Rainbow – Hopefully Creative

Rainbow Bright Side

Nice pops of colour and texture on otherwise plain grey.

I saw the The Bright Side scarf by Lori B at some point last year when I was looking for scarf patterns on Ravelry. I was immediately intrigued. It looked like such a fun idea to have different coloured bits of texture in a scarf. This was one of the projects that I really wanted to make and finish. So on November 1st, 2022, I died some Chester Wool Company Alpaca 4ply Sock yarn in a nice light grey while leaving some yarn out of the dye pot. A short rainbow gradient was then applied to the undyed section and further steamed to set. It hang out in my house for about two and half more months before I finally picked it up and started my Rainbow Bright Side.

This was my travel project from January 14 until February 19. It was in a plastic bag in my rucksack and traveled with me on daytrips and to the office. I would sometimes do some knitting on it at home too. The pattern is very simple, there are some edge stitches on both sides, but in the middle just knit (and purl on the reverse), if you come across some rainbow stitches, purl them on the knit side and knit them on the purl side. You’ll end up with a giant crescent shape at the end. As the rainbow was dyed on the skein on one side, there’s approximately the same amount of stitches between each section of rainbow. As the width of the scarf changes all the time, this means that some interesting pooling can occur if the circumstances are just right. It’s very fascinating to see how these develop while knitting.

As you end on the widest part of the crescent, I had a hard time estimating how much yarn I still needed to finish. In the end, I won yarn chicken by about 4 cm and felt very lucky about that. I really didn’t want to take that many stitches out again. After winning chicken, the scarf was wetted and the blocked. I tried to pull it into an aesthetically pleasing shape on my pool mats. I think it worked. The point of the triangle is not in the middle of the scarf, which means I can wrap the short side around my neck once, but the long side twice. It also goes with a lot of different things because the colours are both neutral and bright – at least in my opinion. It’s already seen some wear, and I’m sure it’ll come out more often!

Rainbow Tie Scarf

An afternoon of quick knitting a rolling corkscrew tie scarf.

I’ve by now amassed a decent amount of dyed yarn in my yarn table, so I figured I should use some to actually make things. So off to Ravelry I went. I recently discovered that Ravelry also has knitting machine patterns so I looked through that category for inspiration. I found this Ringel-Enden- / Korkenzieher-Stola by Gabi gruen. It’s a really easy rectangle knit (no thinking whatsoever) that automatically corkscrews at the ends because of the nature of stockinette knitting.

So I found the rainbow and white speckle yarn and cast on 81 stitches onto waste yarn. When I had knit around 8 rows of waste yarn, I continued with the rainbow yarn. I made sure to leave about 2 meters or so. Then the machine and I just whizzed back and forth until there was again 2 meters of yarn left. I transferred the stitches from the knitting machine onto knitting needles and cast off both ends so they are symmetrical.

The scarf started to do the natural corkscrews as predicted by the pattern, but less pronounced because it’s not as wide as the original. Since I only had one skein, I cast on fewer stitches and it turned out a little shorter. I didn’t think it can comfortably wrap around my neck twice, so I found a different solution. I used some of the leftover yarn from the stripy scarf to quickly knit a tie. A white snap was applied, and I had a cute little closure. I was pleasantly surprised by how this yarn knit up. I wasn’t sure if it would be a hideous mess of too much colour, but the little stripes are less busy then I expected.

Dyeing with and without a Plan

Adventures in dyeing, with and without a plan.

Last Friday, after some very busy weeks at work, I needed to take the day off. First some sleeping in, but then I decided to actually go do something. The plan was to dye a skein in the colours of my Momiji coat so I could knit some sort of neck covering. I grabbed some superwash merino aran wool and put some tie wrap resists on it. The plan was to dye the skein (dark) blue with white spots. Then I could syringe some brown/orange dye into the white spots. The skein went into the pot dry and immediately soaked up some of the navy/blue combination dye. This means that some areas are lighter blue than others. It’s also a little darker than the aim, but I hope it’ll still look good once knitted up.

While I was waiting for the dye to set, I decided to experiment some more. The second plan was born quickly: lets make some rainbow yarn! It’s a superwash merino sock yarn that was soaked beforehand. I put it all on some plastic and prepared my dye colours: red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue and purple. However, when I started syringing the ‘orange’ dye on my yarn, it turned out that it was red – always label things, don’t just guess (fail 1). I added some actual orange next to it. Then I wanted to put on some yellow, but I put it on the red side, not the orange side (fail 2). So I quickly put purple dye over it to keep some sort of rainbow. Less ideal. Next step, the blue that decided to squirt all over the still white part of the yarn (fail 3). I sighed, added the turquoise and green and then decided to just use the remaining white bit for colour speckles. So I put some of the leftover dye in the white area. This skein turned out partially rainbow partially speckle. We’ll see how insane it’ll knit up.

