Friday, January 09, 2009

Dye Day Complete

Well, it was now or next week for dyeing. I couldn't wait. I wouldn't dare attempt to dye on the weekend with the whole family around. I spread out and take over the whole dining area, kitchen, laundry room and sometimes more. Last night I sat up and did a ton of crazy calculations. I told you it was Unibomber math.



And here is how the knitted blank dyed up:



At first it was kind of splotchy. In the future I will remember to round up more generously in math, especially with the darker colors. That will give me a couple of extra ml to paint with. What I ended up doing was throwing the whole splotchy piece into into a dye pot with some more of the yellow and a touch of brown and it smoothed out some of the rough spots. The best part though is that lace is very forgiving on the splotchiness. The negative space from yarn overs breaks it all up and the eye doesn't focus on the flaws (also known as design elements). Now I have to wait for this thing to dry.

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

I wish I could dye like that... doing all the crazy math, etc. But I don't know how and have never been to any dye classes, so what I *do* know I learned on my own.

Your experiences with dyeing blanks are what inspires me to work with the one I have. Who do you recommend for learning the type of dyeing you do? Since I do NOT sell dyed fiber or rovings anymore, I'm just wanting to know for myself. Books, classes, etc... I want to figure out how to dye a blank for a striped shawl that won't give me funky stripe sizes. LOL

kaoticorchid said...

Loverly! I'm sure it will look fantastic. :) I recently had my own dye day, but unfortunately, it was all stuff that was not for me.

Jen-Jenny-Jennifer said...

You and Wooly slay me!