#gradient yarn set

[sergle]

Hopping on the color temperature discourse train to say that I love the mental image of like— reversing the association of red and blue and having blue represent summer temps— thinking of summer blue skies and the ocean. Red for winter temps bringing to mind cheeks red with cold and holly berries and cardinal feathers. Idk I just think that’s neat!

i, too, think it's neat!!! I also just like the idea of-- specifically on the topic planning of Temperature Blanket™ palettes-- not being so literal with "cold" colors and "hot" colors. if you CAN get creative with it, I think it's boring NOT to. It's a year long project, so it needs to be interesting. as an aside, I also like the idea of leaving color palettes behind entirely, and doing a very straightforward gradient scheme as your temperature gauge. Like buying yarns like this that are already dyed into a gradient, and just being like "ok. done."

just pick which end of the spectrum is High temps and which one is Low temps, and get cracking. It doesn't have to be symbolic of the Season the temperatures would occur in at all.

[journeyman-tier-fibercraft]

Was given some money for the holidays with the stipulation of spending it all on something for Me so I splurged on some fingering weight wool yarns (that I got a Very good deal on of course, that’s half the fun.) Most of my yarn is admittedly rainbow vomit tier so the neutrals are actually exciting to me, I have a general idea of what I want to make with everything except the odd man out sideways skein. That was Supposed to be paired with a matching light grey yarn but it wasn’t in the box and when I emailed support they had to refund me because they were sold out. I’m already eyeing a differing lace weight yarn to substitute but I have several (thousand) other projects lined up in the mean time, I can wait for a sale or a great need for another yarn before I bite the bullet.

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

see many people do this >:)

*coral = color

** EEW 6 = electric spinning wheel

*** said mohair fleece can be combed into functional fiber to spin w patience n strength

**** rainbow mini sheep (rainbow not in order)

[koniknits]

I went to Bart & Francis today! It's a yarn shop in Belgium that's only open about once a month (and it used to only be open once a year). They're actually developers of yarn for textile artists and the like, and they sell part of their stock to us regular folk.

They also have a website that is hard to navigate.

Their stock is huge and sometimes weird.

Here's things I found amusing enough to take a pic of.

I doubted so much over whether to buy this huge ball. It's 1400 metres of merino for 35 euros. I think worsted weight about? But I didn't want to suffer through having to figure out the colour gradient with sleeves and the like.

900 metres of yarn (acrylics?) for €2 BUT it's stinky. YOU DECIDE. (I saw people hauling off armfulls. I didn't have a sniff.)

I would have been tempted by these but the colours weren't 100% my jam. But I like the concept.

Yay older breeds! This yarn was VERY chunky.

Another one I was tempted by. Linen! But! I already felt my hands drying up as soon as I picked up a skein.

2500 metres of merino for €25. Another one I saw people hauling off.

I just thought these were cute. I got one of the blue sets, I'll show those off in a later post. B&F has so much neon though. Also glitter. I wonder if they supply drag artists.

Every time I've visited I've doubted over getting one of these, but they were a bit too expensive to justify buying as I didn't like the colours 100%. NOT TODAY.

And lastly I doubted over these. But I couldn't have a feel and that's a lot of metres. So I didn't.

[greenlunarwitch]

After cleaning out my closet of a bunch of old clothes I never wore or didn't fit me, I realized I needed more sweaters and warmer clothes. I haven't had much luck finding things I liked that went with the rest of my stuff, then I remembered, I knit and crochet, I can make my own sweaters. I don't have much experience making fitted garments, (I made a cardigan for someone else, but it was pretty oversized because they liked that) but if I can teach myself 2 color brioche, I think I can figure out how to shape a sweater with a little trial and error.

So this caused me to start going through my yarn stash and I remembered that I had a big gradient set that I originally planned on making into a blanket years ago, I didn’t love the yarn/pattern combination though, but I never found another use for it.

I should be able to make 2 sweaters out of this after I pull out the knitted work, plus I have I other random balls/skeins of yarn that I can probably piece into another and/or some tank tops.

