My two dyeing partners in crime (hi, ladies!) and I got together on Friday and had a little fun with acid dyes. All told, we did 8 lots of yarn. The gals (Larra and Sheila) each had a sock blank to dye for an upcoming swap, and they had to dye them in Christmas colors. Both of them looked really pretty when they were done, with reds, greens and a dash of gold (for the star, of course!). Larra did almost everything else in blue, as usual, but also threw together a gorgeous hank in the colors of indian corn -- brown, orange, yellow and red.
I had an interesting time. I had planned out colors for three hanks. The first one was meant to be brown and pink. In my mind, I saw it as a rich, chocolatey brown with pale baby pink. It came out much rosier than I planned, but I really like the end result. I named that colorway Cupcake.
The second skein was meant to be various shades of blue. I started out with my favorite Cushing Perfection color, Copenhagen Blue, and something odd happened. As soon as the dye hit the yarn, a pale pink tone leached out on either side of the applied dye. It didn't happen when Larra used it on her yarn, so I'm guessing it had something to do with the way mine was prepared or the type of fiber. At any rate, I loved the colors together. Sheila's suggestion was to go with it, so I dyed patches of yarn next to each other to make spots of pink. I called that skein Hyacinth. I wonder if I can replicate it, or if it was just one of those happy dyeing accidents?
The last colorway was meant to be blues, maroons and purples. In my mind's eye, the colors were going to be darker and more muted, but I fell in love with the brighter colors and they way they blended. The blue to purple range reminded me of irises, so I named that colorway Iris Setosa (the latin name for the flower).
The last time I dyed, I didn't make enough dye up, so this time I made big mason jars of dye. It was a bit of an overestimate, so now I have several mason jars of dye left over. I'm tempted to dye the two remaining hanks from my stash, but I'm going to try and hold out until the ladies can arrange another dyeing play date. I have some silk and merino blend yarn winging its way to me as I type and I want to do that yarn at the same time.
My plan is to sell some of the yarn on my etsy store, but I'm not sure I can part with it! Every skein is so personal and appeals to my specific taste (obviously). I am already planning socks for some of the colors. Partly for that reason, and partly because I have more sock yarn than I can ever knit, I have designated 2009 as my personal Year of the Sock. My goal is to knit 1 pair of socks each month, for a total of 12 pair. I'm not sure I can do it, but that's my goal.
In other yarny news, I bought some pretty stuff at The Yarn and Fiber Company. I got a skein of Kauni in the bright rainbow colors and a beautiful skein of Smooshy in Dusky Aurora, which seemed so familiar...when I got home, I saw that I'd bought Classy in the same colorway a few weeks ago AND FORGOT ALL ABOUT IT.
This upcoming weekend I'll be at Rhinebeck with my friend Lisa. I've decided to make cash-only purchases so I will be limited to a predetermined amount. I'll be armed with my new phone so I can check patterns for yardage. I'll be snapping some photos and just generally enoying the yarnage. Can't wait!
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