Category: Dyepot

CLOSE! but no cigar, m’lady…

Now that the dyein’ is over, the cryin’ begins? WHO would squeal when they get almost the exact result they were going for?

ME.

[It reminds me of the time I nagged and nagged a boyfriend to shave his beard. He presented his soft new face to me and suddenly I realized he had no chin! Whodat man?]

Now that I see it, all dry and mighty, I realize I would’ve liked it a quarter tone darker. Yeah, splitting fractions here, but when you are doing this it is a Measure Fest and fractions are indeed your friend…

Beth S. writes: “It seems like it would be hard to mix dry powders together without raising a toxic cloud in your kitchen. But you must have figured something out!”

Beth’s right! This stuff (including Kool-Aid) is not user friendly – there’s the possibility of lots of fine particles flying around. So you need to practice good habits when measuring the dry stuff. I bought a box of face masks and use ’em. I measure slowly and carefully.

This was a very interesting session. I used Sabraset Dye (from ProChem) and did exactly what their instructions recommend.

After the yarn was fully submerged in the dye solution with the heat brought up to a simmer, I stirred it every few minutes and noticed something that had not happened other times I dyed with these acid dyes.

One color was uptaking faster than the other!

The water was purple. The yarn was turquoise.

I panicked!

What to do? Pull it? Add more Magenta (gaack)? Go online and SOS?

Google to the rescue! I searched [phrase: *dye won’t exhaust*] and found out that sometimes it takes more than the recommended (about an hour to an hour-and-a-half) time to exhaust the dye solution. [Exhaust: all dye is absorbed by the fiber and the water is CLEAR! I love that part!]

I left the batch, at the lowest gas flame I could manage on the UberPot, stirring every few minutes, for a little over 2.5 hours.

Then suddenly, It Happened.

The yarn was Bijou Blue at 50%.

All the Magenta flew into the yarn.

Whine & Cheese: What I would do differently next time? AHA! Looking at the yarn I used for the figure 8 ties [a light taupey grey] I would maybe start with a different base color. This would give a duller, more sophisticated cast to the whole shebang…

The Scale: I got mine on eBay (from my sister’s recommendation) – search on *Escali Digital* and shop til you drop…

The Enabler Button: Marji writes – “I just love the BFE icon! Is it available to use?” WOOT! Thanks so much! Please take it and use it to spread the love!

to be RED!    

      

Calling all Photoshop CS Gurus: This morning I used the Web Gallery feature to create the album you get when you click on the above pictures. One of the options was for a pop-up info window below the main window. I tried to enter Meta Data Info for each picture, but it wouldn’t save it. Does anybody know how to do this?

This would be a great project scrapbooking feature – I wanted to record all the steps I took to get to the finish line.

I found some time this weekend to perform a Yarn Rescue of some yummy Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. I’ve had this yarn for a few years now – it’s a dusty lilac color (was I on a lavender bender or what?!) that I’d worked up as a cardigan front and one sleeve before I *Frogged & Forgot* it in the X-Files that make up some of my stash.

I’m wrapping up a little pattern for Spring and as I finish one sample, I realized I wanted another one right away – but this one just for me to wear – in RED! WOOT!

Even though Red is NOT a traditional Spring tone, I visualize myself wearing this alot – it combines well with light blue, white, black, kiwi (!), aqua, jeans, linen, and cotton. Funny how a favored color suddenly becomes a *neutral* when you just Wear It.

high on dye

Before there is Red, there had to be Brown…

Years ago now, I knit a foxy little number from my favorite, All Seasons Cotton by Rowan in a color called Boudoir. Like most of my stash, I got it on sale – but the color always left me a little BLAH.

But this is one of my favorites and since I wear it all the time, I thought I’d try a Dye Intervention…

Now, I must say that I entered into this with not a little trepidation. But, in the interest of Science and Fashion, someone had to take the plunge.

Once again, the Procion MX dyes were called into service. Using equal parts of Brilliant Orange & Midnight Blue with a tsp. of Bright Golden Yellow for tops, I mixed what I hoped would be a soft Sienna Brown. The nature of the base color of the yarn was a light reddish brown to begin with and I wanted to take its saturation down as well as the tone.

Here is the final, washed result with the original color shown in the tiny ball on top – that is how much yarn I had left from this project – not enough to test run the color mixture – a most important step that fell by the wayside in my lust for Brown! I love this brown – it is very close to the very first sweater I ever knit – when I was 10yo – a cardigan for my Barbie Doll out of fingering weight wool…

NOTES —>

– Weigh the garment

– Remove buttons before washing

– Soak in soapy (alkaline) water for at least an hour (preferably overnight) – do not rinse out