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Monday, May 19, 2008

Fruits of my labor

Sarah and I had an amazing dyeing weekend. Seriously. It did not disappoint, and I'm pretty sure we're both addicted. We each dyed two hanks of superwash sock yarn (purchased from Knitpicks), using two different methods and about 30 packets of koolaid.

We tried the jar striping method first. Here's my attempt. We wound the yarn into long hanks (using two chairs), tied in three spots (Sarah in four) and then dyed each section a different color. When Sarah dyed hers after mine, she was sure to move the undyed sections quickly, as the dye was absorbed more quickly than we expected. Hence the white spots near the top of the jars. I'm still not sure about this, and I may over-dye or pour some dye on these areas, but in the hank, it looks quite nice!

I'm calling this hank Secondary Spaghetti. Dean actually came up with the name. While the yarn was in the sink soaking, he said it looked like spaghetti, and mine is dyed with secondary colors, so there you go!
Sarah and I learned another important lesson with this method. Tie your yarn in many places, or else you will spend an hour and a half re-hanking it. Trust me on this.
For our second hanks, we went on another koolaid run, and decided to try hand-painting. We bought disposable containers, sat down at the table and went to town. After a few tries with a small paintbrush, I decided I wanted more coverage with each color, and started pouring away.

Here's the second batch soaking. Mmm. So many colors. I dubbed this skein "Don't drink the koolaid" for obvious reasons.

I'm very curious to see how it knits up.
She hasn't posted her results yet, but check Sarah's blog for more pictures soon.
In other fiber news, I'm about three inches into my Frock Camisole, and I started a pair of socks yesterday.

The yarn is Schoeller + Stahl Fortissima Socka Mexiko Color Weekend Colors in Ireland, and the pattern is the Slipped Stitch Rib Sock from Sensational Knitted Socks on size 1 needles.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, Don't Drink The Kool-Aid is the best name ever! I love it! I posted pictures of my sock progress this afternoon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow--your dyeing looks great--and so much fun! I'm still a little scared of trying to add my own flair for color to yarn, so I'll have to admire yours from afar. :)

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