squarejane
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Sunshine
Friday, March 19, 2010
Etsy Owls Spring Cleaning Sale!
Come help us clean up and get ready for Spring! We're having a week long Spring Cleaning sale starting this Saturday, the first day of Spring! The sale will end the 28th, so check out the good deals while they last!
Come hang out with some Etsy Owls members and get a Preview of great specials and deals in the Etsy Chat Rooms TONIGHT Friday night at 6pm eastern! Look for the SALE Sneak Peek Room!
Search etsyowlsteam on Etsy to see the variety our team has to offer!
Here's our Spring Cleaning Sale participants, visit their shops for more information! Items featured here might not be on sale, please check shop announcements for sale details!
Bonfires: Free Shipping on all cards!
bumblebirch:
10-25% off all stitch markers and skeins of yarn.
bumperstickersnmore: Buy One, Get One Free!
Dreambirdphotos: $3 5x7 prints!
gadgetgear: Check her shop for a special Spring cleaning section!
goldenpondstudio: Check out her 30% off sale section
happykatt: 20% off all knits!
hooksandeyes:
Free Shipping on All Crocheted Items!
ickydogcreations: Free Shipping!
jonikay52: Free Shipping on Jewelry only!
katscozykrafts: Free Shipping and 35% off. Prices not adjusted!
Keriredmondwade
Buy One Get One FREE on all Vintage and Supplies. Refund via Paypal after purchase.
Gypsyeye
Sale Section!
mabjewelry: Free Shipping Plus a Sale Section!
spottedtummy: Sale Section!
suenosdejmi: Free U.S & Canada Shipping plus a Sale Section!
tattietats: Check out her sale section!
Zemphira
Check out her sale section! Also, check out her Bunny specials!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Live Owl Nest Box Cam
I ran across this online today, for all of you owl fans. It's an amazing and mesmerizing sight. A fellow has placed cameras in a female barn owl's nesting box. The owlets are due to hatch any moment. The female owl is named Molly, and her dude's name is McGee. It's amazing to watch how she cares for the eggs, moving them around so they don't get too warm. When McGee shows up, she makes all kinds of racket. Plus, you may even get to see them eat, amazing and disgusting simulatenously!
I have to warn you, it is addictive. I don't want to miss the eggs hatching. Owlets! Yes!
You can view the cam here. Enjoy!
I have to warn you, it is addictive. I don't want to miss the eggs hatching. Owlets! Yes!
You can view the cam here. Enjoy!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Shop Unique with ArtTales!
A couple of our members stumbled across this shop, and we all fell in love! Her items are made from recycled materials (she stuffs them with plastic bags, for starters!) and are all free-form ideas from her imagination. Just LOOK at the plushy cuteness!!!
ArtTales, thanks for being awesome and unique! We all covet a Leftz plushie of our own!!
(Why are you still reading this blog post? Go to her shop NOW!)
ArtTales, thanks for being awesome and unique! We all covet a Leftz plushie of our own!!
(Why are you still reading this blog post? Go to her shop NOW!)
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Adventures in Dyeing with Suenosdejmi ( Owl Spotlight )
I've spent the last good while coveting and drooling over handdyed yarns. Gorgeous colorways and combinations of color that make me go oooooh....anyone who knits or crochets has been there. But they're always sooo expensive! Sure, they're worth it, but we can't all shell out that kind of money. I definitely can't.
After running across the fact somewhere that people dye with Kool-Aid, I decided to work up the courage to try it myself. That time's finally come.
Before I was ready to attempt it myself, I've spent a good amount of time gathering resources. It's helpful to know what direction to go in before you try it out. Some really handy tutorials are over at Knitty KnitPicks and a pretty useful tutorial over at A Beautiful Life
I read and reread these articles, and others, and visited some groups on Ravelry, just trying to soak up the details of how to do it. When I started earlier, I discovered very quickly that this isn't like knitting, there's no pattern. There's just what to do and what not to do, and then you, your yarn, and the colors you choose. Everything else just happens as you go along.
