For at least a year (probably longer) I've had some sachets of Landscape dyes lying about. Use them? Eh... No. I've wanted to a few times, got out the yarn I spun, got scared, put the yarn away again and pushed the dye sachets back into the drawer. But after seeing all those luscious colours of homespun yarn on Ravelry, the dyeing bug got the better of me. I got my spun yarn out and got to work...
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| The undyed homespun yarn |
I slightly rinsed out the yarn again, and then it was time for magic: I put the kettle on with some dye and did some witchcraft...
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| My best witchy recipe... |
Two pots on the stove with a lovely luscious aubergine soup (combination of Plum and Clematis)... I was pretty proud of myself having gotten this far!
After half an hour of heating the yarn, (carefully) turning it over a few times, I started to get a bit panicky, because the dye didn't seem to 'catch'. After a quick chat with my Twitter yarnies, I realized I should have actually degreased the yarn more (lesson number 1), because greasy yarn apparently doesn't really want to stick to the dye. I had spun the yarn straight from the dirty sheep, and it could have with a litle Olive soap or Woollite. Tip for next time!
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| Hanging the yarn out to dry |
But soon, my yarns were proudly hanging on the cloths line, drying in the breeze. And actually, the colour came out a lot more saturated than I had thought in the beginning. Yes, not perfect, but I quite like variegated yarns!
I now have 539 grams of yarn to knit
this little number, without the turtle neck...
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| A nice pile of dyed yarn, making me a happy bunny |
Want to see how happy I am with the yarn? This is me being happy...
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| I made this!!! |
I know, scary...
Anyway, encouraged by the kettle adventure, I ripped open some of the other sachets, mixed them up with hot water, plucked some (clean-ish) unspun fleece and dyed them in the microwave - until I ran out of clingfilm ;)
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| More spinning wool!!! |
As the fleece was still a bit greesy, the colours are actually amazing! Very subtle greens, purples, a bit of red and yellow... I can't wait to see how this turns out when spun!
As the pots with dyewater were still very purple after dying the homespun yarn, I decided to dunk some more fleece in. What did I have to loose? And just see how that came out!
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| Another load of wool.... |
And a close-up...
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| From light to very dark purple... |
This load is now drying outside... Tour de Fleece, here I come!!!!
Oh, and by the way, I finished the pink socks. After breaking two circular needles in the process... Tadaaaa:
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| New England - by Nancy Bush, knit in Fabel on 2.25mm bamboo circs |
And from the side...
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| Lots of fagoting, which gives a very airy effect |
The legs are knit according to the pattern, but when I decreased for the foot, I somehow 'lost' 10 stitches. Luckily I have big calves and dainty little feet (haha), which means the socks turned out just right. Almost too nice to hide in shoes!
The next small knitting project has already been started... And tonight I will start swatching properly for my new sweater!
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