PSA: White yarn comes in dyelots too

Here's an object lesson in dyelots:

Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece

There are two different dyelots of Cotton Ball in this baby blanket, and since I was using up small squares and making new squares, the different dyelots aren't evenly distributed throughout the blanket. I just keep telling myself the baby won't care. A few washes and some baby grime may even it all out in the end, and it will be a project finished! 

Oddball Grab Bag Destash Sale

I'm destashing - and that includes the small stuff, like leftovers that I keep meaning to use in "something" "someday." Listings will be added to this page up through this weekend; if you are on Ravelry you can take a look at the full skeins I'll be posting for sale here on my stash page. 

Pomegranate Rind Dye | Natural Plant Dye

​My parents have a pomegranate tree that produces fruit slowly and steadily, so every few weeks I add one or two more rinds to a bag in my freezer. I had a full bag, so I dried out the rinds as much as possible in direct sunlight, and then got them completely dry in the oven on the lowest setting. When I was ready to make a batch of dye, I soaked the dried rinds overnight and then blended the rehydrated rinds with the soaking water in my Vitamix blender. The resulting pulp was strained through a mesh strainer, and then strained again through a piece of muslin fabric. It's extra work, but using dried rinds does make a difference - when I did a batch with fresh rinds last year, the results were much lighter. Because of the tannin content, pomegranate rinds can also be used as a mordant, so I mixed it with a batch of mint leaf dye and a batch of lemongrass leaf dye. 

Ground up pomegranate rinds, after the first straining - I had to strain it through a piece of muslin fabric to get all of the little bits you can see here out​.

​Photos of the dyed yarns to come!  If you are interested in using pomegranate rind and mint leaf botanical dyes, The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes by Sasha Duerr has some general information about pomegranate rind and a recipe for mint leaf dye. 

Vintage Knitting Needles | Etsy

Marcia Lynn nylon circular knitting needles​

​I'm destashing yarn and supplies over in my Etsy shop (mkcarroll.etsy.com); these vintage nylon circulars are one of the listings currently up. These are in good condition - I've kept a couple of pairs for myself and have been knitting with them without any problems.