Been dyeing to meet ya

I've been out of the loop, so to speak due. Not much is new. I got a promotion at work. Same job, more money. I'm not sure how long I will stick it out though. I'm exhausted. Last night really sucked.

I've been trying out some yarn dying because like everyone else in the knitting world- I want to do hand dyed sock yarn.



I call this colourway Tropical Itch. I used 3 different flavours of kool-aid, and some food colouring. It's not anywhere close to my typical colour palette, but I like it. It makes me think of fruity rum drinks I've had in Fiji. My favorite is in fact called the "tropical itch" which has 2 kinds of overproof rum, hand squeezed tropical juices. a backscratcher and ice cream if that's your thing. I opted out of the ice cream.

But back to the yarn.

I got some half price sport weight yarn at the Yarn Boutique (Lana Gatto- Wool Gatto to be precise) and decided to start with koolaid and food dyes and graduate to acid dyes later on if it worked out. Although,I'm not sure I want to use chemical dyes because A) carbon footprint and all of that stuff. I don't really want to be dumping that crap in the water system. B) I want to do this at home in my kitchen and frankly I have enough experience using chemical dyes in a fully equiped and well ventilated dye room fully gloved and masked, that... I know this sort of thing should not be done at home in a place where I also prepare food. Frankly I don't think chemical dyes should be used at home anyway, unless one had a special workshop. C) related to #B I don't want to have to worry about getting any of my equipment mixed up (although I did buy a special pot)and I have a cat... she likes to eat stuff

But back to the carbon footprint stuff... Ive been angsting about this in general. even using food grade dyes makes me paranoid that I'm using/wasting too much water. Then again, whether it's me or a yarn company, water will be used.

So far the dyeing experiments have turned out fairly well. I do have experience dying costumes, fabric etc.... for theatre, so I haven't been going into this blind. FYI. Patina and costume breakdown are my specialty and I have even used food grade dyes for that purpose on occasion.



This one is more my colour palette. I call it Snakebite which is my favorite drink in the UK. Cider, Lager and Cassis. Mmmm. This is mostly food colouring and then over dyed in grape kool-aid. I was actually going for turquoises, but didn't have enough blue food colouring. I am using it to knit up some "Sugar Maple socks" from 2-at-a-time socks to test out the pooling action. So far so good.




In other news, I have a pair of Leyburn socks on the go. As usual they are slouchy. I have come to the conclusion that cuff down socks are better for me due to the fact that unlike a large proportion of people (at least people on Ravelry) my feet are bigger than my ankles. My ankles are freakishly small actually. Also my insteps are extremely high so I need some gusset action. Hmmm "Gusset action" sounds kind of dirty.




The yarn is Knit Picks Palette in Cleamtis Heather. I don't think it's going to wear very well, but I really liked the colour. I was hoping I would have enough yarn for knee socks, but unfortunately I only had enough for old man at a shuffleboard tournament length. Ah well. They actually look pretty cute with the cuff turned down.




Here is a sock I am designing. This is the bottom. The top is a secret. I'm kind of stalled at the moment because I need to figure out where to add or remove a stitch to make the stitch pattern work in the round.
In other knitting news. I am in the process of sewing "pinky the sweater up" however, I am disatisfied with the sleeve length so I'm thinking I'm going to cut them just about the ribbing and do some large fold over cuffs. I'm thinking this may end in tears. I still hate the yarn.

I am also occasionally working of the red "airy wrap sweater". Doing the ties is really boring though. Really endless and boring.



Oh and in candy related news. I got this care package from my sister today. It is filled with British candy and magazines and toys. There was even a toy for She-ra. She liked it but she liked the tea and magazines more, and kind of went medival on the whole lot of it. I may let her have one of the tea bags because she soaked it in cat drool. mmmmmm