Dyeing Day

My interests aren't limited only to knitting, you know.  There are a variety of "fiber arts" that float my boat.  For example, I would love to spin.  I want a spinning wheel.  But so far I have refrained due to several factors.  Number one, it would take up valuable real estate in our house, as would the many bags of fiber I would be certain to accumulate and hoard.  Second, it would be expensive - a decent wheel is usually $600-1000 plus accessories, and all of that sure-to-be-hoarded fiber isn't free.  Third, I unfortunately have a limited amount of time to devote to my hobbies.  If I added spinning, that would cut down on my knitting and reading.  (I can only wish that somehow it would reduce my time spent cooking or doing laundry.  Maybe if I could spin straw into gold....)  And finally, if I was spinning yarn, I'd have to knit it or my yarn stash would grow at a greater rate than it already is, plus we then go back to reason number three - more yarn but less time to knit.

But there is one yarny, fibery thing that I wanted to do that wouldn't take too much time and wouldn't increase my yarn stash too much (at least at first, because believe me, the potential is there) - dyeing my own yarn.  Start with natural, undyed yarn and before you know it - BAM!  Gorgeous yarn.  (Or a muddy-looking mess, but let's stay positive, shall we?)

A while back, I had posted somewhere on Ravelry.com that I wanted to attempt to dye yarn some day.  One of the other members saw my post and emailed me.  She lives about 20 minutes away and offered to have me to come to her house and having a dyeing day.  Uh-huh.  Twist my arm.  This was in early August and we decided to get together after my kids were back in school.

Kids + professional permanent dye = potential for disaster.

So we did it!  On September 19th, I made the short trek to her home with my little tote bag full of three skeins of blank-slate yarny goodness.  (Knit Picks Bare Fingering in merino/nylon).  Jennifer then proceeded to school me in yarn dyeing.

The first step is to make sure the yarn is tied at least four times around so that when it's being stirred in a pot of dye water, it doesn't end up being a tangled mess.  The Knit Picks skeins are only tied twice, so I added two more ties to each.

Next we had to soak the yarn for 20-30 minutes in water with a little wool soak.  The water temperature wasn't cold or hot - just middle of the road from the faucet.

For my first skein, I wanted to try to recreate a colorway by Grant Creek Yarn called Hollyhock.  It's a pretty light-to-midrange pink with splotches of darker, almost rusty pink on it.  I have around 12 skeins of GCY at $20-25 each, so I've been trying to be good and use some of it before buying more.  But this color called out to me and it was so hard to resist!  So I figured what the heck, I can at least try to make my own.

We started out mixing up dye in fuschia and brown.  The fuschia was screaming pink, so the brown toned it down quite a bit.  Once we got a color we liked (testing drops on a white paper towel), we added some of the resulting dye to a pot of simmering water on the stove and dumped in two skeins of yarn - one for each of us.  This is often referred to as kettle dyeing.  (Sounds more impressive than "dumping dye and yarn in a pot of water," doesn't it?)

We then started dropping in more of the dye as the yarn absorbed it since the color started out too light for what we wanted.  I also attempted to drop in dye without mixing to see if it would create the dramatic splotchy effect I was looking for.  It did give variants of color but not as much as I wanted, so once the dye was exhausted (completely absorbed so none was left in the water), I pulled out my skein, put it into a pan and started "hand painting" splotches.  I just used a spoon and the leftover fuschia/brown dye mix. to get some really dark, distinct areas of pink.  (Yet another fancy term -"hand painting" sounds so much better than "dropping dye onto the yarn with a spoon, brush or squirt bottle.")

Jennifer didn't do the dark pink splotches on hers, but she did leave her skein in the pot and add some straight brown to it.  Here is a picture of our two skeins hanging from the knobs on her grill to dry.  Hers is the longer skein on the left with the muted brown.  Mine is the darker pink on the right.  Jen's reminded me of a colorway by Knit Picks called "Frosting" which is pink, brown, and cream, but without the cream color.

One skein down, two to go!  Next we decided to do something with an Autumn feel to it, since summer is over and winter is rapidly approaching.  I'm cold and grumpy just thinking about it.  Anyway....

Jennifer had a great color called Aztec Gold that she hadn't tried yet.  I was game, so into the pot went our yarn with the gold dye!  Mmm... spaghetti...

After we kettle-dyed the gold to a really pretty deep gold-orange color, I took mine out and decided to give it a little variation.  Jennifer put the rest of the fuchsia/brown dye into a squirt bottle for me and added some water to dilute it.  The I proceeded to just dribble it around on patches of my yarn.  I went for a more subtle effect than with the first skein.

