Creamsicle Crafting

A little bit goes a long way...

I think i have finally exhausted my batch of logwood !!

I had managed to dye lots of yarn an array of colours last summer with one batch, then turned to the silk and cotton with another to see what colours would appear.

The purples, pinks and greens have been very popular so i've ordered some more logwood to carry on....

Here are some photo's of the final piece produced, a lightweight cotton scarf in a pretty rose pink....

Cluny Craft Market

Lissi will be holding a stall at the next Cluny Craft Market on

Sunday 6th February!

Look forward to seeing you there x

January Sale

If you haven't already seen all the links and listings, Lissi's Januray sale is now on!!

You can save up to 20% on selected items (most of the items listed by the way!) throughout January. Sale will end on the 31st January when full prices will be resumed.

So if you fancy a wee treat and a new year bargain, click on one of the images below to take you straight to a Lissi shop....


Happy shopping! x

2011 !!

Well I really can't believe that I haven't blogged since November!...December was a whirl-wind month it seems and now here we are in January.

Happy New Year to everyone!! I hope you all had a lovely festive season and received some lovely gifts.

Christmas was cosy for us this year, the living room was finished decorated just in time and the house really felt like a home! Still lots of decorating to be done still, but it is now nice to see a few rooms finished and the difference it has made.

Looking forward to 2011....I am hoping to get stuck into regular dyeing and making again this year and need to find a new model as I am just not comfortable in front of the camera. (Alice, Lissi's face of Sring/Summer'10 moved away last year :( )

The dyed yarns have been going down well and I have a couple of new colours to list. Hopefully we can experiment with other blends this year too, and I may find time to visit the kind spinning ladies I met last year.

I have also made the resolution that I will be a regular blogger again (hurray!), and Iam determined to post about and support other crafters in showcase features etc more.

I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the year and for now I leave you with a couple of snaps of Rosie enjoying the christmas mess...... x

Rather Quiet

Sorry I have not been very present lately again! Life is very busy at to the moment and I'm waiting for the day when we can sit about and do nothing...well maybe more dyeing and sewing :)

I'm trying to dabble a bit inbetween things.
Here are some pictures (finally turned out to represent the true colour a little better) of some more purple musings from acouple of weeks ago...

Three slightly varied shades of a lovely lilac.

Hopefully shall be listing very soon.

Purple Daze

The latest in my yarn dyeing has produced an array of bright purple daze!

Dyed using a natural plant based dye from Logwood, the yarns below show a varying gradient of purples.
The yarn is DK Merino 100grams per skein.

I have lots of yummy coloured yarn to list still - the reason it is taking so long is that I am having great difficulty taking good pictures with my camera lately. Very frustrating as I have tried two cameras that I have and they both are showing fuzzy and the wrong represenations of colour!! grrrrr...I am working on it and will hopefully have some good photos soon.

Below is a piece of silk that was also dyed in the Logwood dye pot. wrapped in a bundle and tied with elastic bands it was firstly soaked with heat added and left overnight. The following three nights I have rearranged the elastic bands and left it to soak in the cold dye bath which has created a striking pattern throughout...


Which type of scarves shall I make from this?....

Knitted Goodness

From the Lissi knitting fairies....

Scarflette

Gloves

Wristlets

They will be listed in the Lissi shops soon!

We are also writing up the pattern for the scarflette and that will also be available soon.

'Who will buy...'

Yesterday was Lissi Naturally Dyed Products very first offical stall holding at Slaley Show in Northumberland.

The day went well and our stall produced a lot of interest....

The weather hadn't blessed us though and lots of fellow stallers were saying it wasn't as good a turn out as in previous years. It was a good experience as I knew from my set up that I would have benefitted from having more scarf stands and a professional banner.

I met various members of various guilds who have invited me to join them at their monthly meetings, and may teach me how to spin my own yarn! Lots of people picked up business cards and commented that they would have a look and keep us in mind for gift ideas.

