This is the yarn you see me dying as knitted fabric a couple of photo’s down this page. I’ve started from the opposite ends of the balls which are pretty much alike. I’m copying a panel I saw on this blog, where we got the idea for dying and reknitting. Thank you for the inspiration, Sara. 😀 http://saralamb.blogspot.com/2005/02/more-dyeing-fun.html
This is as far as I’ve gotten this evening. I sized it to be the front panel for a vest. The rest will be a dark grey, if I’m remembering what I have in stash.:rolleyes:

:satisfied: This is for those of you who have bought Walmarts 69cent easter egg dye. It is a bargain, depending on the results you are after. Starting from the bottom, here are the color I got using 2 tablets, and a cup of white vinegar in a two quart bowl of water, micro-waved for 4 minutes. I put in enough damp, clean, bright white cormo wool to be covered by the water, weighted with a saucer. The batts are each one “batch”.
Neon pink; a nice orange; Bright Yellow; pale green; pale teal (it’s the only blue); and assorted purples. I did three batches of the purple, the middle one I tried to over-dye with blue. My advice is to avoid the purple, go with Kool-aid. It also separates at times but not as badly as this. I had neon pink and neon blue which I blended by hand cards and drum carder and, as you can see, it was a bit too much blending and is starting to form some neps which I’ll have to pick out when I spin. I think I will pull roving and run it though the drum carder one more time using the three to try to come up with one shade of lavender/purple.
I bought 12 packages of this dye and intend to do at least one more batch, but I think I’ll also buy some of the more expensive Paas dye, if I can find the plain kind.

Here’s my latest hat. Woven and felted. These are all handspun yarns wool yarns and it’s woven on the Tiny Weaver Set. I’m quite pleased with it and have made another version using Noro yarns.

Here’s the scarf I’m knitting from some of the knitted dying we did. This one is alpaca and something… silk? tensel? … dunno but it’s nice. It runs from purple which is almost black (The Walmart grape ‘koolaid’) though very bight red to a duller red on the other end which I haven’t gotten to yet. This pattern is great! Even I can remember it! :laugh: And it looks a little different in different yarns, I did a couple of swatches.
Pattern: CO 30: k2 *yo, p1, p2 tog, k1* I’m using a #9 circ. You can use what ever size needle looks good with your yarn. Gonna wear this to the Red Hat Pajama Breakfast with my new “dress/gown” from Lane Braynt. It looks just like the knit shirts I wear to bed but has red hats on it and is a bit longer. I’m not going to breakfast anywhere with my uh-huh hanging out! There’s still too much of that to share! lol
I have a new hat for it, too. That one I made on the looms and will be featured in the video if we ever get that done…?! 😉

Here I am dying away. One of us found a web site showing knitted swatches being dyed and then frogged and reknit. Light bulbs flashing all over! lol This is two lengths that I wanted to make into a pair of socks, but as Rosy pointed out, at the width I made my color changes, I’d have to knit knee socks to get all the colors in and that wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but I have other ideas for using this really cool yarn! Rosy used her facny dyes and I used my kool-aid. It was great fun.
She also helped me sort my new cormo fleece and get it ready to wash. We even got one batch washed. It is sooooo nice! I stopped at the dollar store on the way home and bought laundry bags to wash it in. No felted fleece for me this time, by gosh!

Here’s a close up of my dying project. I got a little whimsical but I think it’s going to be fun to reknit! I’m already buzzing with ideas! I have a bit of what I think is either angora or alpaca that is shaded purple to red that I am knitting into a scarf to be the envy of my fellow Red-hatters. Rosy says she’s going to be keeping my knitting machine busy! lol 😛

Here’s my sock after going though the washer twice and the dryer once. It’s still just a tad big, but that give it room to be washed again! I’m starting the second one now. The next pair will have some cuff, 10 or so rows of garter stitch probably. These are really more like slippers and will probably be worn that way, but I sure like how they came out. 🙂

Well, I had to put the woven project on hold. I needed 8 squares and ran out of yarn at 7 1/2 so I’m going to have to find a different use for these squares and wait for my new fleece to arrive, which should be any minuute now! 😉
Meantime, I spun a a long single out of the rest of the colors we dyed and am knitting the golf socks from Socks x 3 only using a size #4 instead of the #2 needles it calls for. That’s so I can try felting them. I did this more or less accidently a couple of times. One pair got too small but the other, which started out too big is now just right, also nice and thick and cozy, so I thought I’d try doing it on purpose. I think you can get an idea of the size in the photo. I’ll do one and see if it works before I worry about the mate. :O

Well, it isn’t a finished project yet but it’s on it’s way. I carded up two more batts today and pulled the roving so we are truckin’ along! What do you think? Did they come out pretty close? Can I do two more in the same ‘ball park’? 😛 I also carded up some of the caramel for the accent color.

This is fun with all these new colors to play with. I wasn’t satisfied with the skein colors I made yesterday but I think this one is going to come out better. The orange looks pretty bright here but I think the rest of the colors will modify it in the end. I hope. 😛 Anyway, it makes a pretty picture. The fat “caterpillar” of the rolled batt, the snake of pulled roving and those neat balls, I think someone called them “muffins”, all ready to spin. If it turns out I’ll post a pic of the yarn and the square I weave with it.
Hope you’re having fun, too!