I still had two more skeins soaking without a plan – I guess I started the day a little ambitious. Luckily there was still something that I’d wanted to try for a while. A sock weight skein with colour gradation, by leaving it in longer in some areas than in others. So I put some grey dye in the pot, and added tie wraps through which I could jam wooden sticks to keep an amount of yarn out of the pot. I set a timer for three minutes and lowered a little more yarn into the pot every time it went off. I did forget to take off the tie wraps, so I accidentally added resists. However, I’m happy with how it turned out, so that’s not a waste.

The last skein was just.. put it in an oven dish, add water, squirt leftover red and orange dye on top and heat set it in the oven. No rhyme, no reason, just bright colours. Not sure what I’ll end up doing with that. I think it is aran yarn, so it should knit up pretty quickly once I get around to it. All in all, I really enjoyed my day of dyeing! However, dyeing eventually leads to having to wind up the yarn, and that’s never super fun. So today I set out to buy myself a helpful tool. This yarn winder thing is so helpful, much quicker and easier than when I play around with a plastic bottle. Of course, it still takes forever when there’s a knot, but I did manage to wind up one of the aran balls in about 10 minutes (win!).

Rainbow Socks

Double experiment with dye and with a knitting machine.

I recently acquired a Knittax S knitting machine and to thank the original owner, I am making him socks.

The yarn I’m using is Alpaca 4ply Sock: 60% Superwash Merino 20% Superfine Alpaca 20% Nylon sock yarn, purchased from Chester Wool. This yarn is so soft, I love it. It was hand dyed by using it as the ‘cleaning tool’ when making up some pots of citric acid with Eurolana dyes. The spoons that were used to put the dye in the pots, was wiped on the wet yarn. The distribution of colours is basically ‘which bit is still too white’. Colours are black, brown, grey, orange, yellow, soft yellow, red, magenta, violet, blue, navy, turquoise and green. They came out quite muted, but I do like them. When knitted up, they are more obvious than on the ball.

As for the socks, the instruction booklet for the knitting machine came with patterns in the back so I chose to make the basic socks for men. The pattern is in the images (in Dutch, translation for the image below). For the first try, I cast on exactly as intended, but chose setting 5 on the machine. These socks turned out quite large so I frogged them and started again on a setting 4 on the machine. The length that came out on setting 4 matched the book, so that seemed to have gone well. I’m not sure if I’m seaming them right, they feel quite bulky and I’m not sure that’s nice on the foot. I’ve also discovered that knitting takes about as much time as the seaming. The knitting is very quick, this machine goes a hell of a lot faster than I ever can by hand.

Image translations (left). *Hiel*: heel; *Ondervoet*: bottom of the foot; *Teen*: toe; *Bovenvoet*: top of the foot; *Beenlengte*: length on the leg; *Naad*: seam; *Verkorte toeren*: short rows; *Open steken*: provisional stitches.

After finishing one sock, I brought it to the original owner to try on. He claimed that they were indeed the right size and that the ridges of seaming wouldn’t be annoying. As he’s been wearing machine knit socks like this for a long time, I’m inclined to believe him. So then I set out the knit the second sock with the same settings. It took me a few goes and a lot longer than it should have but in the end, sock number 2 was finished. Before seaming it together it does look really strange and not what you expect. Once the seaming is finished however, it does look like socks. I’m amazed.

I really enjoyed the process, can’t wait to make more things on this machine!

Little Black Dress

First iteration in 2012, repeated in 2021 and finished even quicker than back in the day!

Black dresses are supposed to be a staple and since the one I had doesn’t really fit anymore, I finally set out to make one. The fabric is some black, slightly stretchy scuba fabric that does not fray. There was about 1.5 very crookedly cut meters of it. This dress only just managed to get squeezed from the yardage I had. There was so little that I actually had to cut the pockets (because a dress without pockets is just a horror-tube) from a different fabric. The pattern I chose was Simplicity 2473, first debuted in 2012. I cannot for the life of me remember what happened to that iteration, but I’m certain it no longer resides in my closet.

Since the fabric was quite thick, I chose to use a slightly different construction method than the original pattern instructed. This to eliminate some bulk along the waistline. The front was sewn together first (so bodice, waistband and skirt) and nearly all seams pressed open, then the back was sewn together (bodice, waistband and skirt) and seams pressed open. Front and back where then attached along the side seams, with a hand sized section left open for the pocket. Special attention was paid to make the waistband match up along the sides. This also means that there is no waistband lining, but the fabric is thick enough that it doesn’t matter.

The instructions for the short cap sleeve were just about completely ignored, as the pattern called for a lining and I didn’t think that was necessary. I just folded over the hem, sewed it down and hoped that the stretch in the fabric would allow it to lay well. I then inserted them in the sleeve cap, which worked remarkably well. After that came the collar. The collar by itself was very thick, so if you compare it to the 2012 version, this one is a lot smaller. That is because it stands up by itself a lot more. This time I chose a size 10, which fits my 2021 body a lot better than it did my 2012 body.

