When your guru says "speckle"

you speckle.

By now you know that my fiber guru is Oogyknitter, and you also know the array of fiber adventures upon which she has encouraged us both to embark.  Spin your own yarn: done.  Dye your own roving, yarn, sock blanks: done.  Add beads: done.  Do gymnastics in the form of knitting 2 socks at once: done.  So, no surprise when she gives me a new challenge a few months ago: speckle dying. 

The dare was cast when she gave me 2 skeins of speckle-dyed sock yarn for Xmas 2019. She took materials we had left-over from our Memorial Day dye-intensive weekend and with the guidance of a YouTube video and probably some adult beverages, generated this gorgeous yarn.  I recognized the colors, but the dye effect was new.  So beautiful.  Did I take a picture of the beautiful skeins?  No.  But I have made a pair of socks and a pair of wrist warmers that are absolutely awesome.

These colors say Spring to me.

Inspired by such newly-acquired skein beauty, I made my own attempts.  I understood the concept, but it takes some experimenting to achieve the right density of color. I’m not sure I’m there yet, but I have generated a great deal of dyed yarn in the process.   

Potential

There is something so exciting about trying out new dyeing techniques, as long as you accept that it might not work out so well.  I have a sock blank in my dye studio (messy basement with fermenting dye in jars) to remind me of just how very fugly things can get.  Do not ask me to show this to you—it is too disturbing. Not deterred, I forged ahead.

I decided to let the dye get more densely distributed.

These squares of machine-knitted Franklin, pictured below as skeins, are in the process of becoming short socks.

I will keep developing my speckle-dyeing skills!