Wool, Crafts, and My Kitchen!

FINALLY! I have had some down time to do a little wool dyeing, sew a little and just plain relax! 

DYEING WOOL!

I haven't dyed any wool in ages and was really wanting to try the method that Cath's Pennies Designs talked about in one of her recent blog entries.  I took a section of a vintage wool blanket I had that was sort of a dirty linen color and viola! a lovely aged color I call "coffeeshop" (I have a habit of naming my wool colors, don't know why since I don't really sell them).  Here is picture of the wool soaking in its soap bath and then the final result! Thanks, Cath, for this method! Its super easy and extremely easy to clean up!

This wool is really a great color! It just came out dark in the photo! I also dyed some more wool and tried a mottling effect that I learned from The Woolen Needle ladies.

I really need to get some wool dyed green (I'm running low) so I will probably be making my rounds to the thrift stores soon to see if I can find any quality wool clothing or wool blankets to recyle!  BTW, I didn't use any dyes fancier that RIT to dye my wool.  Maple Leaves and Harvest started out as a pink wool. I overdyed them using yellow dye to get the "Harvest" color and used yellow dye and then chocolate brown to get the "Old Maple leaves" color. The  "Cranberry Ice" was done with pink wool overdyed using chocolate brown RIT dye and the "November Sky" was created from a dirty linen color wool overdyed with kelly green RIT. "Fudge Swirl" was made from the dirty linen color wool overdyed with chocolate brown RIT. I love dying wool as I am never sure what I will end up with because you never know how the wool will take up the dyes!

MY KITCHEN!

Since I've shown you a photo of my stove, I thought you might like to see photos of the rest of my kitchen.  Almost everything in the photos are "make do"! The pine hutch came from a friend's garage sale; the hoosier cabinet came from my hubbies farm and was in pieces when he began to work on it. The oak table is from an old farm house. Two of the oak chairs are from an auction and the other two my hubby found on the side of the road and refinished! The high chair I recently got at an auction and the same is true of most of the crockery! The spice cabinet was in a tool shed on my hubby's farm until I claimed it! Enjoy my humble abode!

CRAFTING!

Well, it will soon be that time of year when the lawn doesn't call my name any more (just the snow shovel now and then when it snows) so my crafting time is pickin up again. I was able to sew some things and get them listed on eBay and also get some patterns cut out (and I also got all my laundry done too!!!!).  Have fun browsing through some of my finished items and come back later to see if I've found any new giveaways for you to enter!  Blessings and have a wonderful week.