Grab your knitting needles and come relax with me.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Experimentation
I am about to descend into madness! Oops too late the dye has already been cast!
I just dyed my first hank of yarn...with Kool-Aid! Lemon-Lime to be exact. And then, then I am planning on sprinkling the grape crystals on the green dyed yarn.
See when I try something new--I just don't follow the path well worn--not for Birdwell! Birdwell walks the road less travelled!
For those in the know--I dropped the dry fingering weight wool directly into the kool-aid mixture (4 packets and about 8 cups of water). I want a mottled effect of this process. I used the stove top method--got the yarn-filled mixture to just before the boiling point and it is now resting as we speak, covered. The water is nearly clear.
The plan in a bout thirty minutes is to drain and rinse in water of the same temp of the yarn (or risk felting!!!) Then on a length of saran wrap I will place the yarn and then start flicking crystals at in a random fashion. Here's to it actually working out like I see it in my head.
(Insert beautifully flecked hank of yarn)
Then I'll zap it in the microwave for a few minutes OR I'll steam it.
It didn't come out like I saw it in my head. It began to look muddy right away--so I quickly rinsed the hank off. The green dye job looks beautiful--nice colour variation. However--there is a spot where the hank was tied rather tightly that didn't dye at all. I am not sure if I want to try dying just that one spot or leave it...
Okay...I decided to try spot dying. I just couldn't stand that white spot. I have Wilton's Cake dye--so I googled the technique at found Pie Knits blog. Armed with a dropper, I set to fixing that white spot and various other pale spots that seemed out of place. I set it in the microwave for 2 minutes. It's resting right now. Then I'll zap it for another 2 minutes. Ya know--those first two minutes were a dozy--I was terrified it would catch fire or something.
I guess I can officially call this yarn--hand painted. Now I just need to come up with a colorway name.
Then set it to dry in the bathroom!
Ta DA!! I am calling the colorway Breath of Zephyrs. It's from Antonio Vivaldi's Spring Sonnet written for The Four Seasons: Spring. I may try to replicate this dye job--it's so pretty.
Yes, I will add pictures. I just want to upload all the pictures at one time.
LOVELY!!! Don't know if you've discovered this yet, but I've learned that the best way to avoid the undyed areas under the hank-ties is to use a non-dyeing yarn to tie off. I use cheap cotton in white (Peaches N Cream from Michaels, AC Moore, HobbyLobby, or Walmart), and tie it tightly enough to make sure it doesn't escape, but not so tight that it will keep the dye from being absorbed underneath. HTH! :)
# posted by TopazGirl : January 3, 2008 at 12:55 PM
Thanks for the hint. I just plopped the hank into the dye bath practically out of the package.
I am planning to dye my lace weight with black cheery kool-aid--so I will definitely take your advice.
Ooh, looks pretty. Have you knitted anything with it? Any FO pictures? Or is it just to stash?
# posted by Tartanqueen : April 1, 2009 at 4:48 PM
Thanks TartanQueen!
Actually it was a Secret Santa gift for a friend of mine: she knitted herself a pair of socks with it.
http://addictedtodigital.com/knitting/?p=64 This shows her start, but I have seen the Monkey Socks on her feet, it was awesome seeing them knitted up. There was just a bit of variation in the shades of green and the monkey pattern really set it off beautifully.