Fresh Stitches Kit Club Big Reveal!

As if going to Yarndale wasn't exciting enough, the day I was driving up to Yorkshire I also received my Fresh Stitches Kit Club through the post.  I love  this idea.  Every other month, a mystery item is sent through the post.  It features a Fresh Stitches pattern, plus everything you need to make your cuddly (except stuffing) and a mystery gift to make your toy something special, more than just your regular singlet crochet.  In past kit clubs, this has included beading and working with pipe cleaners all supported on Stacey's website so you know exactly what to do with it to make sure it turns out super cute! 

As I'd enjoyed my other kit clubs so much in the past, I signed up for this year's one and waited patiently for my kit to arrive.  It's tougher than you would think; as Stacey's followers are spread all over the world, some receive their kits much before I do.  It's so tempting to snoop around on the internet to find out what's in the package, but I resisted this time, making sure it stayed a surprise right until I opened the box.  

And what a great surprise it was!

When I ripped open the box, I have to admit my first thought was "A teddy bear made from plain yarn, is that it?"  but of course it wasn't.  As I dug out all the bits and pieces I realised that tucked under the pattern was the part that suddenly made it all very fun.  Kool-Aid sachets.  Kool-Aid is particularly  exciting to me as it's not something we have here in the UK so it's been one of those things on my list of things to track down, that I never really got round to doing.  In case you haven't heard of it, Kool-Aid is a drink (!) in America, a bit like the squash we have over here.  

After Yarndale, I eagerly watched Stacey's video to get set in my mind what I needed to do, then gingerly emptied the contents of the sachets into two separate bowls; one blue, one orange.

Which didn't look that interesting until I added a bit of boiling water...

The colours were soooo vivid!  There are two packets of orange here with one blue.  And the smell!  A wonderfully sweet fruity smell filled the house once the water was added.  What I hadn't anticipated was how quickly the dye is slurped up by the yarn.  The video had warned the yarn was dye hungry as it was untreated animal wool, but wow this was fast!  Within perhaps two seconds of tentatively laying the wool in the dye mixture it was gone!  I was a bit shocked by this; I had expected to have to poke it around a bit to get it to take to the dye (I had only just finished my yarn dyeing workshop at Yarndale and was thinking of how things had taken there) so hadn't arranged the yarn quite as I might have liked.  

  

I tried adding a little bit more water to see if I could dilute the dye to make it go a little further, but as you can see any water I added had no colour.  I think this is because you use boiling water to make up the dye, it instantly sets the colour so it doesn't leak at all.  I rinsed the yarn well under cold water, but very little dye came out.  A good rinse also makes sure your yarn won't be crispy when you come to work with it, so it's worth taking a little time over it.  

After a thorough squeeze, I had to sit back and wait for the yarn to dry, so I left it hanging in my conservatory, and crossed my fingers that Squitchy wouldn't notice it was there.

I was so pleased with how it turned out!  Not only are there those really bright, bright colours, but there's also some more subtle in-between shades in there too.

It worked up really nicely, although next time I would try to think of my colour repeat a bit more.  What Ive found is that for the teddy's arms and legs, the colour repeat means that one side is really colourful whilst the other side is almost plain.  To try and alter this, I guess I would have to know how much yarn is used in one stitch for example, and then decide how many stitches I want each colour to be, to either make a repeating pattern, or completely avoiding it.  It would take a bit of planning, and to be honest, I quite like the random look!

Meet Teddy, the Bear

Teddy, the Bear didn't turn out quite as cute looking as I had hoped.  I can't quite put my finger on exactly what I'm not happy with, but there's definitely something.  I am, however, very pleased with the effect of Kool-Aid dye and I can't wait to get some more colours so I can experiment in the future.  Have you ever tried Kool-Aid dyeing?  Do you have any tips for me?

Yarndale 2013 part II

This was the sight that greeted you as you walked through the door to Yarndale, and it was breathtaking; the photos don't begin to show to bright colours and individual designs that made you stop and really look. 

