Phildar 443, Blazer 33
Many people seems to have problem with that increase, so I decided to have a pictorial for it *yay~* Hope you will find this useful. 
Ps : sorry about the lighting in the pictures…. The sun was feeling cheeky today hiding between the clouds.
Here is the swatch I’m going to use in this pictorial.
1 : Work to the last 2 sts, at the side you want to increase. Work back and forth on this 2 sts a few times (number of increases you need). I did 4 rows. Make sure you’ve worked back so that the newest stitch is at the inner side (left of the right needle in the picture)
2 : Pick up stitches from the sides of the strip created.
3 : 4 stitches picked up.
4 : Work as usual.
5 : Work to increase side.
Repeat step 2 for the number of times the increase is called for.
Picking up the stitches
The finished increase.
There will be a gentle slope on the ‘border’.
Reverse for increase on the other side.
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Dyeing with Food Colorings
Since kool-aid can be used to dye yarn, why not food coloring? I borrowed a few books and researched online for information on dyeing but I prefer non-toxic methods.
Forewords (or things I’ve learnt so far):
-Do not have overly-high expectations. In other words, don’t try to ’squeeze’ too much color into the yarn. Food colouring has its limitation. If not, your yarn will bleed; you’re wasting effort, coloring, time and water. =)
- I find that 100%wool yarns dye best. I did try wool blends (wool with acrylic with mohair) but it doesn’t hold the dye well.
- Stir/mix the dye properly before dipping in the yarn.
- Make sure the yarn is nicely spread out when immersed in the dye. Or else, the outer layer of yarn will get a more intense colour and the colour will not be consistent. Of course, this can be used to your advantage, depending on what effect you’re looking for.
With just 3 different food colourings, you can come up with many many colours, except black. To get wine colour, just add a little blue to the red base. For brown, just add blue, red and yellow. You can easily adjust the colours by adding a little more of this, a little less of that…
The dyeing process is actually very very simple. I find that the most tricky part is getting the ball of yarn into hanks/skeins, especially if you do not have a niddy-noddy. To get nice long length of colours, you’ll need a very big ‘circle’. Heres how I do it:
What you need:
- a big box thats small enough to hold (or has a sturdy handle at the side you can hold on to)
- Spare yarn/string. Preferably something that doesn’t absorb water or dissolves easily under heat (I use twine) it will make things alot easier when dyeing
- Lots of Vinegar
- Lots of hot water (think boiling hot)
- A big container that is either clear or white (helps you see the color better) and can hold hot water without craking.
- food coloring
First, the box. I use this box that used to hold a set of towels.
Wind the yarn like this so that…
One side looks like this,
And the other side looks like this. Be careful to keep the boundaries between the 2 sides clear!
I usually dye 2 balls at one go. I connect them and wind both into one big skein.
Choose one side and hold on very tightly. Pull the whole thing out from the box.
You will get something like this.
Making sure that the original bunch of yarn is still together, put the other hand into the same loop and tug like this.
After all the tugging, you will get this. You may have to pull quite abit, especially if you wound it too tightly.
Use the spare yarn/string/twine and tie the skein in a few places. Make sure its not tied too tightly or the yarn under the tie will not be able to reach the dye.
Fill the container with normal tapwater.
Soak the yarn in, making sure they’re not tangled. Keep the ties on top so you can lift it up easily when you want to. Press the yarn until the bubbles stop appearing when you press. Leave for about half an hour. You can start boiling the water and it will be ready when the water boils.
When boiling water is ready, lift the skein out of the water and squeeze to get excess water out.
The stars of the show.
Empty the container of water, leaving a little behind so that when the hot water is added, the sudden change in temperature will not cause it to crack. Pour in the hot water and add a few dashes of vinegar. Too much vinegar is always better than too little.
Mix in the coloring you want.
Hold the yarn securely. Wind the part that will not be dyed around your hand. Fluff the part to be dyed a little so the yarns are not stuck together. Dip in. Make sure to keep moving the yarn around so the dye will be evenly distributed on the yarn. If you want a ‘fading off’ effect, dip the botom part first, take it out, then put the yarn in deeper, take it out, and repeat until you’re satisfied. Note: When you’re dipping the end, the length of yarn you’re dyeing is actually twice the length of what you see.
When dyeing another color, make sure you have a good grip and that the dyed portion is not touching the undyed portion in case the previously dyed portion bleeds onto the undyed portion.
The water will turn clear when the dye is exhausted. However, you do not always have to wait till the water turns clear; you can stop once the color you want is achieved. The water turning clear simply means the dye has been used up.
Squeeze out all the water (caution: HOT!) Allow it to cool to room temperature before rinsing it out.
Squeeze it dry when yarn stops bleeding (might need a few rinses depending on how much coloring you used. See foreword above) I usually put the skein neatly into the washing machine and spin it dry. (it did not get destroyed/felted/fuzzy so I’m really glad) Lay it out to dry.
And you have your food-coloring-dyed yarn!
When yarn is dry, you can wind them into centre-pull ball/s. A centre-pull ball is one of the first things I learnt. You can find out how here. this is a video from this really great website.
Happy dyeing! =)
