Blue Birds of Happiness Scarf

I made this for my sister for her birthday to match her new pink purse. She wanted bright colors to cheer up her days of Seattle gray. It took a full day to apply the resist and another full day to apply the dye.

I had made her one with pink peonies and a green background but it got ruined when I tried to steam set it. Moisture got into it and it and some parts blurred, other parts looked washed out and since I was using newspaper instead of unprinted newsprint (which I found out later I was supposed to use) it got some black on it too. So, since this was the third project ruined while trying to figure out steam setting, I decided to go the chemical route and bought the chemical dye set. It was super easy compared to wrapping in paper and carefully placing it somewhere over boiling water on the stove for an hour and trying not to let the silk get wet by placing it under a makeshift aluminum tent so that condensation doesn't collect on the paper, which didn't work anyway! Whew! So I mixed up the chemicals in a quart of water, stirred for five minutes and voila! perfection. But before you use the chemical dye set, make sure your project dries for a full day first and then press it with an iron for good measure, especially if you use resist.