[dangerphd]

Calling All Spinning Ships, There's a Rising Tide (of yarn spindles)

So, I don't actually need all these spindles and got carried away with the process of designing and printing them (yay, new toy!). After setting aside a set for my one IRL buddy who spins, I have, um, some extras.

This is a first come first served post, good until I run out/never feel like printing another batch. I'll delete the post when that time comes.

If you are someone who cannot afford to support small businesses and creative types by purchasing a supported or drop spindle from a maker, can't make one from a hobby wheel/furniture coaster + dowel for whatever reason, are ready to try out spinning, willing to promise to show us pics of the string you make, and don't think it's too weird to send your mailing address to a stranger on the internet...

Hit me up with the style you want {supported (cone or globe whorl) or drop (top or bottom whorl)} and your mailing address. I will send you a whorl and a shaft (probably not glued, just components), and some floof.

Please do not hit me up if you are well enough off to support the maker community, or able-bodied enough to craft a spindle on your own, I am trusting karma to allow me to commit a mitzvah.

A caveat: these are very much prototypes! They are all functional and centered and spin well, but may have some cosmetic blemishes from filing/sanding off the printer supports, or rough patches I missed. Spindles received may vary from the ones in this pic, but they'll be this style/rainbow gradient ABS.

[smallpotatoknitwear]

The Valentine's Day Gradient Heartigan!

Wow, that's a bit of a mouthful, huh!? As I continue my quest to make sweaters for all of my favorite holidays, I'm so excited to have finished my Valentine's Day cardigan--partly because Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday, and partly cos this sweater came out so frickin' cute!!! Click on the keep reading link below for all the details on how I made it!

Items used:

Red Heart Super Saver in Burgundy (red). I used just under three skeins for all of the squares and joining the sweater.

Caron Colorama Halo in Cranberry Frost. I used less than a full O'Go donut for all of the hearts, so I think you should be able to use a single cake for them if you want to make your own version of this sweater, and I used part of a second donut for the ribbing--so even if you don't get all of your hearts out of one cake, if you have a second to do the ribbing as well you'll be all set!

Even though the Colorama Halo is listed as a bulky yarn, it's really a worsted thickness, so I used a US size I/5.5MM hook for the entire project, including the ribbed border.

I used the pattern for the Little Heart Square by Raffamusa Designs for the squares, and added an extra row of double crochet around the outside (with 2DC, ch2, 2DC in each corner). I used a total of 60 squares for the sweater.

This sweater is, at its core, just a basic granny square cardigan, meaning that I built it by measuring another sweater that I like the fit of (this one, if you're wondering), making a single square, measuring it, and figuring out how many squares I needed for each section of the sweater to get measurements as close as possible to the model sweater. That may sound a little confusing or even daunting, but it's really not as hard as it sounds! Let's break it down a little further, piece by piece.

To start, here are some measurements:

Each heart square is 5x5 inches, and I blocked each one to make sure my measurements would be consistent and that my squares would have nice, even sides.

On my model sweater, the sleeves are 18 inches around and 15 inches long. So, with 5x5 in. squares, I made 4x3 square tubes, so that my sleeves measured a total of 20x15 inches.

On my model sweater, my front panels were 10x20 inches, so I made two 2x4 panels.

On my model sweater, my back panel was 26x20 inches, so I made a 5x4 panel.

I used a total of 60 squares for all of these panels.

To get the gradient, I made all of my hearts in order through a skein of Caron Colorama Halo yarn (technically I was using one of the O'Go donuts they were originally released in, not one of the cakes that yarn is available in now, but there was a good amount leftover, so I think you'd be able to make a sweater approximately the same size with a cake of the yarn, even thought the yardage is different). Once I had added the red border around each square and blocked it, I laid them out on a table starting with the top left corner of the back panel and working in a spiral from that corner, across the back, across the top of the right sleeve, over both front panels, and across the top of the left sleeve before moving down. Then, I used stitch markers and safety pins to attach the corners of the squares together in each panel so that I wouldn't mess up the gradient as I moved them to attach everything.

