continuing progress

I finished the teacosy of neverending ribbitude, and a very nice teacosy it turned out to be...

(If you want to see it in person, come on over to my Crafternoon Teaparty
this Sunday from noon to five-ish)

~ : ♥ : ~

Of course, now I am once again without a handwork project for the interminable transit riding (and waiting). I'm not sure what to begin, I really need a new blue wool sweater, and I've not enough of anything suitable to begin one. Perhaps, instead of knitting, some kind of modular portable sewing project might be in order. Must ponder a while and see what comes to mind...

~ : ♥ : ~

There are five weeks left in the 2010 SWAP challenge. 11 garments to complete. How is it going here at Acorn Cottage? ..6 completed and 5 to finish. #10 was going to be a re-fashioned heavy cotton long sleeved shirtdress in black, but the warm weather we've been having has turned my thoughts to springtime. I'm wanting some lighter weight transitional clothing, maybe a grey chambray dress of some kind instead...

progress report - 2010 Sewing With A Plan

1.	top	split cowl rayon knit top - completed
2.	top	twist knot bamboo knit top - completed
3.	top	embroidered hippie tunic - completed
4.	top	cave horse shirt - completed
5.	top	stripey flannel top - completed
6.	top	overdyed reconfigured T-shirt - in process
7.	jumper	corduroy overall jumper - barely started
8.	jumper	jersey knit jumper - in process
9.	dress	polkadot cotton -not begun
10.	dress	???
11.	personal choice	stripey knitted wool vest - completed

My first attempt at overdyeing the Nikki Mcclure T shirt was not what I'd hoped for -as this excerpt from the letter that I sent to Rupert, Gibbon & Spider makes clear

"... I was excited to try this new product (iDye) that I found in a local shop. I followed all the instructions for stovetop use, but was very sad and upset to find that my pre-washed white t-shirt instead of turning silvery-grey came out a darkish olive green, kind of similar to "army-man green"! In the past I have used several different kinds of fiber reactive dye with great success, and have also used Jaquard acid dye on wool, also with good results. I've never seen anything like this before, and the other older piece of fabric that I also put into the dyepot also turned green rather than grey.

The pan I was using was a stainless steel pan, the salt that I added was plain-non-iodized salt, and this is not the first time I have done stovetop dyeing. I wanted to overdye my brand new Nikki McClure crow t-shirt a medium grey, which is what the information showed as "silvery grey" on your site. I had prewashed the plain white (with black printed graphic) shirt already, since I knew that I wanted it to be grey with black rather than white with black."

While I will continue to use all their other excellent products, needless to say, I will not be using iDye again. So this morning I ended up doing a second overdye. After much thought, to correct the color I used a lilac Procion dye, which looks to have been successful at shifting the color to a cool, very slightly purplish grey. Once the Tshirt is dry, I'm going to re-cut it to my own pattern, and add black sleeves. I might do some reverse applique in the Alabama Chanin style on the sleeves, wouldn't crow footprints look nifty?