Hi, Guys! I'm Kristen and Welcome to STUDIO KNIT.
So in a recent video I created really a pretty watercolor
prints on paper by stretching our
knitted pieces over cyanotype processed paper well while I was in my makeshift
darkroom working on that I had decided to see what would happen if I painted a
little bit of the solution onto a knitted swatch well it's been a couple
of weeks and I've been doing a lot of testing because the first time around
didn't really yield very good results some were okay some weren't so great but
I finally perfected it so today I am going to show you my tips and tricks for
creating your own really cool Sun art cyanotype knit swatches the Sun art
magic happens when these covered areas when you wash away the solution they
remain the original color of your yarn and the exposed areas in the Sun those
turn a beautiful vibrant Prussian blue for your yarn you absolutely want to use
a natural fiber and I found that cotton yarn works best acrylic I knew wouldn't
work because that's not natural and well I thought it might but I guess there's
like oils from the animals and the cyanotype just doesn't hold and the
whole design just washed away and for my knitted swatches I did the stockinette
stitch because it has a really nice smooth finish let's make some Sun art
our work area I'm putting some plastic down and our little knitted swatch first
I figured out that prepping it with water not getting it too saturated just
lightly spraying it with a little spray bottle on both the right and the wrong
sides of our work is something that really seemed to do the trick so once
you have it just slightly damp then it is time for our cyanotype
of course adult supervision is required and protective gloves are great because
you're working with chemicals here so anytime you're working with the liquid
part you'll want to make sure that your hands are protected and if you're
enjoying this video please like it up if you haven't already subscribe it really
helps me out the complete instructions on the cyanotype process are written out
on my website so when you're ready to get started on your project you can head
on over there where I also have all of the materials that you need from my
Amazon shop you can check out what you want and shop directly from that working
in cyanotype is best when you work in as little light as possible so today I'm
going to bring you into my darkroom I'm using this it's called a Paterson safety
lamp it's from my dad's old darkroom when he
would do black-and-white prints in our home darkroom so it's really special to
me and it's a good way for me to be able to show you what I'm doing but you can
just work in as little light as possible just have the door cracked open enough
so you can see what you're doing but have the room sort of dark the cyanotype
set that I have there's bottles a and B so you start out by filling those up
with water they say distilled water but I just use tap and that worked perfectly
fine and then you shake them it's best to do this in the dark and then you set
it aside for 24 hours coming back the next day it is time to paint and just a
little plastic cap I'm using here you do half of solution 1/2 of solution B just
mix it up and on those knitted pieces that we
already prepped with a little bit of water go ahead and paint on your
solution and thoroughly cover all of the knitted swatches that you prepared
another trick I figured out is squeezing all the excess solution out of your
knitted swatch this allows the drying time to speed
mine are drying in less than a day and when I was doing the trials before when
they were really saturated with that solution they were taking about three
days to dry meaning that the cyanotype process was already started your eye
piece was already turning blue getting some on the design it was a little bit
muddy even if it was coming out it wasn't that crisp design that I was
hoping for so squeeze out the excess I'll quickly turn the lights on so you can
see the really pretty sort of a lime green color that are knitted work is and
we're going to want to let it dry I am going to string them up onto a plastic
hanger you'll want to hang your pieces up to dry in a very dark location where
family members want to serve it so I'm going to place mine in a hallway closet
that closes and it's pitch dark when the door is closed and I put a little note
on it as well to discourage people from opening it now for your design objects
you can get really creative what I found for knitted swatch cyanotype is that a
really solid object or solid design just black and white is what works best so
what I was doing the transparencies of black and white and gray those weren't
turning out very well now when I tried them on paper or even fabric I turned
out great but for the knitted swatches you definitely want really bold black
and white strong strong designs I was inspired to give this wall hanging that
we have in our dining room a try so I started out by taking a picture of it
and then I turn it black and white I reversed it and then I inverted it to
turn it into a negative and then I wanted it to be that solid color so I
turned it into straight black and white and then printed it out on to my
transparency film and let it set out to dry for at least 15
before I cut them out oh and you'll notice on the transparency film
instructions that you want to make sure that you print on the rough side of the
paper and not that really slick smooth side or else your ink is totally going
to smear one of the transparencies that I created was of my dog Roxy this is a
drawing that my very talented aunt Paula did I loved it and I thought it would
look really cool in a cyanotype process now I figured out that for knitting it
wasn't working because there's so many different shades of black and gray and
white in it that it just didn't pop however when I tried it on some fabric
just a little piece of muslin it turned out beautifully
it's the next day our pieces are dry and it's ready to go into the Sun and just
like we did for it the paper prints the best time to go out into the Sun is at
high noon so I have a website linked below and you can check out exactly when
that is for your location you'll start out with a board for your base and then
place your knitted work right-side up then your artwork place a pane of glass
over that all I did was pop some glass out of a picture frame and then have
something to weigh it down a little bit to keep it in place especially if it's a
windy day it's recommended to have the best in the Sun for 5 to 15 minutes
super bright day I did about 10 minutes and you'll see you get it swatches turn
sort of this grayish blue tone and now it's bath time I like to save water so I
found that just running it under some water with a little bin to catch the
runoff and I kept doing it until the water ran clear which was only about
five minutes for me and then just help speed up the process to make those
colors really pop add 1 teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide per one cup of water
and just let that sit in a bath for about 5 minutes and you'll see just how
vibrant and beautiful they are and during bath time you can also wring your
knitted piece out it's still lies flat dries beautifully you can either hang it
or lie it flat if you're not in a hurry and in less than a day our pieces are
totally dry they look beautiful a really nice deep dark Russian blue so I hope
you are inspired to give cyanotype printing in the Sun a try either by
doing it directly on your knitted work or go check out my previous video where
you can do it on watercolor just by stretching out your knitted piece so
thanks so much for watching guys and I will see you next time
BYE!