Hand Painting Yarn

Last week was for less blogging but I discovered the fun of hand painting yarn. I used Lukas batik powder paints and food coloring powder. I played by mixing the paints, one skein of pure wool yarn felted a bit and now I can say I KNOW HOW TO HAND PAINT YARN. The food coloring powder produces more vibrant colors than Lukas batik, even the last one is a special fabric paint.

The starting point looked like this, lovely hanks of undyed pure wool organic yarn:




And here's what I got:

Sun drying and striking sheep fleece in Turkey

Split- Neckline Cap Sleeve Tee by Stefanie Japel

I liked so much Fitted Knits book! After I finished the Drop Lace Stitch Tank from this book I cast on for another project from the same book. I hope this project will help me learn the top-down knitting technique too. I am using Barbara G. Walker's technique to firmly join into a ring/round front and back bodystitches after placing the sleeve stitches on scrap yarn to be worked later. This technique is described in Knitting from the Top book, on page 116, paragraph 3.

For this project I decided on a self striping yarn, 50 % cotton and 50 % acrylic, Linate CotoLin Gold from Okiteks, another local Turkish brand. I just love the beige color shades.... I cast on for S size and my gauge/tension is 20 sts/4 " with Stockinette st with US 7 (4.5 mm) Knit Picks circular knitting needle.

Drop Stitch Lace Tank from Fitted Knits book by Stefanie Japel

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And I have another FO (finished object): a lovely very fitted tank. First time I have the perfect fit and I just love Stefanie Japel for this. This one won't go to my mom...

I received Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel from my swap pal, Destiknit. Lucky me to had have such a cool pal… :)))

I started this project on 24th May and I finished in on 8th June 2008. I used 3 skeins (720 yards) of 100% bamboo yarn from Alize (a local Turkish brand).

Modifications: I added extra stitch repeats to compensate the finer gauge. And, like everybody else, to get a better look of the drop stitch motif, I knit through back loops the knit stitches around all yo’s. I used 4 buttons instead of 3.

My gauge is 25.5 sts/4 ” with US 6 (4.5 mm) Knit Picks Options Interchangeable needles and I cast for M size.