When Was Linen First Used, How Linen is Made, What makes Linen a Sustainable Fabric and Tips for Knitting with Linen Yarn.Unlike other plant fibers like cotton, which is made from the seed head of the plant- designed to hold onto moisture, Linen is made from the stem of the plant, and the stem of the plants job is to move moisture, so linen is a naturally cool and moisture wicking fabric.

Flax was one of the first plants to be cultivated in the fertile crescent, dating back to 7000 BCE. Making linen one of the first fabrics humans used.

There are hieroglyphs in Egypt depicting the process of linen textile production, and mummies were often wrapped in linen cloth.

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It snowed again here in Wisconsin, and I wanted to get some practice with my snow dyeing…

What Can I use to Hand Dye Yarn?

For Acid Dyes to Work you need to use ported based fibers, that means, Wool, Alpaca, Silk, etc. Acrylic won’t work.

Dyeing wool with snow is somewhat of a surprise. I never really know what I’m going to get.

I applied the dye on top of the snow and as the snow melted, the dye entered into the yarn in the natural way the snow melted, and stuck where the citric acid was strongest. after mixing your colors and applying the dye there’s not too much you can do except watch as your bare yarn turns into beautiful hand dyed yarn.

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When I am making an art batt I usually only let the batt go through the carder one time,

An art batt is less blended and the colors are less mixed, you have texture and layers and some lovely surprises!

I myself am attracted most to art batts, but sometimes can be intimidated by color,

If you’re new to color blending I would suggest consulting a color wheel or using a reference photo.

I tend to like monochromatic or analogous colors, and you can’t really go wrong there. If you want to spice it up a bit, a safe bet is to use complimentary colors!

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How to make Rolags on a Blending Board.

I am using Wool of the Andes 100% Peruvian Highland wool from KnitPicks to make these beautiful blended colors!

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To accompany my “along those lines” Knitting pattern I have created an instructional video on how to do the stretchy bind off.

The stretchy bind off is a technique that’s great when you need a little more space in your bind off edge, like in this case, a high cowl neck.

please, enjoy this instructional video on how to knit the stretchy bind off.

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