I didn't make an awful mess, but I might yet because I think I'm going to give it another go. Once it had dried I could see that there were vast expanses of white and I think I want to improve on that. I don't mind some white but there's too much. I was nervous about using too much dye, whatever that might mean, but I think I'll be more extravagant the second time. I was worried that overlapping the colours might lead to murkiness: I remember it always did when I mixed the colours of my Plasticine. I haven't got murkiness, but I have got too much white. I noticed that where the pink met the blue, it resulted in a dark blue. This might not be a revelation to you, but it surprised me because I had expected purple, and murkiness. I might be able to make some dark blue when I return to it but if you see large patches of purple next time, don't be surprised. It will just mean that it has all gone horribly wrong.I went out today and had a deeply frustrating afternoon: I ended up feeling very cross and writing a very stiff letter in my head on the way home, made crosser by the fact that I know nowadays that I won't actually write said letter and I would be better off thinking about something constructive or deciding what to have for my tea.
I finished the first skein of handspun on the baby shawl, so it is going into the plastic bag for a little rest while I seam the bolero and do something else.Another piece of lace, I think. That will stop me writing stiff letters in my head.
3 comments:
Yay! Kool-aid dyeing! It's so much fun and kind of addictive.
Your first attempt is lovely -- mine was a murky mess, mostly due not having the dye concentrated enough, and poor color choices. I ended up over-dyeing the whole mess with very concentrated grape, which made it *really* ugly (for some reason, my step-mother's mother thought the yarn was lovely and took it off my hands). I think if you use colors which play well together, you won't get murkiness.
Oh, I hate that feeling, where I keep crafting some cold cranky note in my head that I know I'll never actually send to anyone. The dying looks like good fun, though!
A friend & I had a good time dyeing with kool aid--we did a method whereby you wind the yarn into a cheese, then put it into a pot of dye which comes just above the halfway mark. Microwave, etc, then flip it into a different dyebath, same idea. We were too impatient to wait the interminable period such a ball of yarn would take to dry, so began knitting almost immediately--pull out 5-10 yards, it'll dry as you knit it. A neat effect, but the smell of kool aid takes some time to fade, even after a good soak in eucalan!
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