I decided to approach it in small doses by test dyeing only a little at a time. My method would be microwave dyeing. My first attempt was overdyeing (dyeing a yarn that is already colored) some Patons Classic Wool Merino, a bit over 2 yards. Mine was a light blue when it started out.
I soaked it a bit then tried the hand-painted approach, I put it out on a grocery bag and dabbed it with bits of grape, lemon lime, and black cherry. Now, I learned the hard way that you want this yarn to be fairly damp when you do this, and when you go to microwave it, for the love of God don't add it to water! (which I might or might not have actually done...)
The result was (okay, so I did that, duh..) that the colors ended up seeping out into the water, and swirling around a bit as the yarn soaked up the dye, so I got a bit of a heathered look. I like it, but it wasn't at all what I wanted.
At this point, my water wasn't clear. It actually wasn't anywhere close to clear. I wondered what would happen if I took my second yarn (Condon's Wool in a very light tan color) and just added it to the purple-ish water. I took a little bit (7 yards) and just plopped it in there, and put it back in the microwave for a few minutes. The color instantly took to this yarn (this is obviously the winner yarn here). I had a solid very light purple red yarn. What would happen if I handpainted some green on it?
I made sure the yarn was very damp, and very gently added small amounts of green to it in sections around the loop. then i spooned a bit more water on it to help dampen it, and put it back in the microwave (without water added, obviously!)
This was that result:
By testing, I learned that it works best for me to get a solid color then try to add others to it, but would that work for a lot more yarn? This third dye is about an ounce, I think. It came as an addition to my 4 oz skein of Condon's. (I'll measure it for sure when it's dry and ready to ball up, so we'll know for sure then)
First I soaked it for about 20 minutes in just warm water, to allow it to get really damp. Be careful not to use too hot water, or to agitate it in hot water, as you'll felt your yarn.
Then i removed the yarn from the water, mixed in some black cherry koolaid (about a tsp) and added the yarn again. The websites all say that it doesn't matter how much water you add, as it doesn't dilute the dye any, it's all about the amount of powder to the amount of yarn. I've been using small amounts because I'm dyeing small amounts, most sites recommend a packet of koolaid per ounce of yarn.
I put my yarn back in the microwave for 2 minutes, then let it sit in the microwave for about 5 minutes, and then repeated the process again. The next time, I took some grape, about half a tsp, and added it only to the part of the water in the middle and mixed it a bit, hoping to get a darker turnout in the middle. This is the time where I added the grape.
Overall I repeated the microwave process about 4 times (over the commercial breaks of LOST) until the water was clear. All the tutorials say that the water will be clear, and boy was I shocked to see that it was actually clear!
This is the end result:
From what I can tell, the grape didn't really take in the middle, it probably just blended in with the overall coloration.
Now, because I can't be ultimately happy with one gorgeous solid color, I had to take it further. While soaking the yarn in some water, I took two coffee cups and mixed some dye in them, one grape, the other lemonlime.
From my second testing, I remembered the black cherry taking the lemon lime well. So I decided to see how well it'd take it. I put about half a tsp of dye in each cup, and making sure the yarn that wasn't in a cup was really damp, put it back in the microwave for 2 minutes.
After two trips through, I brought it out and covered it with the pyrex dish (that the cups are sitting in) and let the yarn steep a bit. After about 10 minutes, it had soaked up all the green dye (with little result) and was working on the purple dye. I added the rest of my green koolaid (about another half tsp) and put it back in the cup and put the pyrex dish back on top. About 10 minutes later, the water in both cups was almost clear, and I had this:
After running across the fact somewhere that people dye with Kool-Aid, I decided to work up the courage to try it myself. That time's finally come.
