Magic Yarn Balls

Here's some of my outgoing mail for the Magic Yarn Ball swap. This is the original skein, my third ever attempt at hand dyeing and definately the best yet.

The last attempt at this color scheme was pretty tragic, with hot pink, virulent orange and lime green - erk! Not quite the look I was going for, I'm definately pleased with the muted down tones in this one though.

I pre-soaked some 100% white wool in a 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water mix and then used a variety of watered down Queen's food coloring dyes to get the shades I wanted. Wrapped in gladwrap and steamed for 90 seconds in the microwave, left to cool and then rinsed out under cold water. And yes, it is most definately very colorfast!

I'm totally in love with this type of dyeing - easy and fast, with materials you can purchase from your supermarket shelves - what's not to love?

And here it is wrapped up with the little treats hidden inside and tied with silk ribbons.

Some of the goodies in the Magic Yarn Ball (sorry about the dark photo, it was getting late) - they are wrapped so as to fall out as you knit or craft with your yarn. Isn't that just a magical gift, as soon as I heard about it at Whip Up I had to join the swap. I think the idea comes from "The Children's Year" originally.

Inside is a tape measure, wool needles, a silver bell for the centre, butterfly and bead stitch markers (I made these at Kat's latest beading night), some botique wool embroidery thread, silk ribbon, bamboo needles and a little "Gumnut baby" - a waldorf inspired needle holder.

My swapee indicated that she was keen to learn to knit, so hopefully this will get her started.

Tell you what though, I was tempted to keep it for myself, those pretty pastel shades looks like sweets once the ball was all wrapped up - yummy!