Jennifer hand-painted her yarn after the initial gold dye with distinct sections of purple, red, and a darker orange.  She told me that she has since overdyed it so I have no idea what hers ended up looking like.  I can't wait to see once she knits it up into something.

For third and final skein, Jennifer went way purple on hers with a little gray mixed in to mute it.  It actually gave it a bit more of a periwinkle look than the royal purple it started out as.  I'm not a huge fan of purple, but her resulting color didn't annoy me.

For mine, I went with a gray and decided that since we had purple mixed up, I'd add some faint streaks of lavender through it.  So I kettle dyed my yarn with the gray dye, but had to mix up some black and add it to get it dark enough.  I actually had someone on the yarn dyeing forum on Ravelry comment that I got a good gray, so I guess we did okay getting a medium gray!  Then I tried the squirt bottle technique with very diluted purple.  I also went with more distinct stripes around the perimeter of the yarn rather than random splotches.  Looking back, I should have added a little black or gray to the purple to mute it because it still turned out more purple than I wanted.  I think it's pretty - if you like purple.  (Which means my 7-year old daughter loves it.)  Here it is in the tray after the purple was added.  The camera really shows the purple - it did not look that bright/distinct in person.

Dyeing was done!  We hung everything to dry outside while we cleaned up.  Here's a nice picture of all six of our skeins hanging of Jennifer's deck railing.  Mine are the three on the left which means that hers are (obviously) the three on the right.

Here is a close-up of my three:

Once I got them home (in plastic bags), I hung them from the door frame over the washer & dryer until they were completely dry the next day.  I was tempted to try to reskein them because all of the dipping and swishing in the dye pot made them a bit unruly, but luckily realized that I would have spent hours (and probably a bit of cursing) to do it.  Instead, I twisted them into hanks, and I think they look pretty good even though they are a bit messy.

So I give you the final results of my dyeing day, in hank form!

There are just two things left to figure out.  First, what shall I name the colorways?  (Post comments if you have any good ideas!)  And second...

What should I knit with them???

In and Out

Is it just me, or do the days go by faster and faster?  I know, I know, that's so cliche to say, but I swear they do. I had anticipated tons of free time with the kids back in school and Chris at work, and yet it seems as though I have less time.  I have still been knitting, though.  My primary focus is to keep up with the Knit Sock Love knit-a-long so I can knit every sock in that book.  The other couple of KALs I've been participating in are taking a backseat, especially as I've finally started to knit my first Christmas gift for someone.

But first, the latest in the continuing saga of KSL.  This particular sock is called "In and Out" and I have to say that the photo in the book didn't do much for me.  It's in a dark blue yarn than, while very pretty, doesn't show off the pattern to the best advantage.  But I'm doing every sock, darn it!  So I choose some of my "good yarn" - Grant Creek cushy merino/nylon in a gorgeous deep red called "Frankly My Dear..."  (If you don't get the reference, you can stop reading here and go get some darn Southern culture, pretty please with sweet tea on top.)  Coincidentally, the solid socks group has red as their color for September.  It's my favorite color and yet I didn't have any RED socks.  How is that possible?  I had to remedy that situation right away.

Now "In and Out" is a chart heavy pattern - several charts for the sock and different charts for each foot since they are mirrored.  However, the hardest part was keeping track of where I was on each chart - not just which row but where in heaven's name I was in a 66 stitch row of symbols.  I ended up using my chart keeper from Knit Picks and having a long magnet placed just above the row I was working on, and then a short magnet that I moved across the row from right to left to mark where I was in the row.  And my wonderful friend, Leigh, had made copies of the charts and blown them up, so she gave them to me to use (since she was a speed demon and finished these socks pretty much as I was starting mine).

Note about the KP chart keeper: I like it, but the magnets move easily, so I don't trust it to carry around and not lose my place.  When I finish knitting in a session, I write down or use a row counter to record what row I'm on rather than rely on the magnet which is easily bumped & shifted.

So after a fairly quick knit, these are my In & Out socks (the picture isn't that great - it was super gloomy when I took it).

I like them more than I thought I would, and I can't wait to knit more red socks!

Next up.... dyeing.

I'm Twisted

Holy crap, where did the summer go?  Talk about getting back to reality - in the past two weeks, my kids have returned to school and my husband went back to work.  After 9 weeks of all four of us being home together, it's been a bit of an adjustment starting with getting up about 2 hours earlier than Chris & I were used to.  (The kids get up around 7:00 regardless.)  Silly me thought that I'd have so many wonderful, alone hours in which to knit my heart out.  Everyone gone and it would be just me and my yarn.

Ha.  As if.

