Friday, June 29, 2018

Weekly Roundup - Cellulose Week, Tie Dye, and More!

Welcome to the first official Weekly Roundup! My goal is to center all of the happenings in ChemKnits Land here on the blog on a regular basis.  In between these roundup posts I will share other fun crafts etc.  Today, I plan to look back on the last few weeks rather than just this current one to look at some of the fun we had during Cellulose Week. 

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I mostly dye wool based yarns because that is what I love to knit with.  Wool absorbs color super easily, and is a great base to use with food coloring and a variety of commercial dyes.  Cotton is a little trickier because food coloring won't work on cellulose based fibers, it needs protein fibers (wool, alpaca, silk, etc) for the colored molecules to bind.  The ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube Channel had a few old cotton dyeing videos, but it had been a while since I took another look at cotton fibers.

I was surprised, pleasantly surprised, when the ChemKnits Patrons requested cotton and linen blends for their early access dyeing videos (the Dyepot PS Series.)  When I realized that my viewers wanted to see more cotton, I thought it would be fun to dedicate a whole week to cotton dyeing videos, named "Cellulose Week."


I didn't create a new playlist for Cellulose Week, rather I added all of the new videos (9!) to the "Dyeing Cotton Yarns" Playlist.  There are now demonstrations that feature Rit Liquid Dye, Dylon Hand Dye, Avocados, and multiple techniques with Tulip One Step Tie Dye.  You can expand the list on the upper right hand corner of the embedded video to easily find these videos.  

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I found that I couldn't stop after I had edited and scheduled all of the Cellulose Week Videos.  KnitPicks recently released 12 new lines of bare yarn and I was so excited to play with the Cotton Boucle. (Affiliate Link) I will have a lot more cotton dyeing videos coming up in the Dyepot Weekly series over the rest of the summer and the fall. 


As for that video clip at the beginning of this roundup?  My kids love playing ChemKnits with me, so it is always fun for me to create new shirts for them to wear.  I dyed their shirts with some dry tulip one step tie dye powder, and the whole video is now available.  Both boys love performing for the camera, and I think Lucky is a natural at coming up with things to say.

I am so excited to play with color more this summer. I have plans to do a week focused on indigo dyeing (using American Grown Indigo from Stony Creek Colors) very soon.  I had to place an order for some more cotton yarn once I realized that my first vat is going to be best suited for cellulose fibers.  However, I do have plans to toss some wool yarn in there, too, just to see what happens.  I am so excited to share this adventure with you! 

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

More Posts Coming Soon!

Hello ChemKnits Fans,

I am sorry for not posting much here lately.  I have a massive backlog of projects (and some patterns!) that I need to write up to share with you.  Lately my efforts have been focused on producing 2+ videos per week for the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube channel so I have not spent as much time writing.

I have plans to revitalize this blog with some updates on what is going on in ChemKnits land currently.  Not 6 months ago or in the future, but regular updates on what is in the dyepot, what videos were released, and other updates.  I feel like there are so many different places where I am sharing my adventures lately (videos and social media) and it has been hard to feel grounded.

ChemKnits is first and foremost this website.  A place to ground all of my projects and crafting adventures.  I hope that these new updates (title TBD) will actually help with some of the writer's block so I can go back through these backlogs of crafts to share some of my creativity that doesn't make it onto the YouTube channel.  ChemKnits is approaching its 10th birthday this December, and we've grown so much over this last decade.  I cannot wait to see where the future will bring us and I hope that you will join me for the journey.

The new posts should be starting VERY soon, but if you want to see what I've been up to lately you can always follow @ChemKnits on Instagram or ChemKnits on Facebook.  We also have a thriving fan community in the ChemKnits Lab Facebook group.

Sincerely,
Rebecca from ChemKnits