A Lot of Gloves

I've been oh so busy the last couple of weeks. We have new kitchen plumbing at my house, and my mother has had some remodeling done in her house. In between home improvement projects there has been some crafting going on too. Want to see some of the latest fiber-related things?

I have been perfecting the pattern for the Guatemalan-style gloves. See the pile of gloves in many sizes? I want to be sure that the pattern I post will be accurate, so I'm making many prototypes. When I'm finished with them, they will be given as gifts to friends and family who live in colder climates than I do or they will be donated to Dulaan, afghans for Afghans or another worthy charity. They're made of wool so that they will be nice and warm to wear.





I've been playing with hand dying some Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool. On the left, some balls of undyed yarn next to hanks of dyed yarn. On the right, a close up of the dyed yarn to show the gentle variations in the color.

I'd heard about using hair coloring to dye locks of wool or mohair for making realistic doll hair and thought I'd try it on yarn. That's l'Oreal Excellence shade number 5 medium brown used full strength for the dark color and diluted for the lighter shade.

I think I'll try other ways of dying yarn. The texture of the hair coloring is too thick to give good coverage and it needs to be worked into the yarn quite a lot before the yarn strand is completely saturated. After a lot of kneading of the yarn the end result is still uneven. When I dye yarn, I want the 'delightful variations' to be deliberate and controlled as much as possible, and repeatable.

I've knit the Noro Kureyon bag and it's ready to felt in the washing machine. The Toddler wanted a bag with a flap on it to hold in his treasures. I've used the Booga Bag directions to make the body of the bag up to round 60 and improvised from there. I worked the upper rim of the bag and the edges of the flap in garter stitch for non-roll firmness. I haven't decided what sort of handle or strap to use yet, the child may want to make a packpack out of it. I will wait to see what size and shape the bag becomes after felting before deciding.