Monday, May 22, 2006

What's brewing?

My husband asked me what I wanted to do this weekend, and I told him I wanted to dye. I know it doesn't sound like anything too weird when you read it, but try saying it out loud. Well, the issue got clarified, and I did some dyeing last night. I had these aquarelle type blues and greens in mind, and gave in to measuring my dilutions and color mixtures. I was going to do a combination of microwave/crock pot method, but discovered a brand new way to do this. Pouring the diluted dye solutions onto the yarn right in my hands. Worked marvelously! The yarn was still hot from the soak bath and caught the color immediately so that when I squeezed it dry, the water was completely clear.
Here's the pile of yarn before hitting the microwave. It has a little more color variation than what shows, but otherwise the color is pretty close. This is once again Inpirations yarn's superwash sock yarn. Here dried up, before winding
I must say I'm pretty pleased with the results, and I think this yarn deserves a nicer pattern than just your basic plain stockinette stitch socks. Any ideas? Something lacy or semi-lacy would work. Please put on your thinking caps and help me out, fellow knitters!

7 comments:

Lisa said...

Hedera or the Simply Lovely Lace socks from IK Spring "06? Good luck! The yarn looks great!

Lisa said...

Oooh, I just thought of another one. The Fancy Silk Sock by Nancy Bush? (free on the web somewhere)

Lene said...

What about Waving Lace Socks by Evelyn Clark from Interweave Knits Spring 2004. Or Cassie's (of Too much wool) socks that will be published soon - they look very nice.
The yarn in beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Pretty blues! The colors are subtle enough that any lacy pattern would work well.

Anonymous said...

Oooo, I love the color and especially the nicely subtle variations (it's my obsession at the moment). Very cool, so you just poured the dye over the yarn and microwaved it? I'll have to try that out :-)

Anonymous said...

Please tell me more about this dye process? Is there a website about this? What kind/brand of dye(s) did you use and in what proportions? Did you use vinegar? How long did you microwave it? Will this work with silk?
Thanks in advance for any details you can think of!

Anonymous said...

Oops! My e-mail is:
knitogether@charter.net