Category: Dyepot

Now that my color train is of the one track kind,
not even my Stash is safe.

Lurking in the mulitude of skeins and balls is POTENTIAL. Potentially Green. Potentially fine…

This yarn was a little something Santa left for moi last year.

This is wet Plymouth Baby Grande Alpaca, color #1830.

I used a little of it to make a cowl – then lost interest in it. QUE? The Color was fabulous but just not too flattering on me. It was a Fuschia that was too blue.

It needed to go green…

What could possibly make that brilliant pink a subtle green? Well, I needed to subract some of that blue out of it – (I tried this successfully before using Procion dyes on a cotton/acrylic blend. That result was a little more subdued because of the fiber content. Alpaca saturates strongly.) So when I mixed up the Sabraset Dyes, I used 20% less of the blue that would be required for the color I was lusting after. The end mixture was 20% Royal Blue & 80% Yellow Gold. The gold color toned down the pink as well, making it behave towards a more calm color space – a color space where it’s easy being GREEN…

…I washed and soaked the skeins thoroughly before dyeing – most important, I believe, for good dye penetration when you are *overdying* yarn or a garment that is already another color and not virgin fiber. Then, I used my big pot to dye the skeins in so there was plenty swimming room…

[miniHAHA: Too tired to knit or even WASH YOUR SOCKS? As seen in the London Edition of DAILY CANDY: sock subscription service…]

the Stitches of EastSox

Going through my winter hats yesterday to get ready for the Big Chill ahead, I found a dirty, crushed up gem. It’d been laying fallow all summer, waiting for the fallish rains to wake it back up. It’s Black and is just too hot for summer duty but perfect for the low grade sun of Autumn.

SO on it goes. And Stays. Through Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Ball game.

Ball Game? Oui! At 7pm at night, it is still on my head because said hat, dear friends is a WHITE SOX hat. For some reason during the day, this dirty number has distinguished me from other Chicagoans – those who the South Siders are calling casual observers, johnny-come-latelies, fakers! or worse. Who knew that perhaps the greatest rivalry between ball teams wouldn’t be with the team actually in the World series but a team in the SAME TOWN! A guy hissed at me the other day, “You’re a Cub fan aren’t you, I can tell…” like it was branded invisibly on my head.

My Answer: “DUDE! I’m a CHICAGO FAN!” And I’ve got the hat to prove it…” Not for me the ridiculous boiling rivalry between the boys above and below Roosevelt Road!

This magical Chapeau did not protect me from the game itself – a WHOOPER! It started late and went ON and ON and ON and my nerves could not take it – here in the chilly night on a Tuesday! a *school* night a night without excuse for the boss for showing up hosed in the AM because of those PM deeds of bravery and excess damn the consequences – I’m a FAN! But I’m a chick for chrissake and that just don’t FLY…

So I was driven by the 4th inning to do what any sensible person would: I pulled out the Dye Pot. I decided to brew us up a victory! I could adjust the color temperature of the cotton Ribby I was working on. Its green was not the GREEN! I wanted to wear and it was going on and on lanquishing in the work basket mocking me like that Cub Fan from the North…

Grinder Ball Ruled as I stirred and stirred hovering over the pot for the first 20 minutes of the immersion effect. My nerves were such that when the SOX pulled away and started handing out whompass in droves in the 5th, I was standing in the kitchen, knitting an actual SOCK! while watching the TV in the living room, stirring my sweater every 5 minutes.

And the game went On and On and ON!

And I turned a Heel!

And I Blocked the GREEN! Ribby!

And I fell asleep in the 9th when the score was tied!

But indeed, the hat was still on my head this morning when I woke up and read:

SOX WIN!

Ode to Geoff Blum: All over the city, The People are taping White Sweat Socks in all their windows…

na na na na hey hey hey….

“The 5-hour, 41-minute game was the longest by time in World Series history and tied for the longest in innings.”
…Chicago Sun-Times
It ended after 14 innings, with a Blum homer,
at around 1AM this morning…

Bonne Marie & the Half-Blood Prince, part I

That’s me in the corner.
That’s me with the cauldron.
Stirring up my Potion…

That’s right, Professor Snape!
That dark swirling liquid you see NEEDS no flame!
You don’t see any steam because my potion doesn’t HAVE any vapor!

I’ve found some new and crafty magic and decided to give it a try – my original stylings were a 50/50 mess and it was time to aim for some SKILL!

My most delightful finds from the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool field trip were two books on dyeing AND a differnt type of dye.

My friend Rachel and I decided we were going to try and *rescue* some fiber she had that was the wrong color – so to get my feet wet, I picked up some Procion MX in several shades to experiment with.

Now this dye is different than the Sabraset Acid dyes I’ve been using in several ways – it needs no heat (when dyeing with cotton), and can work on cellulose or animal fiber, depending on the pH of the solution used. WOOT!

The other difference this time with my dye trials was that I followed the directions, to the letter.

Advanced Potion Making, by Libatius Borage

1. I weighed the Garment so I’d know exactly how much of the other ingredients to use.

2. I wore a Face Mask and used Rubber Gloves (very good!)

3. I found a beautifully marked container already in my cupboard and measured my liquids to a T.

4. I washed the garment with Synthrapol, rinsed twice, then let it SOAK while I was preparing my other stuff.

OOps – did you say GARMENT?

Why, yes, I did! I decided to experiment on a couple of pieces that were not hitting the runway anymore so if they went up in smoke, it would not matter.

Remember THIS?

a fun color for a season but curiously like a
Love Potion that’s faded away…

after a session in the Remedial Dyepot, we have

YIPPEE! OD Green, in a very palatable, clear light shade! This yarn is by Reynolds, called *Navy*, and is a veritable Half-Blood Prince of 50/50 cotton/microfiber. I was really throwing the dice on this – cotton might absorb the dye deeper than the acrylic but it came out clear as a bell…

How about this?

a deliciously tempting shape executed in an infantile shade…

but now, after a Dose of 2xOlive+1xBrown, we have:

a more User Friendly Medium Olive!

This yarn was another 1/2BPrince: Cotton/acrylic blend (Filatura di Crosa *Spongy*) wrapped in a shiny thread. It dyed an even color on the yarn, and a slightly darker color on the thread. Tweedy goodness reigns!