Once all of my panels were finished using flat slip stitch seams, I seamed the fronts to the back at the shoulders and sides, made the sleeves into tubes, and attached them to the armholes in the "vest" made from the fronts and backs. Then, I used a second skein of the Colorama Halo to add ribbing to the front and bottom, using a 6-stitch SC FLO rib worked directly into the edge of the garment and beginning in the front right corner of the sweater. I was able to make the front and bottom ribbing all one piece by just turning a corner in the last row of the front ribbing (the left bottom corner) and working along the bottom. For the sleeves, I started with the same color red I used to finish the squares and seam them together, and worked a row of double crochet (I decided I wanted the sleeves just a hair longer, for a slightly more dramatic poof), then worked two rows of *SC1, DEC1* before breaking the red yarn and attaching the pink. I did a 12-stitch SC FLO rib around the ends of the sleeves to create the cuffs.

[roboticchibitan]

Dyeing yarn today! These photos were taken right before I put them in the oven to set the dye. They've since come out of the oven and are currently cooling.

The vivid violet/hot fuchsia/bright yellow (Jacquard acid dye colorway names) is for a pair of socks I am making a friend! When we were discussing colors they said basically "I am out of decision making spoons. I want purple, pink, and yellow. You pick the exact shades. I just want them bright. I trust your judgment." And I was like "I have SO got you." And thus! This colorway was born. I put them in this color order because I thought orange where the pink and yellow meet would be prettier and fit The Vibes better than the brown I would get where purple and yellow meet.

The bright yellow/white/purple is for my nonbinary pride f*ck the cis-tem hat!

I have noticed that some dyes go a lot farther than others and therefore bleed forever when rinsing (hello hot fuchsia and turquoise) also when I make 8 oz of dye liquid, some dyes the liquid goes farther than others. I've started a table in my dye notes notebook for which dyes take 1/2tsp per 8 oz hot water and which take a full 1tsp per 8 oz of water.

There's some dyes I have that I haven't used yet that I'm planning on dyeing some skeins those colors just to get a feel for the dyes. My gf wants a Steven West painting honeycombs shawl in a warm tones gradient like the listing photo on Ravelry and I've never used some of my oranges and reds so I need to get a feel for those colors before I start experimenting with gradients. Gotta knit some dye blanks for that project.

[comfortabletextiles]

I dreamt that I had a little stall/booth(??) were I sold plant dyed yarn on a wool fair and I kind of want to make that a reality, the kitchen is small and the free time is also small, and the whole flat is small so the storage space is not there :'(

Color fading batts, sets of yarns to knit a gradient, multicolor rolags. Roving 😭😭😭

Dye sets with pre mordanted fiber or to mordant yourself!!

Sets with all the yarn you need to knitt a beautiful lace shawl in a nice gradient (pattern inkluded)

Maybe to get extra, a little place where costumers can choose their own fiber content and color to be turned into batts

[theoriginalladya]

Finished up my first big project for 2024 last night. I started this back in...2019, I think? It got set aside and then lost in the move and I eventually found it back around Christmas 2023...and promptly set it aside until the holidays were past. I did remember where I put it, however, and so since roughly Jan. 1, I've been working on getting it done. I should add, I was back in the mid-lighter purple section at that time.

Yarn is from Wollelfe and it's their "Curry & Saffron" gradient. Pattern is theirs, called "Trilogy." Just need to give it a good soak and block it and it will be good to go!

[nestingtendencies]

Hello, my lovelies!

For some reason I don't post here often as just... me - the person behind NestingTendencies. I'm not quite sure why this is; I guess most of my crafting needs are catered to by Ravelry, as a platform. But I do realise that I have many, many wonderful followers, who have been regularly reblogging both the patterns that have piqued my interests and my own creations. And for that I am very grateful!

So I'd like to try and be a bit more social here; get to know you a little, learn what projects you're working on, and show you what's on my own hook!

First up is the Mariposa Sweater which has been the bane of my existence sole focus of my work since January!

You see, one of my new year's resolutions was to grow as a crafter beyond shawls, which are my specialty, and make sosme sweaters and jumpers! I've been having urges for those since last autumn and by now the craving cannot be ignored any longer.

So this is my first ever crocheted sweater, right? Do I bother with a gauge swatch?

No. Gauge swatches are for the weak.