The zipper was inserted next. In a recent haul of a Czech crafting supplied webshop, I discovered ‘continuous zippers’. This means that you get a very long zipper without a pull. You can cut them to size required and then install the pull yourself. You can buy those in multiple sizes, colours and types. I saw one in rainbow and decided I needed to have it. There was no project in mind when I bought it, however, after starting this dress, I thought it would liven up this fairly dark project suitably. During that haul, I also got some superfine pins for no real reason. Turns out that I was psychic again and this scuba fabric only wanted to play with those superfine pins and really resisted everything else.

The last bit were the pockets. I chose to do a historical pear-type pocket that was pieced from some remains of the scuba and some secret sweatpants fabric. These are easy to install after the fact and can hold a lot of stuff. A secret key loop was attached in the right pocket for my carabiner. They are further attached by the waistband with some afterthought strips of fabric. Last but not least, it was hemmed. The most awesome part of this project is the fact that it’s finished and did not languish in the project-box-of-shame for any time. I started it yesterday and finished it today. It also feels very nice and warm to wear and I hope to make some use out of it with some tights or very long socks.

Mega Rainbow Quilt

This enormous rainbow quilt was a collaborative project with my mum, pops of colour all the way!

What do you do when your mother asks you if you are willing to make her a quilt? You say yes and ask ‘how big’.

And then I asked what style and colours and patterns and what is it that you want exactly and at least 20 more questions. And then she says: “Big. I’ll leave the rest up to you.” Oof, interesting prospect that was. So I set out to buy a bunch of 10x10cm fabric squares. I figured that would give me a nice starting point. Of course I couldn’t make any decisions by myself, so once my squares arrived, I set off for the parental house with two boxes of fabric and forced her to make some decisions with me. We ended up planning out and pinning together 16 rows of 20 squares in a sort of diagonal rainbow pattern.

Then I took the whole load of pinned squares back to Zeeland and got to work. First sewing together all the rows and then adding the columns together. I managed to fit my walking foot under the antique machine, which made life so much easier. Because the quilt was so big, I had to move the table to the middle of my living room to be able to get all the fabric under it. After finishing all the columns and rows, we had to decide on the border. Since we liked the vibrant blue of the sheet we used to position the original squares on, I got some of the fabric I’ve been using for masks and used that for the border.

For the back and eventually the binding we chose some different blue stuff from the internet. I wanted the quilt to be warm(-ish) so I first tried two centimeter thick batting, but that was an absolute horror and I would never have been able to get it under the machine. So I chose some batting that was a centimeter thick. I quilted approximately in the ditch from left to right. There was so much fabric to maneuver that I sometimes missed the ditch and decided that ‘rustic’ would do. Then I added six rows of ‘rustic’ stripes along the sides for some extra.. flair? Then hours and hours of hand-sewing the binding on. (Yay for YouTube!)

And FINISHED! The entire thing is ~2.00 x 1.65 meters. I had to move quite a lot of my furniture and plants around several times to be able to even lay out the backing, batting and top. I then shifted everything further around when I went to take the finished photos. While the repetitiveness was sometimes frustrating, the fact that I managed to finish and gift it in time for Christmas was amazing. My aim was to have it all done by the end of December, but I astonished myself by getting it finished on the 9th and gifting on the 19th.

As a mini reminder of who did this labour of love, I sewed a piece of ribbon with a lovely sentiment to the bottom embroidered with my name. Right now, this quilt lives on a couch and brightens up the place and that’s absolutely lovely.

Rainbow Quilt

A second crib quilt, this one in a sort of abstract rainbow pattern.

After finishing the first quilt, I set out to make a second one quite quickly. At one point, I’d bought a stack of 10x10cm quilt squares online and decided to put them to use. Starting in a corner with dark squares, I worked my way up diagonally to create a rainbow of sorts. While it was still on the floor, I set out to place the squares in such a way that the ‘fun’ ones were not too close together, and that there were enough of them. I filled up other rows with dotted or floral designed squares that had come along too.

With fan favorites such as weird monkeys, chairs, saddles, a farm, a dress, chandeliers, lemons,
Aurora, robin tree, Where the wild things are, seals, pig-things, owls, alphabet, foxes,
Christmas trees, more owl, cars and candy corn!

After I decided I was happy with the placement, I pinned the squares in a straight row together to form one long snake and then sewed the first to the second square for all the rows. Setting the stitch length to 2 or so on the treadle and just machining along. Once all the rows were completed, I pressed the seams to one side for the entire row, then pressing the seams for the next row to the other side. Pinned the rows together and treadled merrily along. For the border I chose a nice and neutral grey triangles fabric.

To quilt it, I chose to keep it simple. I found a bunch of bobbins with leftover threads in the main colours of my diagonal rainbow design and used those for quilting. Each diagonal is stitched with white in the actual bobbin and a vaguely matching thread in the top. You probably can’t see it in the pictures, but I thought it was a nice touch. The binding is the yellow whale stuff that backed the previous quilt. I still had a little bit leftover and thought it would be a good contrast. Also, whales. I like this one, it’s so fun and colourful!

I just hope it holds up, but we’ll see whether it does in the future I guess.

Tag: Rainbow