How could being alone in the house cause there to be more work and fewer hours in the day?  There must be some breach in the time continuum that somehow only affects stay-at-home moms.  (Continuum?  Is that a real word?  Spell check thinks it is.)  Of course, having gymnastics immediately after school four days a week for three hours at a time requiring major pre-planning with pre-pared dinners and pre-packed leotards & water bottles also puts a damper on fun time.

However, I am happy to report that I did finish the August socks for the Knit Sock Love KAL - Twisted Flower.  My goal was to have them done by the end of August, but I actually finished on September 3rd.  So sue me.

This pattern is a one size pattern.  How I love the one-size-fits-most sizing.  It's kind of a big "screw you" to anyone who is smaller or larger than the majority.  There should be a note with them that reads, "Sorry, this pattern is for the average person.  Those of you on the outskirts of the bell curve can bite me."  Like with hats.  I have a tiny head.  Like a little orange on a long toothpick of a neck.  Hats invariably come down over my ears.  And eyes.  Grrr....  This could be the reason I'm not a hat person.  Either that or because they look ridiculous on me.  It's one or the other.

But I digress.

The pattern for Twisted Flower was one size, but heck, I'm game for almost anything, so I crossed my fingers and cast on.  At first it was seeming pretty big on my calf/ankle, but I kept reading people's posts on Ravelry saying they were worried it was going to be too small.  Hmmm... I guess along with a giraffe neck, I also have chicken legs.  But I persevered and kept knitting and luckily they tightened up as I went.  The final product is a smidge looser than I'd like, but not loose enough for me to give them away as a gift.  Plus they were a lot of work and I know I'll appreciate them.

These socks were a lace/cable combo.  First some lacy, fan-looking stuff, then a bunch of teeny cables crossing happily, then more lace, then more cables, and so on.  I realized that I hate cables.  Teeny tiny little cables - just two stitches crossing a specific way, over and over across a row, maybe 5 times, maybe 10...  I'm gritting my teeth just thinking about it.  Not that it's hard, just tedious.  Tee.  Dee.  Us.

But here they are, in all of their lacy, cabley glory!  I give you....  Twisted Flower Socks.

Twisted Flower

Yarn:  Plymouth Yarn Co. Happy Feet

And since it was September when I finished, that left me free to cast on the next pair of socks in the KSL book - In and Out.  The photos of this sock in the book don't do much for me, to be honest.  They are a dark blue which is pretty but doesn't showcase the pattern very well.  I'm using RED yarn.  (All caps because this yarn is really, gorgeously RED.)  It's from Grant Creek Yarn and the colorway is "Frankly My Dear..."   I think the name is completely clever and the color is beautiful.  And since red is the color of the month for the Solid Socks group, I can double dip in their challenge.  

Here's my first In and Out in progress:

I'm working these one at a time instead of two at a time because there are different charts for the left and right feet and I didn't want to fiddle with following the correct chart and tracking which sock was which.  I felt it would leave me too open to messing up somewhere along the line.  However, I'm past the heel turn and gusset decreases on sock 1 (the left) and am working down the foot and can already feel SSS (second sock syndrome) creeping up.  I have the urge to cast on another pair of something different rather than think about the second RED sock.  

Must...  Resist....  Urge!!!

Luckily I do have another pair of socks OTN (on the needles) that I can alternate with if necessary.  They are a pair of Monkey socks in the Tree Fort colorway from Knit Picks.  I don't have a photo yet, but I promise to put on in an upcoming blog post.  Plus I'm just past the cuff so there isn't much to see yet.

Hold on...

Did I totally forget about my second pair of BFF socks?  In a "firey" colorway?  Short version: Since we were driving to western NY at the beginning of August, I needed a car project that I could do without reading a pattern so I cast on a second pair of BFF socks in an unknown colorway from Holiday Yarns that I got from their bargain bin.  It looks like fire to me, so I call the socks my Firey BFFs.  Finished August 25th - here they are...

How about that artsy-fartsy photo?  What can I say, I was feeling artsy at the time.  Or was it fartsy?  I can't remember.  Either way, the piano seemed like a cool idea.

I also bought more yarn.  A few times.  My sock yarn stash is growing faster than I can knit it down.  I may be approaching S.A.B.L.E by the end of the year.  (Stash accumulation beyond life expectancy.)  Unless I live to be 147, then I'm good.  If you're a Ravelry member, you can see all of my pretty yarn on my stash page.  I still have a couple of hanks to post, but most of it is there.

So there you have it - you and the rest of the world are now up to speed on my knitting exploits.  Next week I'm going to dye yarn for the first time with a friend I made on Ravelry who lives about a half hour away.  I'm taking some bare yarn and she's setting us up with dye and the know-how.  I'll try to take pics during the process, but if it's too hard or messy then I'll at least be able to share the results!

Toodle-loo!