Sunday, May 27, 2007

The Adventures of Dying Yarn

"Strawberry Shortcake" Yarn
I've been thinking about dying yarn again for a while. Clutching hard on to my 40% off Micheals coupon, so not to loose it, I wandered through the aisles to find the perfect yarn. Lo and behold-- I found cotton-ease! They finally decided to sell this yarn in their stores! I was thrilled. I really wanted to buy a few skeins in a plumy color, but decided against it. I bought one more skein-this time in 100% wool-and got myself the heck out of the store. Well, ok, you caught me. I grabbed size 2 needles and another skein of varigated cotton yarn called "sinfonia" (made with soy), a real smooth yarn that reminds me of what the clapotis should be made out of.


I first wrapped the yarn around the chairs, lest I make that mistake again (feeding the yarn into the dye as I went..... yikes! Disaster for tangles!!), and marked it with a different colored yarn. Those will be my different sections for color... (or so I thought....)

I gave the yarn a good long soak. I let them chill for over an hour.


Although I forgot to take pictures of the yarn on the stove for well over an hour trying to get it different shades of RED. I ended up adding purple Easter egg dyes to the strawberry portion... and It washed out too. Luckily, with all the extra colors I added, it gave the yarn nice varigated colors! I love it soo much! This is what it looked like after all the many washings. It shouldn't fade that much anymore.


Here's a close-up of the different shades of color. This is why I named it "Strawberry shortcake." Strawberries, cake bottom, cream..... Doesn't it just look yummy??


I rolled it up pull-string style, to make sure it never tangles. Let it forever be sweet and lovely, until the day it gets knit into socks. (And may the colors always stay.)

---> I'll be going to the Dells tomorrow morning, until Wednesday night. Don't worry, I'll show you all my goodies when i'm back-- my socks, and something sexy I designed to wear over my bikini bottoms (yeah, i'm pretty conscious about exposing myself). I've been horribly busy lately. I'm hoping you'll all love it! See ya in a couple of days!

5 comments:

KnittingHawkeye said...

Love the colour choices Anna! =)
So how are the Lana socks coming along? The size 1's annoy you yet? I wish you'd post another pic soon! =P
anyways, have fun up in Wisconsin & give Bucky badger my love
=)

KnittingHawkeye said...

oh yeah and I'm a brunette again. . . .

KnittingHawkeye said...

Yes it was blue to begin with. The problem is my sickpal is very picky on colours & the original yarn I chose had too much orange. The Koigu was going to be a gift because she loves the yarn. Sooo when the first yarn didn't work out, I painted some green on the Koigu to maych her tastes. I never said I painted it blue, only the green.
It's not cheating, I didn't want to do it, but at least now I have yarn that completely matches what she wants.

The cables actually don't have an effect on the sock. The ribbing I did makes them very stretchy. I was worried at first, but it works out really well.

Chrissy said...

That's really pretty. Sometimes the unintentional variegations are the best. Keep it up!

Byian said...

Love your colours, like chewinggumm :-)