All in all a good, yet wet and tiring day was had!

From the pots...

...the dye pots that is!

Here is a selection of what I got up to with my dye pots the past weekend....

From the eucalyptus pot...

Eucalyptus leaves wrapped in silk and boiled to create a subtle print....

Silk wrap tie-dye and clipped with bull dog clips....

From the Sanders wood pot....

Scrumptious peachy Merino yarn....

Vibrant tie dyed silk....

Wish I didn't have to go to work and could stay home all day creating instead!!!

Colourful Yarn!

Finally i have dug out my camera!!!
It is still quite a good picture taker so I'm happy I had held on to it.
Below is a mass of colourful yarn I was busy dyeing a couple of weeks ago for you all to see....

All together...

Golden Rod - Pale Sage, Limes and Lemons

Madder - Two-Tone, Peachy and Bright Oranges

Eucalyptus - Peachy and Two-Tone with Madder

Logwood - Pale Greens, Burgundy, Navy and Dark Navy

It was really interesting too see how different methods produced such variations.

I have recruited a couple of knitters (my mum and my gran!) to make a couple of knitted items that I hope to add to my collections from Autumn, and I shall be trying to teach myself back into it as I haven't knitted since I was young!

I will be adding the skeins to my shops from September, they are dyed in batches of twos weighing approximately 100gms each. Dye methods are repeated but cannot always guarantee exact matching colours.

Please get in touch if you would like to request a colour from above or would like more information.

Lost and Found....

Lost...

I have lost my camera :(
It was the O.H's degree show on Friday night and I remember taking pictures of his display then I don't know where I put it! My bag wasn't big enough to house it so it was separate and now we are separated. Sniff.
It was a lovely Olympus one that we got at a really good price.
I have another older one to use but it is tucked away in a box still somewhere so who knows when we'll find that one!

Found...

We have found a kitten!
It was hanging around for a long time on Sunday and later on I saw it being tossed out of someones garden just as a bus went by.
We went out to comfort it and after much debate we have taken her in, fed and watered her and reported her as found to local shelters but no news yet.
She is very cute, very vocal too but too small to be out, she can only be six months at the most.
Rosie of course is not happy and does not want to socialise with anyone except me!

I have been busy dyeing yarn in many colours; oranges, blues, trying for yellow but it seems a bit mellow(!) and greens....hopefully when I find a camera I can post you all some pictures :)

Craft stall in about six weeks and I have so much to do.
The kitchen has arrived and is being fitted next week.
Time is not my friend of late!!!!

The First of Many...

...yarn dyeing experiements!

From the left over stems of eucalyptus I had from testing out the new eco prints as previously posted about I now have my first samples of dyed yarn.

A couple of lovely shades of burnt oranges on DK Merino yarn, created solely from a eucalyptus dye pot.

What do you think? Would you wear these colours?.....

Happenings...

I have a couple of things to share...

Firstly, we are moving into our very own home on Friday! I have been keeping (fairly) quiet about buying our first house as I have quite honestly been nervous throughout the whole process! We made the offer at the end of January and thought we would have been moved a lot sooner as there are no chains etc but it's taken over three months and we're finally going.

We've started to pack up our belongings this past week and discovered that there is a lot to shift and that the five boxes I had already managed to collect barely stored anything once we got started!

Here's a picture of Rosie exhausted from it all....

Yes, she had managed to get cosy in a couple of stacked boxes and fall into a nice deep sleep...as you do. She has no idea what is happening and hopefully she will adjust well in her new home.

Secondly, on the crafting front, I have invested in a wee box of DK Merino yarn...only 4.5kgs!

I have been wanting to dye yarn for some time but due to lack of outside space I had resisted, but now we are moving and will have a front and back garden to play in I decided I would stock up ready to take the plunge! I am hoping to dye yarn to sell in skeins as well as making limited pieces for my Autumn and Winter collections.

I will keep you updated when I come to doing some colour tests!