Dyed by Coffee: A Tutorial

Even though I had never dyed any yarn ever, I was excited when Knit Picks offered bare yarn. I grabbed a few skeins of merino wool and just waited.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them.

And then I thought....coffee.

I looked around online and found some tea dyeing tutorials and just decided to 1) not waste tea as I love tea more than coffee and 2) just do it already.

So here we go with coffee dyeing:

Grab your bare yarn and marvel at how pretty and bare it is and hope you don't ruin it

I filled my sink with lukewarm water and put the yarn in. There were a lot of air bubbles so I kept pressing gently on it until they were gone. Then I just let the yarn soak until I was ready for it.

 I had bought generic coffee from the store. I made about 2 full pots of it.

I put those pots of coffee in my big ol stock pot on the stove and turned the heat on. My plan was to get the coffee boiling and then remove from the heat and add the yarn. Once the yarn was added, I stirred it a bit but mostly let it soak for a little over 30 minutes.

I checked it occasionally and, knowing it would lighten up as it dried, waited until it looked like what I wanted.

Once I got that color, I removed the yarn and ran cold water over it until the water ran clear. Then I used a towel to roll it up and blot it dry. From there, all I could do was hang it up and wait for it to dry.

I'm pretty happy with this little experiment!  I made myself some fingerless mitts and will be using the rest for a hat. Next up, Kool aid dyeing!

It's The Little Things

I finally finished my super-secret project and will be mailing it to it's recipient this Friday. After it's received, I'll post pictures of it. Pretty happy with this project and the pattern is now a keeper.

Four day weekend this week with Memorial Day (taking Friday off work- yay!). I've decided that for the next 2-3 months, I'm going to be a very selfish knitter. I have so many things I'd like to try and learn (sock knitting, using my new drop spindle, making stuffed animals, etc) but I always get sidetracked with creating things for other folks. Which, please don't get me wrong, I love to do but sometimes I lose myself with it. I was listening to a Buddhist podcast and it was talking about generosity and giving of yourself. But it made a point to say that, if you give all year round, you must remember to give back to yourself. Because you are just as important as the other people who are receiving your compassion. They suggested that a quarter of the year be devoted to yourself. So I'm taking 3 months to just be with myself. Although I still have ideas for gifts for my friends and family, they are going to have to wait.

School is getting closer to being done. For this one class, at least. Advanced CPT coding is harder, but mostly more time consuming. I just finished the 3rd test of 5 (plus the final) and have a solid 85%. Not what I want but I'll take it. At least I do feel like I'm learning so I can't complain too much. Right?

Work has been extremely difficult lately. Or rather overwhelming. The work itself is not that hard, it's just that there is so much of it I feel like my brain is shutting down. Unfortunately, work is cutting into home time - like now, I just finished almost 3 extra hours sitting here on my couch. My knitting has really helped me at lunch calm down and focus on ONE thing. My yarn and needles don't keep asking me why I'm not done yet and oh, they need to make changes and can I start over???

Yeah. Ok.

I'm currently reading The Devil's Cloth - A history of stripes. So far, very interesting history of how striped fabric got it's bad rap (it was mostly worn by people who "deviated from the norm" ie. prostitutes, lepers and hangmen - there's a motley group of people for you). People were often depicted wearing striped clothing when they were felt (by the artist) to not be worthy. This happened frequently to Joseph (of Jesus, Mary and....). Interesting stuff so far!


Another fiber fest is coming up next week. Hoosier Hills, looks to be a good one. I'm taking a day off work, with mom, to travel to Franklin to check it out. Unfortunately, having to replace my well pump last week has left little to the Fun Fund, so I'll mostly be just browsing.

My goal in the next few months, as well as being selfish, is to keep this blog updated more often. *Crossing fingers!*