Felted Beads

A couple years ago, I went a little bead crazy.

Now I've got tons of these, and no idea what to do with them. Any ideas?

How I Dye Felted Beads

I dyed beads today. Since I had nothing else for the blog, I thought I'd document my process.

First, I soak the beads in warm water with a little vinegar added (when I do this with Kool-Aid, I don't need to use the vinegar)...

I know what you're thinking. How much vinegar? How long? Yeah, I don't really pay that much attention. If I had to ballpark it, I'd say I used about a cup of vinegar. Maybe less (a cup wasn't much considering that this was a 2 liter container).

I let it soak until the beads were waterlogged. (I had breakfast, started my laundry, and watched some TV before starting the dyeing process.) I'd guess it was about an hour.

Then I divvied up the beads into four containers...

Well, first I filled each glass container with about an inch's worth of warm water. Then I put in the food coloring. And then I added the beads (and took the picture).

I put the containers in the microwave for 2 minutes. Then, with oven mitts, I took them out and let them sit. Before they got too cool, I repeated the process. The idea was to keep the water near boiling temperature until the dye soaked in.

There is a lot of dead time during this procedure. I managed to check all my email, read all of the blogs I follow, do a couple loads of laundry, wash my sheets and make up my bed, and play a good hour's worth of solitaire (this version) all while occasionally checking in and reheating the water.

In a little over two hours, I had this...

It might be hard to see from this picture (if you click on it, you can get a larger view), but the water got clearer while the beads got color. (Except for the blue. I used too much dye in the blue container.)

Then I poured out the water and washed the beads...

...and I laid them out to dry. It should take about a day (although, considering how cool it's been here, it might take longer).

The next thing I need to learn is how to mix colors better. I was doing a lot of guessing with these. I wanted a lighter orange, a darker green, and periwinkle. I wasn't too particular about the purple, and I really like how that turned out. As for the other colors...

I suppose I should start a notebook with recipes. Who am I kidding? I doubt I'll ever be able to manage precision with this.

Picking a Color

I've been knitting beads. (Again.) Since I finally learned how to get close up shots on my camera (yes, this was an obvious thing, but it took me way too long to figure it out), I have better pictures.

Here's what they look like after I've knit them...

Then I run them through the washing machine to felt them...

And then I dye them...

Aren't those colors pretty?

I mention this all for a reason. I have no idea what color to try next.

I used food dyes for them. (These.) I've exhausted the box. But, there are recipes for other colors. It's time to experiment, but I don't know which color to try next.

I can actually do four batches at the same time, so it's not like I really need to narrow things down too much. I guess it's just the plethora of choices that's making choosing so hard. That, and I have another box of food dyes to play with as well.

Any ideas? I'm open to suggestions.

Waiting Room

We're out of school for the week. It was very nice of the district to give us this whole week off. I think it was worth it to start the school year before Labor Day.

Today was my day to get some errands taken care of. First on the list was taking my car in for its oil change.

What is it about waiting rooms? Why is the news always on? I guess it's better than morning talk shows, but it seems like every time I'm waiting for my car, I'm watching CNN. Well, I wasn't really watching it. I was working on some more beads.

While I was knitting, I was watching the others waiting with me. Every man in that waiting room had a laptop computer. The guy sitting next to me pulled his out, and I thought he was working on something important. I glanced over...he was on Facebook.

The other women in the room were reading. So, the TV wasn't really needed. Well, at least it wasn't silent in the room. That probably would have been worse.

My car didn't take as long as I had anticipated, so I ended up getting all my errands done much more quickly than I originally thought. Now, here's hoping I didn't forget anything else at the store. I really don't want to brave the grocery store crowds tomorrow.

An Ordinary Pencil Caddy

This is my 400th post!

On Friday, I was sitting in the teacher's lounge 4th period. I was knitting beads. Another teacher walked in. She saw me knitting, and then she announced that she knew who I was.

This teacher taught two periods of CAHSEE English. So, she discussed how her students did on the CAHSEE on Tuesday. How well they thought they did. Was it hard? Did they think they passed?

Apparently, they wanted to talk about my pencil caddy.

One of the jobs of test proctor is to give students newly sharpened pencils when they need them. I hated carrying around the pencils, so I made a container. I wear it across my body, like a purse. I can pull out pencils at will.

Now, not one student commented upon my caddy to me. But the English teacher told me that students couldn't stop talking about my caddy in class.

I didn't realize I was that much of a distraction. All I wanted to do was make my proctoring time easier.

