I did something else at the weekend that I feel I should share with you. I was going to post about it yesterday but I thought I'd better just check that it was all okay before rubbing my little hands gleefully together and chuckling madly. So after a quick peek at it last night to make sure that I hadn't just felted into one giant mass I am now pleased to present the results of my first attempt at dying yarn.
The set was sent to me by my wondrous TSG swap buddy for Christmas and I've been meaning to have a play for ages and ages and ages.
Included in the set was a skein of Zitron Trekking un-dyed sock yarn, 3 packs of Kool Aid- orange, green and purple, some gloves and a full set of instructions detailing no less than four different methods. I chose to use the good old microwave method which proved to be exceptionally easy.
All I did was tie my skein in two places so that there were long sections at either end and a short bit in the middle.
I dyed the short bit first with the purple dye and then either end with the other ones. It only took about an hour including the half hour soaking that I gave the yarn first.
The only bit that I didn't do so well was that I didn't dilute the dye well enough to begin with. I ended up with really concentrate juice mixes that the yarn just slurped up as I was pouring it on which led to the top getting lots of colour but the underside only getting a little. This meant that the end results came out a bit patchy. You can see the difference in the colour if you look at the long green segments (ignore the big white bits either side of the purple as that's where I tied the skein off). So next time I'll know to use more water to dilute with if I want a solid colour all through the section.
In this instance though I do think that this will actually work in my favour. The patchiness of the colour will help to tone it down so that the resultant socks aren't eye-wateringly bold. They'll be bright, but a bit more subtle than they might otherwise have been. I can't wait to see what the yarn looks like once its been knitted. What I was hoping for was that I'd get wide green and orange stripes separated by narrow purple ones (so wide green, narrow purple, wide orange, narrow purple and so on). I'm going to have to resist the urge to cast on with this yarn though until I have all the other stuff out of the way. But the curiosity is building and it smells so yummy and sweet after the dying. Must. resist. must...
The set was sent to me by my wondrous TSG swap buddy for Christmas and I've been meaning to have a play for ages and ages and ages.Included in the set was a skein of Zitron Trekking un-dyed sock yarn, 3 packs of Kool Aid- orange, green and purple, some gloves and a full set of instructions detailing no less than four different methods. I chose to use the good old microwave method which proved to be exceptionally easy.
All I did was tie my skein in two places so that there were long sections at either end and a short bit in the middle.I dyed the short bit first with the purple dye and then either end with the other ones. It only took about an hour including the half hour soaking that I gave the yarn first.
The only bit that I didn't do so well was that I didn't dilute the dye well enough to begin with. I ended up with really concentrate juice mixes that the yarn just slurped up as I was pouring it on which led to the top getting lots of colour but the underside only getting a little. This meant that the end results came out a bit patchy. You can see the difference in the colour if you look at the long green segments (ignore the big white bits either side of the purple as that's where I tied the skein off). So next time I'll know to use more water to dilute with if I want a solid colour all through the section.
In this instance though I do think that this will actually work in my favour. The patchiness of the colour will help to tone it down so that the resultant socks aren't eye-wateringly bold. They'll be bright, but a bit more subtle than they might otherwise have been. I can't wait to see what the yarn looks like once its been knitted. What I was hoping for was that I'd get wide green and orange stripes separated by narrow purple ones (so wide green, narrow purple, wide orange, narrow purple and so on). I'm going to have to resist the urge to cast on with this yarn though until I have all the other stuff out of the way. But the curiosity is building and it smells so yummy and sweet after the dying. Must. resist. must...
Wow that looks fantastic!!!! (found you through Lesser Known Skeins on Ravelry)
ReplyDeleteI would not be able to resist making something with it right away!
Wow such awesome colors! How can you wait to knit it up. I would drive me crazy!
ReplyDelete