A Good Day to Dye

I love dyeing yarn. I have completely and utterly no sense of an end result, just colours and tones I want to capture and I'm more than happy to explore them. I appreciate hand dyeing is quite an artform and it's why I love my favourite indy dyers. For me, I'm just happy if it looks like something I'd like to knit by the end of it!

I dyed this skein a while ago now

Let's look at it some more

I'm very pleased with the results as I was dyeing it for a friend. I had a 'vision' which never ends well with me. In this instance, I nearly got it. Almost.

You see, she'd shared a picture of her lovely self in some sparkly eyeshadow for St Patrick's day that I thought was fabulous on her. I really liked the green with an iridescent quality. THAT was my inspiration point.

So I collected chemical dyes (Jaquard) and Kool Aid in this colour family of green and blue while I wondered how to mix things to get such a result. While I pondered, I popped the silk/ merino laceweight skein in tepid water with a little Synthrapol to give it a pre wash and prepare it for taking on dye. I grabbed a dye pot I used specifically for this purpose, opened all the windows and switched on the fan. To help the acid dyes set, I pulled out some trusted white vinegar and I was good to go.

I grabbed my gloves and got to work, dipping in ends into increasingly lighter shades of green before bathing it all over with Kool Aid icy blue. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind....

.... too variegated for lace knitting. So back into the pot it went. 

So now I pondered a colourwheel and thought about those subtle variegations that connect the primary colours. 'I need to tone this blue down with some green' was the decision I came to. I started light, so I could pull back if I need to and watched the colour work into the fibre. I added a little green at a time and Bingo! I had my skein. I left it to cool before it had a quick rinse in tepid water with Soak wash and was dried. 

Ta DAH!