Making Bracelets in Class

I've been knitting all day. I had to do something. Watching The Grapes of Wrath over and over again was making me go a little crazy.

(I've been working on beads. Turns out that they're a great take-along project.)

It was 4th period. I passed out the question worksheet, took roll, and started the movie. Once I got fully settled, I looked up. There was a girl making those beaded bracelets that all the kids seem to be wearing these days.

I probably should have told her to stop. But as long as she was quiet... (I don't much care if they have other work, draw, or do something else while the video is playing. Just so long as they aren't talking.)

It all started out well enough. But then her neighbors wanted to make their own. And somehow the conversations started. Uh, no.

I completely understand the need to do something with your hands while watching a movie. However, I had instructed them to remain quiet and attentive to the movie. So, I had to keep after them to shush.

Sigh. Do I have to go after them for crafty things, too?

More Orange Knitted Beads

More pictures from the dyeing project...

In this case I had used a rust-colored yarn originally. Because I could safely put 30 beads into the dye mixture, I also added a couple beads of different colors just to see what they would do.

The three beads in the back are the original color. The two beads in front went through the orange Kool-Aid. The dye process brightened the color just a bit. I kind of like it.

I also tried pink beads, black beads, and gray beads.

After the dye process the pink beads were indistinguishable from the white beads (they all turned the bright orange of the last post). The black beads got a bit more of a shine but still looked the same.

The gray beads...

...turned an interesting shade of brown. Very Halloween. (Far left: before felting. Middle: after felting. Far right: felted and dyed orange.)

What color should I try next?

Orange Knitted Beads

Yesterday I promised to post pictures of my dyed beads. I had a chance to take pictures today. Here is how it all turned out...

Near the top left-hand corner are white beads before felting. In the middle are the felted white beads. And then near the bottom right-hand corner are the white beads after being dyed using orange Kool-Aid.

It was a very easy process. I can't wait to try more.

Where Did All the Kool-Aid Go?

Remember my crazy project? Since then I've been accumulating beads. I've got containers full. And I have ideas on what to do with them.

The main problem with the project is finding wool yarn in pretty colors. There aren't many colors in the yarn store. The next step was to go online, but I have been too lazy (or busy) to do this.

I mentioned the color issue to my sister-in-law, and she suggested using white wool and dyeing the beads later. Genius.

I've never dyed anything before. But I remembered reading this article a while back. I didn't think too much of it at the time for I didn't really work with wool. But wool is necessary for felting, so suddenly this method was feasible.

Using Kool-Aid to dye wool? Brilliant!

So, I went to the grocery store in search of pretty Kool-Aid. What did I find? Red and purple. Um, if you go back and look at the picture, you'll see that I have those colors already. Although, I did find orange, yellow, and pink, too.

However, I did not find green or blue. Drat!

I bought the orange, and today I thought to try it. It turned out better than I expected. The orange is so day-glow, and I mean that in a good way. I'll post pictures soon. First I need to let the beads dry.

Now, I'm on the hunt for green and blue Kool-Aid flavors. I've looked a couple places. No luck. I know they exist. At least, they existed when that article was written.

I have no idea where else to try. Anyone have any ideas?

Crazy Project Follow Up

A few days back (okay, so it was 11) I promised to post a picture of my beads once I had felted them. Remember? I hadn't forgotten. It just took some time.

First I had to felt the little beads. They are knit out of wool, so they need hot water, some soap, and a lot of agitation. I put them in the laundry with a load of towels (the beads were in a zippered pillowcase so as to not get fuzz all over everything).

I checked them after they had been in the wash for a few minutes. Then I checked them when they had been in there a few minutes more. It took a while. I had to restart the wash three times, and it probably took 45 minutes.

Then they had to dry. It took about two days (no, I can't throw them into the dryer).

And finally I had to take the picture, load it onto my computer (is that an upload or a download?), and upload it to a picture hosting site. This always takes more time than you think it will (and I had a busy week last week).

Anyway, here are the beads...

The project doesn't still sound crazy, does it?

Crazy Project?

I went to see my dad the other day. I told him about my latest knitting project and he looked at me like I was crazy. Crazy! I only said I was knitting beads...

I saw the project on a show that is on every Saturday. I saw this and I just had to try it. For some reason, explaining the project makes no sense to non-knitters. Sigh.


So, I made a bunch of beads...

My next step is to felt them. I'll do that either today or tomorrow, and I'll post pictures then.

The ultimate goal is to create a necklace, although I don't know if that's how these will end up. Sometimes I see things that look interesting to try, so I try them just to try them. I can't wait to see how these things look once they're felted.