yarnnerd

[yarnnerd]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but

YOU DO NOT NEED TO START A NEW HOBBY!

STEP AWAY FROM THE TEXTILES!

YOU DON'T NEED MORE YARN!

THAT FABRIC IS NOT CALLING TO YOU! LEAVE IT ALONE!

[yarnnerd]

i loosely followed thedimelions’s tutorial for naturally dyeing a pride flag, with a lot of added research about natural dyes, stains, mordants, sewing, etc, and i wanted to share my results!!

process, notes, and more pics under the read more🌱

starting off i soaked my fabric (100% cotton acquired from joann's during their closing sale, rip joann's ;-;) in a 1:5 mixture of soy milk and water for 12 hours, then let dry on a clothesline in the sun, then dipped and dried two more times (the proteins in the soy milk help the natural dyes adhere to the fabric, creating darker colors and better colorfastness)

while that was happening i started making my dyes, which involved simmering my chosen dyestuffs in some water for 30-60 minutes. i didnt time it, just went until the color developed to a point i was happy with

as far as ratios i didn’t measure, but the more dyestuff = stronger color so err on the side of more

red: turmeric + baking soda, paprika, and yellow onion skin dye as the liquid base

orange: yellow onion skins

yellow: turmeric

green: red cabbage + baking powder (LOTS), turmeric

blue: red cabbage + baking powder

purple: red cabbage

for the red cabbage dyes, i added the baking powders and soda after simmering and just kept adding and stirring till i got the color i wanted. ((BIG NOTE red cabbage, and debatably most of the others that I used, are fugitive dyes, meaning its not a true dye and more of a stain that will fade with time and wash out more easily, especially without mordanting on additives like iron. keep this in mind if you end up doing this project or transfering these methods to cloth you will be using for clothes, ie washing and wearing more frequently))

i also tried to make a pink with avocado skins and pits, which did come out a lovely rosy color, but i didn’t end up using in the final flag, which i might use beet or red cabbage + lemon juice or another acidified for next time to get a more bright pink

now with my dyes ready and my cloth dried out from its previous soy milk dip i cut it into strips and stuck it in the jars, which were placed in the sun for the day (alternatively, you could simmer the cloth in the pot) and then left to sit overnight

the next day i squeezed out the excess dye and gave the ones with turmeric a light rinse to get the grit out, then hung them to dry

((small note i reused the dyes baths to see what would happen since they still looked just as pigmented, but the colors are much much much more faded on the second go around. all in all its doable, but I wouldn't recommend it.))

now time to sew! i procured a second hand sewing machine specifically for this project and had never sewed before, but thankfully this required the easiest stitch in the game (a straight stitch in a straight line). i looked up how to sew a flag specifically to get those clean lines rather than just overlapping, and this video was great (shoutout Suffolk Public Library)

as you can see my flag ended up quite long cause I left a lot of wiggle room, so I just look up flag ratios, trimmed it up (and used the extra strip of rainbow as decoration) then added a white strip folded over to make a way for me to hang it on a stick if I ever so desire.

and ta daaa! i would still like to clean it up a bit, and do a zig zag stitch around the outside to stop the cloth from fraying further, but im happy with the unpolished look of it. once i figure out how to get a pink I like, and how to get browns and blacks, i want to make a progress flag and trans flag. also just started growing some indigo, so excited to see if I can get some blue dyes out of that.

[yarnnerd]

My new yarn box

[yarnnerd]

I made a kilt!

[yarnnerd]

This is the final product of the teal and purple spinning project. I plied 1 variegated strand with two solid strands for the intermediate sections, and chain-plied the center section. The fractal cabling is meant to contrast with the color gradient.

[yarnnerd]

omG I SEARCHED GOOGLE FOR A SEWING MACHINE DIAGRAM AND THIS CAME UP I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING

[yarnnerd]

Fun with wood PLA: mini recurve, archery thumb ring, and Ea-Nasir complaint tablet

[yarnnerd]

Today’s edition of “trying things I read about on the Internet”: cream cheese and green olive sandwich

It’s not bad, but it’s not my favorite way to consume either olives or cream cheese

[yarnnerd]

I’ve been working on a battle vest of late

[yarnnerd]

an attempt at Bob Ross-ing

[yarnnerd]

"burgundy crepe georgette fabric" none of those words are fibers

[yarnnerd]

Adventures in yarn dyeing- I made hexipuffs for Engineering Knits’ blank project, vastly overestimated the amount of dye required for speckles, and dyed the extra yarn and some of my old handspun to use up the excess dye

[yarnnerd]

My current spinning project, and first attempt at variegated yarn. Currently on the dividing-and-plying stage. The dyed roving is from The Yarn Store at Nob Hill, in Albuquerque, which has the best selection of spinning supplies I’ve seen in person.

[yarnnerd]

if anyone's wondering why i haven't been craftposting lately it's because i've been chipping away at a tv color bar blanket:

just 75% of the blanket to go lmao

[yarnnerd]

Jester slippers (pattern from DROPS) in Wool-Ease with squares of 22s x 40r

[yarnnerd]

My version of these crochet spiral socks:

[yarnnerd]

finished the replica instruction manual!