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…]
I’m always amazed by your overdying success! That is a gorgeous rich and subtle green that no one (okay, one person) could have guessed would come from the bright pink yarn. Your precise directions are inspirational.
That’s astonishing! I can hardly believe it’s the same yarn.
You impress me, really impress me. I know you’ve written before about dying – your work comes out wonderfully.
I think the dye com’s shd. work w. the bloggers known for their strong color preferences – you for some greens, Claudia’s Spinning blog for some oranges – etc. I can see some really nice colors happening.
The mind boggles.
1st — since I ADORED the color your yarn WAS… why would I want to change that??
2d — how did it change so COMPLETELY! WOW!
3d — 40 pounds a month for sock delivery?!?! Clearly, some folks have more money than brains!
Wow…I would have never guessed it started out pink. Good job!
That color change is a miracle to me – what’s even more freaky, is that with the Sabraset dyes, the water turns absolutely clear when all the dye is absorbed into the fiber.
Very Presto Change-O!
The fuschia looked very bad on me so it was time for it to GO and start another life!
That is *just* my shade of green! Gorgous! So what is it going to grow up into? A new cowl?
Spot-on color mixing. That green is much more *you*.
Dear Bonne Marie — You’re my FIRST blog commenter…and you couldn’t have arrived at a better time. Thank you so much for dropping by!
That’s really something – you practically turned it into its complement without going mud brown. I’m impressed!