Kiss My Knits!

Okay, we saw the final yarn from dye day, let’s look at the first one of the morning. I was going to dole these out one day at a time, but hey, what the heck.

This was handpainted with acid dyes. Base yarn is Knitpicks’ superwash “Bare” 75% wool 25% nylon sock yarn. This didn’t come out exactly “perfect” in terms of the patterning I was trying to achieve, but I’m pleased with the color combo. I don’t feel bad about it – I was rushing a bit, showing the technique to someone else, and frankly, my bottles released a bit more dye than I expected. I need to invest in some beauty supply squirt bottles for greater control.

The shades are three colors mixed from one base. A silver-gray, then the silver-gray mixed with a primary blue, and the silver-gray mixed with black. Thankfully, none of the red crud in the bottom of my black made its way into the mix. The color on the picture isn’t quite true. It’s not as high contrast as it appears here. The blue has more gray tones, and there’s more shading between light and dark.

I think it’ll be fun to knit with. Or gift or sell, as dye day has put me a little over the top on sock yarn.

At left is the same yarn spread out a bit to show the color length.

For some reason, my first yarn of the day is always more pastel and muted, and then things heat up a little bit as I get more into it. Maybe it’s the equivalent of stretching before exercise.



This yarn is called “Westley” because turtlegirl made an offhand comment about the Princess Bride. She said this yarn reminded her of a line from the movie.

Man in black: Who was this love of yours? Another prince like this one…ugly, rich, and scabby?
Buttercup: No, a farmboy…poor! Poor and perfect, with eyes like the sea after a storm.

And there you have it. Westley.

More to come.

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Before: This is the pic from yesterday. The yarn is the DK weight of Knitpicks’ “Bare” 100% superwash merino wool, acid dyed in the crockpot, primary color blue plus a little violet. The dye uptake wasn’t as thorough as I’d like, perhaps due to late addition of the blue, but more likely due to inadequate pre-soaking of the yarn. I decided to overdye the skein in darker tones.


After: What in blue blazes? This is the same blue yarn overdyed in the crockpot with a mixture of purple, violet-blue, and black. Unfortunately, my black had been mixed long ago and the red/orange elements had begun to separate. I didn’t realize this until I had upended the remainder of the bottle into the crockpot and started it going. Rinsing the bottle out released a flood of orange precipitate. Too late now! I hadn’t mixed any vinegar into the dye, but I still let it sit a lot longer than it should have. Let this be a lesson not to be a miser by trying to store mixed dyes beyond their natural shelf life.

Well, I learned something and it’s an interesting effect I would not otherwise have gotten, sooo… success? Sure. Why not.

Today’s the first day of the new school year. Em was at the door and raring to go at 6:30 this morning, but I kind of stalled her until 7am (the earliest the school doors open). At that point, we were in the yard and she started to go around the house, saying she wanted to walk to school. Oops! If I’d known that in advance, I wouldn’t have stalled so much. We wound up driving, but we’ll walk together tomorrow if the weather permits. We did walk up to the school’s open house last week, so she knows what she’s getting into.

Coincidentally, I grew up in this house and went to Em’s same school, starting there at the same age she is now. I walked to school myself. I think it’ll be a great way to start the day.

Today I’ve run the greenway – I’m jumping on my first free morning – and come home and watered the plants and done a little wii fit stuff. My weight was up a little the last couple of days as I madly sucked down water bottles to free up enough for dyeing. Heh. It’s back down now.

Later I’ll be packing up more kits and hats, as well as a ball of stash yarn which someone bought. I need to post more for sale. Tonight, hopefully, I’ll be binding off socks from my last batch of handdyed sock yarn.

I hope your day is as great as mine has been so far!