Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Mahogany?

I experimented with some Knit Picks Palette in Tan. I originally got the yarn to make a vest, but it wasn’t the right color tan, so it was sitting around doing nothing. It was a convenient target at the beginning of the dyeing bout.



I used “cranberry”, “butterscotch” and “mahogany” ProChem One-Shot acid dye for these skeins. This is when mahogany hinted at its leanings toward rosey. Husband calls this color “autumn leaves”. Evidence gathered over 17 years of coexistence suggests that we have different sets of color receptors (he’ll say grey when I say purple). Despite this, I can see where he gets that idea.



Now knowing and liking “mahogany”, I dove into a bigger, more risky endeavor. Oogyknitter gave me 2 huge skeins of undyed Kid Silk Haze, an estimated 1800 yards of dreamy yarn. One does not just throw dye at such a prize before considering carefully the consequences. So it took me a few months to decide to dye the kid silk haze in combination with some Knit Picks lace weight wool/silk blend yarn, with the idea of stranding them together for a vest or some such project. I even did a swatch to see if the stranding would be feasible before I did the dyeing.

Here is the kid silk haze getting dyed.

And here is how both yarns looked when they were finished. Rosey!

I recruited an eager accomplice for the Dyeing Bout of March 2009. Nova brought over a truckload of wool from various sources and we spent the afternoon in colorful bliss. Check her blog for spinning/knitting progress.

The bout ended with the end of our Spring Break. I know, I should have been grading lab reports…Stay tuned for how the stranded rosies look.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Niece's scarf



In the continued effort to use up my endless supply of yarn I am happy to report that another finished object has left the premises!  This is hand dyed merino worked in a simple entrelac design (simple once you make 3-4 unsuccessful attempts at the second row).