Calcifer

Hello again!

I don't know about you but I am a huge Hayao Miyazaki fan.  It is my goal to eventually own all of the movies he has made.  So far my collection is small, but includes my favorite (My Neighbor Totoro) and a few others.  Among these is Howl's Moving Castle.  By far my favorite character in this movie is the fire demon Calcifer.  He's just got a loveable spunk!  So I decided to knit up a Calcifer of my own.

Calcifer is made of fire and I wanted to get the colors right, so I decided to hand dye some yarn for this project.  I initially dyed the yarn yellow and then made a gradient with some red.  The result is quite flame like.  Next, I just knit him up, added some facial features, and BAM!  Cute little fire demon!

 

 

In other news, I was recently interviewed about my Finn the Human pattern! Check out the interview here!

Blue

I finished my hat for my friend!  It was a Navi hat!  I really like the way that the yarn I dyed worked out.  The hat ended up looking kind of pixel-y which worked really well since Navi is from a video game and all.  Anyways, here he is with his brother as Link at Comic-Con:

 

Here are some more images where you can see the hat a bit better.  I used some thin wire to hold the wings up, which worked quite well.

I recently got an itty bitty crochet hook and some embroidery yarn and tried my hand at making an little octopus!  It is super cute!  It made my hands hurt a lot to use the little hook, but it was worth it!  And then I turned it into a key chain!  Woo!

Also, I finally started to make Jake the Dog for my sister!  Hopefully I will finish it within the next two weeks.

Yarn Science!

A friend of mine requested that I make him a hat.  One of the specifications was that it go from blue to white.  So I took this as a great opportunity (and excuse!) to try some yarn dying science!! 
I got the beginner yarn dye kit from KnitPicks as well as some nice white wool and then I set up a lab in my kitchen and got to work!  I first separated some yarn out into 6 equal pieces and then loosely tied them together.  The thought was that I would pull out the sections at different times, and then the ones in the dye the longest would be the darkest.  I first soaked the yarn, made a dye bath, and then started to dye. 
This method worked out terribly.
The yarn in the dye pot got all tangled up and everything basically ended up being the same shade of blue except the one I pulled out after about 1 minute. You can see the results below.

Soak that yarn!

Now soak it in dye!

ermmmmm....

oh boy....

Ok, so I needed a new method to create a gradient from blue to white.  Luckily there is this thing called the internet and it showed me a different way to achieve my goal.  Method 2 involved rolling the yarn up into a ball, not soaking it in water, and then just sticking it straight into the dye.  So the idea is that the color gradually soaks up into the middle of the ball.
This method was much more successful as you can see!

After soaking for about 5 minutes

Yay!

There is actually a gradient!  It is still not quite what I wanted since it is a bit splotchy.  But this hat has a due date that is coming up rather quickly so it will do!

I am currently working on three projects right now as well as this hat.  I am still working on my 2nd Finn the Human, I am making (yet another) octopus, and I am knitting up a cowl at work during breaks.  But I have been finding myself rather busy this summer, so progress on all three of these projects is slow.
More post when I have finished them!

Yarn Science

So, I've been thinking a lot recently about trying to dye my own yarn. I have stumbled upon quite a few sites that describe how to do it with both Kool-Aid and yarn dye. I'm thinking of purchasing some dye and dyeable yarn from Knit Picks (which is a super awesome store).
It looks like dying your own yarn involves soaking, boiling, mixing, and stirring. Basically, chemistry in your kitchen with yarn! Sounds pretty awesome to me!

Though, as much as I want to do this, I really don't need any more yarn at the moment. I have run out of storage space for all of my yarn, and have resorted to putting some of it under the couch. I figure I should probably try and use some of that up before running out and purchasing more just for fun.

But soon, soon I will experiment!

Also, I totally want this sampler from Knit Picks because OMG COLORS! But the same storage/use issues apply. Also it's over 300 dollars.