My first woven

Finally, I am proud to present my very first woven! I haven't had as much time to play with my new craft as I'd like, but I've got one scarf-type-thing done and another warp on the loom ready to go.

The hardest part of weaving for me so far has definitely been warping the loom. I chose to use some recycled yarn that I dyed with Kool Aid for both the warp and the weft. I decided to try the direct warping method and, seeing as I don't yet have a warping clamp, I used my husband's gargoyle piggy bank (named Leroy) to wind the yarn around. I will say that it was hard work and I broke out in a nice sweat from crawling around on the floor! I've concluded that some clamps from Home Depot will make the entire process much easier - including the fact that the heddle has a habit of falling off the heddle block when I move the yarn through it too quickly.

The actual weaving itself went pretty smoothly, outside of the handful of tension issues and having slightly messy selvedges. I'm very proud of my first attempt though. The end result is a little stiff for a scarf but I'm thinking that it can be made into a nice bag instead.
I should note that for the second attempt at warping, I got smart and brought the loom downstairs to the kitchen where I used the kitchen table and a chair to wind the yarn around. Having it all at a regular height and not having to wrangle yarn to stay behind the ears of a gargoyle definitely helped! I also scored a cone of fingering weight yarn at the local thrift store for $1 to use. I haven't decided what to use for the weft that, but that will be shared later.

I'm dyeing!

I believe I said I wanted to give dyeing yarn a try and this weekend, while it's pouring with rain outside and the husband is out playing poker with his friends, seemed like a great opportunity.

The first sweater that I bought to recycle was always destined to be my first victim. I was a little worried about the dye taking properly because it's a wool/acrylic/cotton blend, but I figured it would be worth a shot.

It's not a full tutorial, but here's a rundown of what I did in 10 steps!

Step 1 - Soak the yarn in warm water with a dash of dish soap (I did this for about 20 minutes).
Step 2 - While yarn is soaking, mix up Kool Aid packs. I had 2 packs of orange and 2 packs of strawberry. I've seen some tutorials suggesting using 8oz water for each pack, but I decided to make it a little more saturated than that because of the fiber blend so for each color I put 2 packs in 12oz water.
Step 3 - Remove yarn from soaking and gentle wring out the water.
Step 4 - Place yarn in microwave safe dish and pour on Kool Aid mixture. I originally was planning on doing one color per hank, but ended up doing one hank that was a random mix of the two colors together!
Step 5 - Cover dish with plastic wrap and poke a few holes to let the steam escape.
Step 6 - Place dish in microwave for 2 minutes.
Step 7 - After the 2 minutes in the microwave, pull it out and take a look to see whether the water at the bottom of the dish is clear. If not, let it sit for a couple of minutes, then pop it back in the microwave for another 2 minutes.
Repeat Steps 6+7 as necessary until water in the bottom of the dish is clear. For me, this was 2 runs through the microwave for each.
Step 8 - I had left the water that the yarn was originally soaking in still in the bowl. So, after I was done microwaving the yarn, I removed the yarn from the microwave dish and threw it back in the original water to let any extra dye seep out and to cool off a little.
Step 9 - Once the yarn is cool enough to touch, pull it out of the water and gently wring it dry.
Step 10 - Hang to dry!
Here are my final products waiting to be hung up to dry. Top hank was dyed with about 7oz of orange flavor, the middle one is whatever was left of the orange plus a few oz of strawberry flavor. (It's somewhat variegated but hard to see right now.) The bottom hank was dyed with the strawberry flavor. It's probably the least saturated of the three and looks like more of a watermelon color to me.

As always, the concept of dyeing yarn seems so much more complicated than actually doing it and I'm really glad I had the chance to just give it a try!