So, now that it’s over and the recipient has received all their
things, I can talk about the most recent yarn/knitting/crafting swap I
got myself into on Ravelry.
There’s a group called the Odd Duck Swaps of Ravelry,
and they organize thematic swaps every single month of the year. The
way it works is you generally have about a month to sign up, two months
to actually craft/shop/mail the swap package, and then you post a thank
you when you’ve received your package and the swap is completed. After
hearing about how much fun people were having doing this, I decided to
scope out the group. On my first visit there, I found out they were just
starting sign-ups for a video game swap.
Now, (without getting
into the whole ri-fuckin-diculous gamergate situation) I’m not the sort
of person who has ever considered myself a “gamer”. I mean, I usually
(but not always) enjoy games when I play them, but I didn’t grow up with
video games and I don’t keep up with the latest releases and I don’t
have a steam account or any of that. It’s just that it so happens that
my first “real” fandom, and the fandom that just won’t quit and I never
want to, is for a series of video games. So I’m basically SUPER into one
video game and have played a few more and have a general knowledge of
even more than that. But still, I thought the swap would be fun and I
felt like I was comfortable enough with video games to be able to
participate. So I signed up. And it was fun. And I will do more of them
in the future, because it turns out I really like making things for
someone else and the excitement of seeing their virtual excitement over
receiving the items I crafted them.
This post is going to be the
first of a two-parter on two of the new(ish) undertakings I began with
this swap package. I included more than these things (I knitted this Zelda Triforce Scarf
that was easy enough to make, but still deserves mention, for one
thing), but these are the two things that really stretched into the
crafting me of the future, if you will (and I will . . . sorry, that’s a
reflexive inside joke that zero of you reading this will understand.)
Without further ado . . . yarn dyeing!
My
recipient mentioned that their favourite game was Baten Kaitos, which
is a Dreamcast (I think) game that I had never heard of, but my far more
knowledgeable gamer husband and his college roommate had spent time
playing. Because this game is old and I think it has a pretty small
fanbase, there isn’t any merchandise out there for it AT ALL. This is
okay, since my recipient also mentioned that they like Zelda and
Skylanders and all sorts of things that have way more popularity than
Baten Kaitos, but as a person who’s only into video games that have
next-to-no crafting fanbase (as in, there aren’t indie dyed yarns or
fabrics or patterns or any of that) I sort of knew how excited the
recipient would be if something from a fandom you don’t expect to see
anything from showed up in the package. So, since I’m newly immersed in a
commitment to yarn dyeing, I decided to make my first real yarn dyeing
adventure something inspired by my recipient’s favourite charater in
Baten Kaitos, Kalas.
So,
going off the photos I could find online, it seems like the character
wears a light blue and darker blue armour set offset with brown leather
strappings, so I decided that my yarn was going to be the dark blue
transitioning into brighter blue and then the leathery brown. The bare
yarn I selected to dye was a fingering weight 75% superwash wool, 25%
nylon yarn. I had three 50g skeins, but this was my first time dyeing
and I didn’t want to screw up three skeins of yarn in the event that
everything went horribly wrong, so I only dyed one of them. I knew this
would mean that I was giving the recipient barely enough yarn to do
anything with and really it would be better if I could dye two skeins at
once and at least give 100g, but I was really afraid of messing it up.
Turns out I had no need, because this yarn is one of the best I’ve made
to date. That could be because I’m a sucker for the blue/brown
variegation, but all reports from those who’ve seen it in person are
that it’s pretty badass.
I dyed the whole thing with Wilton’s
Icing Gels using a plain stainless steel kitchen pot. Minimal mess, no
harsh chemicals, beautiful colour. I highly recommend this method for
anyone who might be thinking about dyeing some yarn, but doesn’t have a
large kitchen or space for extra equipment or is even just a little
nervous about the harsh chemicals in a working kitchen like I was. I’ve
since dyed 20 more skeins of yarn in various colourways using this
methodology, and the only thing I haven’t been able to get right so far
is grey. Not a bad track record, and I hope you’ll all follow along with
me on my yarn dyeing journey as I grow into this and figure it out and
post all the pictures of my progress here for you to see. If you follow me on Instagram,
you'll probably get a quicker peek at what I'm working on, but I'll
make sure that everything eventually gets posted here as well!
To
start . . . here’s a few photos of the special edition Baten Kaitos –
Kalas yarn I did for this swap. Not bad for a first start, if I may say
so myself!
Stay tuned for part 2 of the swap, where I give you a detailed tutorial on how I made a project bag!
And on Instagram too! It's like you cloned yourself! More accurately, it's that
ReplyDeleteyou produce enough for 223 people, to further the taglines stretching into infinity.