washed the yarn and let it dry, and then skeined it up. Here are some pictures of the process:

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I have still been working on my Aeolian. It's coming along really well but I am almost at the bottom of the tube of beads and am still waiting for the second tube I ordered to arrive.

I also ordered a few jars of dye so that I can experiment with all this cream colored wool I got with my wheel purchase. I only have 2 more 4 oz bags of dyed roving left to spin. After that's gone I won't jave anything interesting left to work with. I'm hoping the dyeing process will be fun and interesting once I get the supplies in the mail.

Spinning!

Between last night and today I finished spinning the second half of a 4oz chunk of cream colored roving that came with my wheel purchase. The first 2 oz I spun up before Easter. By the time I was finished with this second bobbin, I had a nice fine and fairly even product. You can tell the difference between the 2 bobbins in this pic. The top bobbin is the one I did a couple weeks ago. It looks all squiggly because it was not wrapped tightly around the bobbin. But you can see that the bottom one is pretty even.



I plied the 2 bobbins together this afternoon, which looked like this:



Here are the 2 completed bobbins:



I wrapped it around my niddy noddy and measured it to be 198 yards. Not too bad for 4oz of fiber and my 3rd spinning attempt on my wheel.



Here is the finished skein:



I have not washed it yet. I am thinking that I might try using some dye on it just to experiment and see what that is like. I still have 1 lb. 12 oz. of this fiber that I can spin up and play with :)

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In knitting news, I've been working a good bit on my Aeolian shawl when I have had the chance. I finished the transition chart and am halfway done with the first agave chart. I'm down to about 25% of my beads left, so I placed an order for another tube yesterday. Hopefully it won't take long for those to get here.

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That's about it for my craft progress so far this week. I think I want to try spinning one of the bags of merino roving that I have had sitting around for a while and see how that goes. And I want to make some more stitch markers too!

It's been a while

I've been working exclusively on my Aeolian shawl since I started it. I decided to do 8 yucca pattern repeats because I liked the look of some other people's work. I have started on the transition chart and am almost halfway done with it.

So far I haven't had any major problems with it. I messed up occasionally due to not concentrating enough, so there were a handful of times when I had to figure out why my stitch count was off and then remedy it. I really like the way it looks, and there's something about pretty yarn and a pretty pattern that just makes you really want to work on it.

I have used half of my tube of beads... I am not sure but there's a really good possibility that I am going to run out and have to order some more. I could always work some of the pattern without beads. Or I could use the crystal/silver beads that I bought instead. I will have to see how far I get. But here is a picture of my progress so far.



Of course Merlin had to get onto my blocking squares as soon as I took them out of the box.

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I never got around to posting about the gifts that I gave my Grandma for her birthday. I didn't have them done in time, so I finished them up by the end of March and then gave them to her this past week when I visited. I knitted a dishcloth based on the kitchen towel pattern that I previously used.



I also made a pot scrubber/pot holder thing that I crocheted from a pattern in the March/April issue of Crochet Today! magazine. It turned out bigger than I imagined it would. She said she would like to hang it up, and I think it would make a nice kitchen decoration.

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The other day I started spinning a second bobbin of the natural colored wool that I got as a bonus gift when I bought my wheel. The first bobbin I finished before I went on spring break. I was having a problem with my wheel where 2 of the wooden posts that hold the flyer and bobbin kept rotating outward in their sockets and the flyer would fall. So I ended up putting a little bit of wood glue on the bottom of the posts and put them back into the sockets. I didn't put a lot of glue on there, just enough to get them to stay still. If I need to take them apart I think I will still be able to. But it got me back in business and I was able to start spinning again. But I only worked on it a little bit since all of my crafting time has been taken up with the Aeolian knitting.

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For my stitch markers, I am still debating on whether or not I want to buy some jewelry soldering supplies and solder my jump rings, or just buy already soldered rings. I haven't made any more markers lately. I need to do that too. There's just way too many things I want to do and I never have time to do it all.

Aeolian started!

On Saturday I finally received the beads I ordered from Whimbeads. I bought 3 tubes of 8mm seed beads, one in teal, one in silver-ish and one in white/crystal because I was not sure what color would look best with my "Turquoise Splendor" Knit Picks Shimmer laceweight yarn. After looking at it for a while I decided to go with the teal beads. They blend in but yet add some sparkle. I think the silver and crystal ones were also pretty but they were almost too noticeable for my taste.

I had to buy a size 12 steel crochet hook to use for putting the beads onto the yarn. It was the smallest size they had at the craft store and luckily it just fits through the beads.

I cast on my Aeolian on Sunday. I had a difficult time getting started on it, but once I finally got a few rows into it I started really enjoying it. I've made some mistakes here and there due to lack of concentration or something with following the chart. I've either worked backwards to fix the mistakes or improvised them a little for the most part. I do see one noticeable error but I don't know that anyone else will really notice it.

As of now, I finished the set up chart and 2.5 repeats of the yucca pattern chart. I think it looks really pretty. I haven't decided yet how large I am going to make this (how many repeats) because I am afraid I will run out of yarn. I guess I will just see what happens. Here's some pics of the progress so far. I pinned it out to show the pattern.