Pretty soon I realise that my crochet is much, much tighter than the author's. Do I go back and try a size bigger? Do I increase the hook size to obtain the right gauge?

No. I decide that I know better, and I understand enough about how raglan works to just wing it. The joy of making a garment yourself is that you can make it fit your personal body contours perfectly, right?

So long story short, I am now on Mariposa the Second (First one is here) and I have frogged SUBSTANTIAL NUMBERS OF ROWS (like, all of the yoke for example) - wait for it - upwards of 20 times. Yes, 20. Not an exaggeration. If I hadn't done that, I could have probably about 4 completed Mariposas by now.

But no. The Gods have cursed me with a perfectionist streak. So we live and we learn and we carry that burden with us.

The photos in this post are the latest of the most correct version of this top that I currently have. My New Hope. My baby. I'm going to be sharing more WIP photos in the future.

The only good news is that as soon as I figure this sweater out, I'm going to have meticulous notes, which will give me the exact stitch sounts for my measurements and unlock the door to other jumpers like this one, of which I want to make at least 3.

And then there are other sweater patterns. 74 of them currently in my library. At least a dozen literally burning a hole in my consciousness - I want to start them immediately right now yesterday!!! Look look!

Elara Pullover - This is want in gradient purples, like an autumnal sunset

Chevie Sweaer - This I want in greys and golden ochres. I love the stitch used.

Don't Scrap That Raglan - Aaaah, Moss Stitch my favouritest stitch ever and I've almost improvised a sweater like this before!

Cosmopolitan Sweater - This I want in solid teal. Alpine stitch could well become my new mistress. It's also probably THE sweater I should have started with as my first project...

Peony Tee - I am in love with the funky-coloured contrasting sleeves and the raglan concept

Bridgette Ballet Neck Pullover - Ballet necks are my weakess...

Cap Sleeve Top - This I had a little romance with before, oh, about 8 years ago and it was shaping up beautifully in navy - I have all the yarn that I need for it.

Isop Sweater - I really want to learn this fair isle technique of making yokes, because I saw this pornographically beautiful set of 2 knitted sweaters in just the perfect colours and I'd like to do equvalent crochet versions, no I'm not at all trying to run before I can walk, why you ask?

Many of them much easier than Mariposa. Many of them not so tailored to the figure.

But no. Mariposa.

I have been buying up yarn in bulk again. This is how I know I'm in trouble.

But what about you guys? Do you have a Nemesis Project that has been kicking your ass for ages? Do you get overly ambitious like me? Or do you make your gauge swatches and avoid pissing off the Gods of Yarn, like sensible people?

[jugglingjujube]

This is a scarf kinda based off the petiteknit sophie scarf. Something really simple so the yarn itself can shine. This is actually a mitten set from the blue brick that I got at a market last year, so the gradient will mirror on the other side when I do the decreases.

[affreca]

For Pride (or it’s just the next project I’m excited about), I finally started my Rainbow Noir shawl.  Pattern is Rose Gold by  Andrea Mowry, a big brioche shawl, designed for two gradient sets of fingering yarn.  

My main yarn is a fingering merino silk, spun out of two braids of a lovely rainbow gradient merino/silk top from Friends in Fiber (colorway Rainbow Noir).  The silk in the top was black, giving the rainbow gradient a nice rich base.  Since I had two braids, I just spun each ply end to end, with a plying bracelet to match up the final ends.  I started with the purple, because that’s my favorite.  

The contrast yarn is black with rainbow sparkles.  One ply is a black merino/silk blend, while the other is Glitzy Black, a blend of merino and trilobal rainbow nylon.  

Both yarns are fingering two plies, spun worsted.  Each is about 8 ounces, and 675 yards.  

[textillianfiber]

Kimber at Fiber Optic Yarns gifted me this spectacular gradient fade set. It's called Over the Rainbow and is her new Infinity Fade Set. She will have more available in her shop December 16th.

[guardevoir]

Fiber arts update!

First of all, Friend(tm) has been successfully convinced to start spinning! It was fascinating seeing her go from "how do I make the fiber go? >:/" to spinning while walking in two days flat. With a wooden whisk beater that has a hook drilled into the top, no less, lol - my first DIY spindle. I did tell her to get something that spins for longer than five goddamn seconds eventually, but it works for now.

