My post today is about hand-dyeing yarn; that is, me and my hand-dyed yarn. Of course, it started out as a desperate spring break project to occupy my son and keep him from spending twelve hours a day on the Xbox. The result of that was a couple of balls of neon-bright Kool-Aid dyed yarn in eye-popping red and another couple of balls of lime green.
A little while later, based on that early success, I decided to try my hand at variegated yarn, and ended up with a strange colourway I called "That 70s Couch", because of its earthy tones of rust, gold, and avocado.
I wasn't all that sure about it, so a couple of weeks later I decided to overdye one ball and see what resulted. We had just picked up some easter egg dye on clearance in the days after the holiday, so I mixed up a batch of what I thought was purple egg dye, which turned out to be a deep shade of blue.
When the blue combined with the existing colours, it resulted in rich jewel tones of teal, shiny moss, and deep aubergine. Buoyed by that success, I overdyed another ball with Cherry Kool-Aid, then knitted them all together in stripes.
I am so pleased with the result. In fact, there is a very British phrase that describes exactly how I feel about the way this turned out. I am "dead chuffed" with it. Who knew that something so beautiful could result from food colouring, easter egg dye, and Cherry Kool-Aid?
4 comments:
That is GORGEOUS!
I'll add one quiet comment--keep it out of the sun. I once, out of curiosity, dyed some unspun wool in koolaid and put it out on the back patio for two weeks to see what the sun would do with it. I found a bright pink wool-and twigs-and leaves birds nest, something like a year later. But some of the red still on the patio had faded to a light gray. I don't know which koolaid flavor it was, though. Just, keep yours away from the sun. Enjoy!
Thanks, Alison. (I thought for a moment you were Alison T., another blog friend.) I sort of figured these dyes wouldn't be as colourfast as regular yarn, but it never hurts to have a heads-up.
I'm laughing that we each have each other in the form of another person...ok, I'm strange, but it did make me smile...
You are so very adventurous! I can't wait to see what you decide to try next!
I went with my other Karen to the wool shop in Gaspereau Valley, and upon leaving was cursing myself for not bringing the camera to capture all of the glory that it was. We then left the shop and ventured over to the field full of sheep and a cranky llama...he chose to spit at the sheep which provided MUCH entertainment for us. I actually caught myself wishing you, who I have not yet met, were there to be entertained along with us.
Really nice colours!
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