Having said that, we were on a mission.  A Bunch of Buttons and I had scoped out the Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter feeds of many of the exhibitors and so knew what we were looking for.  My shopping list was small; a yarn bowl from County Alpacas, some beautiful hanks from A Stash Addict and a crochet hook from For The Love of Yarn for my lovely newby crocheter, Leanne.  Of course, I had still come prepared with a purse bursting with cash, just in case...  We quickly worked our way through the things we needed (yes, needed!) as we had a busy schedule.  I had secretly booked us both into one of the many workshops that were being held in the main ring.  Our class was 'Dyeing to Have Fun', and I selected it because it's not the kind of thing we usually get up to at home.  I told Anna over breakfast, when I suddenly had a panic that she might not want to do anything but shop at Yarndale.  I had nothing to worry about; Anna was made up that I was treating her to a surprise class so promptly at 11am we took our seats.

The class was run by local crafter, Jaki Bogg who was delightfully friendly and calm considering the  hubbub of the Workshop Theatre.  

The Workshop Theatre in the Main Ring

I had never tried anything like this before and so didn't know what to expect - but I loved it!  We were mostly working with acid dyes, as well as natural and food dyes, looking at how different wool materials took to colour and how you could work the dyes.  

It was a messy business!  I had stupidly decided to wear a cream top and cardi (no idea what I was thinking when I packed given that I knew exactly what we'd be doing on Saturday!) but was especially cautious and luckily managed to keep the dye on the table and the wool.  Jaki was well prepared and had gloves, aprons, jay cloths and kitchen towel all ready for us.  

We worked with super soft merino, a complete knitting swatch, a ready made piece of wool as you would get in a skein and wool straight from the sheep!  

It was amazing to see how differently things reacted to the dye, the knitting took to the dye beautifully, whilst the unprocessed wool was much more difficult to get to the colour you wanted.

Here's the finished products.  What will I do with them?  I"m not sure, but I absolutely loved the experience of getting to try something that I would never normally consider, and it's certainly made me appreciate the expertise of the exhibitors showing their own hanks at Yarndale.

Some worked well, some not so much...

Once we'd finished the workshop, we quickly got back down to business, shopping!  There were so many beautiful, brightly coloured stalls, I loved just wondering around, giving soft merino wools a squidge and stroking the fluffy alpaca furs as you moved between stalls.  There were so many pretty items to take home.

Alpacas and angora rabbits were hanging out at Yarndale too and they were incredibly cute!

The Knit 'n' Knatter lounge was right in the centre of the Exhibition Hall and home to Lucy of Attic 24.  She had set up an incredible crocheted lounge where she would meet and greet the Yarndalers and it was quite something.

Now, I have known Anna for quite some time and there is one thing she rarely does, and that's have photos taken.  But I have never seen her this excited before.  Like many others, she was dying to meet Lucy and so we duly waited in line for our turn.  I'm not sure that I think it's a good idea to meet your heroes, just in case they're not all you thought they might be, but actually, Lucy was delightful.  It must be so difficult to make light-hearted conversation with so many people for hours on end, but she certainly made it look easy, and made you feel like she was genuinely excited you were there to meet her too.  She even agreed to a  picture with Anna, such a rare event that I must show you.

The only thing that made Anna even more excited was to see that on the table behind Lucy, right in the centre, was the goat bunting that she had made and sent in.  After spending hours telling Anna that there was so much bunting that we'd never find hers, there it was!

The day was fantastic.  I enjoyed the happy, slightly younger atmosphere and crowd at Yarndale compared to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Kensington Palace that I visited last year.  It was nice to see so many local, independent exhibitors here rather than the large commercial companies, (the number of things I now follow on Instagram and Twitter must have trebled!) although I felt that by having so many smaller exhibitors, there was less variety than I had hoped for.  That being said, I still managed to return with an overflowing shopping bag!

                                   

Overall, it was a great experience, and I'm glad we made the long old trek to Yorkshire to be a part of it.  The Yarndale organisers should be so proud of what they accomplished; I can't imagine the effort and hard work it must have taken to pull it off, but pull it off they did.  Here's to Yarndale 2014!

PS.  Keep an eye out tomorrow for my Yarndale-inspired first ever pattern - Sheldon the Sheep!