Then, my own progress:

Coburg Fox on the drop spindle, Merino on the supported one. Mostly just killing time until it's Tour De Fleece time. Haven't done much wheel spinning over the last few days because with my friend sitting next to me too, things would have gotten a little cramped.

Then, Sparkle Merino: There's three singles now! Working on the last one right now.

Also acquired my first hand-painted tops:

I have decided to shelve the Queer Flag Yarn idea for a bit and do these for Tour de Fleece first - Question is, how.

I'm either gonna spin the left one straight through, or as a fractal 2-ply: I love the way fractal yarn looks, but I prefer the look of gradients when actually in a project, so I'm not sure yet. The right one could either be spun straight through too, or I could ply it with some Zwartbles, which would stretch the 100g of fiber a bit further, but then again I could just spin plain Zwartbles yarn to go with it...

As per usual, I'd love some input!

I might set up some polls for this later actually; I'm limited to one poll per post, so I'm not gonna do it in here, but I haven't worked with colors that much yet so I'm still a bit "???" and grateful for any hints and pointers.

[craftycoola]

dyearies: g&s dye triangle

project code, for future reference: g&s-601-620-624-t5-v1

since i'm planning a 'do you love the color of the sky?' scarf, and need to dye some wool accordingly, and am being a responsible dyer, i spent my weekend dyeing up a color triangle.

STEP 1: locate your dyes

i'm using g&s 601 (yellow), 620 (fuchsia), and 624 (turquoise). for acid, i used white vinegar.

STEP 2: plan your triangle

i decided to go for a 15-piece triangle (5 by 5, i guess? although it's an equilateral triangle so who knows). each bundle of wool will be dyed at 1% (10 mL stock solution = 0.1 g dye, ratio to 10 g fiber), with varying percentages of turquoise, fuchsia, and yellow (in increments of 25%).

STEP 3: make mini wool bundles

i separated 1.5 skeins (?) of knitpicks stroll roving into 10 g bundles. to do this, i divided the 100 g skein into 8, then stripped and redistributed until i had bundles of 10 g each.

little bit janky, but it works, and that's what matters, right?

STEP 4: mix stock solutions

y'all don't get pictures of this because i was busy leaning into the mad science aesthetic with mask + goggles + coat + gloves + most importantly, no phones.

the original plan was to do 1% stock solutions (1 g of dye in 100 mL water). that was the plan until i mixed up my measurements and added 1 cup to my stock instead of to my dyebaths. for various reasons -- a) i was too lazy to multiply quantities by 2.5, and b) there was no way i was getting granularities smaller than 0.5 mL with the equipment i have -- i switched course and added 300 mL (total) water to each stock solution, thereby attaining 0.33% stock solutions.

(i can feel all my science teachers of years past glaring holes into my brain. i was gonna just say 'chemistry profs', but then i realized even my middle school general science teachers are probably crying right now.)

STEP 5: form the triangle

i filled 15 containers with 1 cup of water each. then, i added dye to each cup, according to the triangle plan diagram above (tripled from the earlier diagram to make up for the accidental dilution situation).

STEP 6: add the wool

added the wool to the cold dyebaths. pretty self-explanatory.

STEP 7: set the dye

added 1 tsp vinegar to each bath and stirred. then, i set it all by cooking the jars bain-marie style for 20 minutes.

i heated them in groups of 2-4 because i only had 4 jars. and then 3, because i shattered one by shocking it in cold water. oops.

numbering each sample from 1-15, going from top to bottom and left to right (per the rl images, not the diagrams that i'm too lazy to fix), the groups were as follows:

1, 8, 11, 15

2, 6, 9

3, 5, 7

4, 10, 13

12, 14

i grouped them so that similar colors would be separate and i would be able to tell them apart later.

anyways, after the water ran (mostly) clear, i washed them and left them to air dry.

i'm planning to spin a few samples to keep, and then make the rest into a gradient yarn or something.

based on this experiment, i'm going to try dyeing a few more 10 g samples with attempts at formulas for the colors of the sky. we'll see how that goes...