One of my biggest hurdles to cross in this game called dyeing is trying to dye a solid color, and I think I may have done it.
Usually, the attempt to dye solids has created rather splotchy results so I have generally avoided trying to do them. Well, this plus the fact that if people really wanted a solid color they could find it among the plethora of commercial mills. Even so, sometimes a client will want a variegated yarn with a matching or coordinated solid, so it’s good to know how to do it.
My early attempts were to simply prepare the dye and then apply it to the yarn, in a single solution and single application. I have rarely been satisfied with the results when I did it like that. What I’ve done this time was to create my dye solution same as always, but apply it in layers, only a light saturation each time. Each of the yarns below was given 5 or 6 layered applications.
And each application using this technique requires that I lift the hanks up above the workspace to prepare for the next application, usually raising the yarn above shoulder-height. So it is very wet and fairly labor intensive, compared to some of my other techniques. If this is all I did for all my dyeing, I would soon have shoulders and upper arms like a linebacker! As it is, I’m usually fairly wiped out the day after a dye session because of the labor involved, and it takes a day or more to recover.
But that’s not a complaint. In fact, applying color to yarn is the best part of what I do. It’s my favorite part. Unfortunately, actually putting color to yarn is barely 5-10% of what I do. The rest of the time I am pulling hanks from cones, and preparing the yarns for dye, and washing/rinsing the yarns after dyeing, then reskeining, labeling, and packing the yarns. They say, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” That’s just hogwash! In order to do the parts you love, you have to spend a lot of other time doing the actual work behind it.
So, anyway, here are four 3-skein sets of Mardi Gras colors, done as a custom job for someone. Normally Phydlbitz Sock is $27.50, but a 3-skein set of Mardi Gras colors can be had for just $75.00. All you need to do is ask — send me an email (ray@knitivity.com) and let me know how many 3-skein sets you’d like.
Follow
