Friday 13 June 2014

Dyeing crochet cotton

A while back I bought a bag of white cotton including half a front of a jumper knitted up and the 80's pattern from the Sallies for a few bucks.  Thought I could dye it to suit my living room, and the colours in my curtains to make a wall full of mandalas.  So this is how it goes... 


I started to search online how to dye with plants and food and had a bag of cranberries in the freezer so used them to dye the below lot.  I had to do it all as soon as i 'd started reading up about it!!  Took about a week to dry and faded alot so then I thought I'd just buy some dyes.







This is the curtain fabric that I wanted to match the cotton to. 
 
 

































 










 


I went to Spotlight and got some blue and red dylon dyes and found some green food colouring in the cupboard so here they are below. 
They just looked so lovely in the pot!! like coloured spaghetti!!
 
 
 
 
 




Once I'd done the red and blue and taken cotton out I tipped colours together and made purple!  Yah!!!

 
And here they are all wound up, still a bit damp but wanted to crack on making the mandalas so the basket has been living by the fire to finish off drying them.  The yellow one I already had.  Very pleased with the results!
 

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Lisa's stationery swap

A wee while back I took part in Lisa's stationery swap.  I had Leonie as my swap partner and this is what she sent me.  All wrapped up in a lovely piece of retro fabric.
 



This is what I got in my parcel! Even some lollypops for the kids.  Those animal post-its are sooo cute.
 


And this is what I sent Leonie, all wrapped up in a vintage tablecloth.



Thanks Lisa for organising a great swap.

Tuesday 10 June 2014

Mandalas for Yarndale 2014

I've been busy making and playing round with mandalas and this is one I've sent to Lucy from Attic 24 to display at Yarndale 2014 in Yorkshire.  Mine is the top one and my friend Kara made the bottom one.  Mine is made with cotton and Kara's is wool.  You paint PVA glue on the back and they go a bit stiffer so can hang flat on wall.  They are really easy and quick to make and look lovely.  Lucy has a pattern in her above link.  And she has a Pinterest board with all the hundreds of mandalas she has received so far.