Before I was ready to attempt it myself, I've spent a good amount of time gathering resources. It's helpful to know what direction to go in before you try it out. Some really handy tutorials are over at Knitty KnitPicks and a pretty useful tutorial over at A Beautiful Life
I read and reread these articles, and others, and visited some groups on Ravelry, just trying to soak up the details of how to do it. When I started earlier, I discovered very quickly that this isn't like knitting, there's no pattern. There's just what to do and what not to do, and then you, your yarn, and the colors you choose. Everything else just happens as you go along.
I decided to approach it in small doses by test dyeing only a little at a time. My method would be microwave dyeing. My first attempt was overdyeing (dyeing a yarn that is already colored) some Patons Classic Wool Merino, a bit over 2 yards. Mine was a light blue when it started out.
I soaked it a bit then tried the hand-painted approach, I put it out on a grocery bag and dabbed it with bits of grape, lemon lime, and black cherry. Now, I learned the hard way that you want this yarn to be fairly damp when you do this, and when you go to microwave it, for the love of God don't add it to water! (which I might or might not have actually done...)
The result was (okay, so I did that, duh..) that the colors ended up seeping out into the water, and swirling around a bit as the yarn soaked up the dye, so I got a bit of a heathered look. I like it, but it wasn't at all what I wanted.
At this point, my water wasn't clear. It actually wasn't anywhere close to clear. I wondered what would happen if I took my second yarn (Condon's Wool in a very light tan color) and just added it to the purple-ish water. I took a little bit (7 yards) and just plopped it in there, and put it back in the microwave for a few minutes. The color instantly took to this yarn (this is obviously the winner yarn here). I had a solid very light purple red yarn. What would happen if I handpainted some green on it?
I made sure the yarn was very damp, and very gently added small amounts of green to it in sections around the loop. then i spooned a bit more water on it to help dampen it, and put it back in the microwave (without water added, obviously!)
This was that result:
By testing, I learned that it works best for me to get a solid color then try to add others to it, but would that work for a lot more yarn? This third dye is about an ounce, I think. It came as an addition to my 4 oz skein of Condon's. (I'll measure it for sure when it's dry and ready to ball up, so we'll know for sure then)
First I soaked it for about 20 minutes in just warm water, to allow it to get really damp. Be careful not to use too hot water, or to agitate it in hot water, as you'll felt your yarn.
Then i removed the yarn from the water, mixed in some black cherry koolaid (about a tsp) and added the yarn again. The websites all say that it doesn't matter how much water you add, as it doesn't dilute the dye any, it's all about the amount of powder to the amount of yarn. I've been using small amounts because I'm dyeing small amounts, most sites recommend a packet of koolaid per ounce of yarn.
I put my yarn back in the microwave for 2 minutes, then let it sit in the microwave for about 5 minutes, and then repeated the process again. The next time, I took some grape, about half a tsp, and added it only to the part of the water in the middle and mixed it a bit, hoping to get a darker turnout in the middle. This is the time where I added the grape.
Overall I repeated the microwave process about 4 times (over the commercial breaks of LOST) until the water was clear. All the tutorials say that the water will be clear, and boy was I shocked to see that it was actually clear!
This is the end result:
From what I can tell, the grape didn't really take in the middle, it probably just blended in with the overall coloration.
Now, because I can't be ultimately happy with one gorgeous solid color, I had to take it further. While soaking the yarn in some water, I took two coffee cups and mixed some dye in them, one grape, the other lemonlime.
After two trips through, I brought it out and covered it with the pyrex dish (that the cups are sitting in) and let the yarn steep a bit. After about 10 minutes, it had soaked up all the green dye (with little result) and was working on the purple dye. I added the rest of my green koolaid (about another half tsp) and put it back in the cup and put the pyrex dish back on top. About 10 minutes later, the water in both cups was almost clear, and I had this:
The green isn't entirely saturated all the way through, but it's a nice representation. The darker end is a bit of a light purple. I'm quite pleased with the end results, and can't wait to try some more!!!
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