Adventures in Dyeing
Quick note: I’m testing another photo plugin with this post. It has a different pop-up effect (and also comes with an integrated gallery). It has better captions and interaction than the last one, I think. Please let me know how it works for you. Thanks! : )
So, you all may remember that I registered Mom and I for a dyeing class at Shepherd’s Harvest and that I showed a teaser picture of our skeins. Finally, here are more pictures and more information about our class with Tracey Schuh.
We were given two skeins each, and allowed to choose 4 or 5 colors to paint onto our skeins (with sponges). Mom and I decided to share our colors, and we chose black, purple pearl gray, moss green, and lily rose (Aljo). We misread pearl as purple (the writing was smudged). So the skeins aren’t as colorful as we intended, but it was still interesting to prepare and paint with them.
I mixed up the black and pearl, while Mom did the green and pink. I don’t think I used enough powder with my colors. They required more work when painting. On the other hand, the colors Mom mixed were easier to paint, and also ran in the rinse bath afterwards.
Mom was very quick with her skeins and one of the first people to finish. Her skeins do have some white, un-dyed parts, which fits in with the overall effect well. I think “Flower Garden” is a great name for these colors.
I decided to reskein these, partly for practice, and partly to see how they would look. I don’t have a niddy-noddy and didn’t want to bother making one just yet. So I put them on my swift and wound them into center-pull balls. Then re-wound them from the ball back onto the swift.
I used small hair clips on the swift to stop the yarn from crawling upwards as I wound. It worked quite well for the first skein. But I was lazy and inattentive with the second skein and used way too much tension and speed so the second skein ended up with a smaller circumference. You can sort of see this in how one skein appears to have more gray than the other.
I love how it looks reskeined, though! I can’t wait to knit some socks with this. : )
(I had to twist these hanks a couple times before I was satisfied with how they looked.)
Tags: dyeing, shepherds-harvest, sock-yarn
That yarn came out quite nicely! I’m looking forward to seeing it knit up.
This pop-up picture thingy is much nicer than the other one. :-)
Ooo, I like your new sock yarn!
Love the colors - and, it’s all about re-skeining these days isn’t it!! ;-)
oooh that’s beautiful!
I like the way your yarn turned out! Reskeining makes a huge difference, doesn’t it? I like the photo plugin. Which one is it?
Great yarn, and I do like the photo plugin. Can you adjust the transparency of the background? If not, that’s OK. I can get back to the post very quickly by just clicking anywhere. Much faster!
Wow! Those look great, I bet they’ll make fabulous socks!
Yummy! They look like they should smell of lilac or lavender.
I love the yarn and I can’t wait to see it knit up. I also like the new plug-in and would be interested in knowing which one it is.
Oh! How lovely! I’m sorry you missed out on the purple, but I think these will make gorgeous socks, the green against the grey is striking.
No idea with the popup. Benkei can see it, which is all that really matters, right? Lol.
[...] Festival in Minnesota. Amy celebrated Mother’s Day at the festival with her youngest son. Harriet took a dyeing class with her mom! Little and Wee also spent Mother’s Day at the festival with [...]
You took the same class I did last year! Great colors, even without the purple.
Interesting plugin - I’m still trying to decide how I feel about it greying out the background. Which plugin is this?