A few weeks ago, my husband and I decided to allot some money to “play”. We each had a specified amount to spend and I thought, “What would I like to buy from this newfound wealth?” He bought a new iPad Air, but frankly, except for the fact that I’d like it to have a larger capacity, I could not justify a new iPad.
So I started thinking, what crafting supplies have I wanted but have yet to spend the money to purchase? It hit me…supplies for two of my lesser practiced skills….designing and dyeing.
So I ordered some stitch dictionaries to round out my collection, and I picked up some acid dye powder. I also snagged 20 skeins of undyed merino nylon sport yarn (which if I am to be completely honest, I’ll admit were supposed to be sock yarn) and a few batches of undyed fibre.
Yesterday, the box showed up at the door.
So many exciting things to have fun with, once I got to the end of my workday!
So after dinner, hubby went off to his night shift and I decided my first attempt was going to be a pine-y green from the six colours that were in my “starter” kit.
I still have the liquid dyes but I really want to transition over to these so I figured I may as well get started.
So I added the colours and turned on the slow cooker. Mental note to self…cooker works better when actually plugged in….*sigh*
When I was done with the stirring, I added the yarn and it occurred to me that I was going to be sad with the result. After all, I had made a point to make sure the dye bath was totally homogeneous so now I was going to have solid green, right? And I really didn’t want that.
Well, as it turns out, hand-dyeing is part colour mixing, part alchemy. The yarn…turned out nothing like I thought it would. Nope…not at all.
On the line outside this morning, it was clear there were paler parts, and, O happy day, some parts that definitely veered off towards the blue. I could not have been happier with the non-solid result.
Since I have no idea whether I can reproduce this, I may earmark this for sport weight socks for me. And with the number of skeins I have, this may push me to design a sport weight sock pattern…but I digress.
Now I have another skein soaking…can’t decide whether to try orange, or some version of pinky-purpley-fuschia. This is entirely too much fun!!
That green turned outso pretty! I vote “some version of pinky-purpley-fuschia” for the next one 🙂
Thanks, Mary! I am unreasonably pleased with it.
And you? Vote for purple?? NO…I’d never have guessed 😉 You have swayed me. The orange will wait for another evening.
Goodness! I just bought some dyes from Knit Picks too! 🙂
I didn’t know you were interested in dyeing! It’s so much fun! Are you going to do pots on the stove? Slow cookers? Kettle dyeing or “painting”?
I am very interested! I’ve been considering doing this for a while, and I just decided to give it a try. I love kettle-dyed yarn, so I thought I would try that. Do you have any advice or books to read or anything?