Ugly Christmas Sweater (Grinch inspired)

I had to give away a Christmas present early so this one could be worn to all the Christmas events this year. This sweater has got it all. It's inspired by Jim Carey in "The Grinch". You know, the sweater intended to completely humiliate him?
If your looking a this and wondering, "How did she do it?"... let me break it down for you.

"The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns" allows you to make a custom design sweater in any gauge and any size. It may look incredibly intimidating to begin with but trust me, it's so easy! I went to the Raglan (adult) sweater pattern. I created my swatch to check what my gauge was, found out the chest size I needed and cast on.

The "HO HO HO" around the bottom edge was done afterwards so I didn't have to worry about it, I just followed the pattern until it came time to do the sleeves. The sleeves I simply made in red and white stripes with equal rows of each colour. I attached the sleeves and continued following the pattern to shape the raglan. This was all done on a circular needle so every row that had red on the sleeves was started new and cut every time I changed to white.

When the knitting was done I took the red thread and stitched the "HO HO HO" on the bottom (making sure I was giving equal spacing)

I bought a durable felted material from Value Village, washed it and cut it into the shape of the tree and three small trees for the back. I bought stiff felt from Michaels as well as 50 silver jingle bells and small battery powered LED lights.

I sewed silver beads all over the big tree and cut out "I (heart) X MAS" as well as the star for the top and "HO HO HO" for the back. Then I sewed on the felt pieces in the correct places.

to attach to the sweater I got a sharp darning needle and threaded it with the red yarn and sewed the trees and star on using hand sewing applique methods.

For the lights! I simply poked the lights through the knitting around the tree. For the battery pack, I created a pocket and sewed it on the inside of the sweater with a button loop and button so there's no way the battery pack could fall out

All loose ends get woven in.

Last is attaching the bells, these are sewn on around the red and white stripes of the arms.
This is last because it's much better on the ears than if it was one of the first things.

Walnut Husk Wool Dye

The beautiful rusty orange colour above is the result of my walnut husk dye project.

My great grandmother ran an orchard in Trout Creek that my family visited when I was younger. Among the cherries, apples, plums, and pears there were also walnut and hazelnut trees. I remember going out to visit in the fall when the walnuts were ready and seeing my great grandmother's hands were stained brown from removing the green hulls that encased the walnuts.
My Grandma has now taken over the orchard and the family still delights in the fruit and one of a kind "spencer" apples my great grandfather created when he worked at the Summerland research station.
This year when the walnuts began to fall from the tree, I asked if I could have the hulls. The hulls are not useful in any way to my grandma, in fact they're a bit of a nuisance because they are not allowed in the compost. Walnut husks have a chemical in them that kills off some plants, they're also not good to keep on the ground because they kill the grass too.
So she happily bagged up a whole bunch of the hulls and gave them to me to use as a dye. I figured if they dye your skin then they must dye wool quite well and it did!

I took one bag of the walnut hulls (I didn't weigh them) I put them in a nylon sock and soaked them in water for 3 days.
I washed my raw wool in three baths of detergent (greasy wool is not meant to dye well) I then boiled the water with the husks and 1 tbsp of alum for about half an hour. After I took it off the heat I took out the husks, strained the water and put the wool into the dye solution. I left the wool in overnight.
After taking the wool out I soaked it in a vinegar/water solution, rinsed and air dried.


Here's a picture of the hulls in the bag after I took them out of the freezer (freezing them keeps them from getting moldy)