Fun with Dye

In the past couple of days, I’ve finally gotten around to dyeing up some yarn I’ve been meaning to dye for a bit. I used my crock pot and easter egg dyes and Kool-aid.

The first yarn I dyed was a cream worsted weight wool I got from a recycled thrift store sweater. It was huge and cabled and the finished yarn came out of the crock pot looking BEAUTIFUL:

I used a packet of purple Kool-Aid and blue and red (and I think maybe a purple) tablets of Easter egg dye with a good splash of vinegar. I was going for a dark purple, but I love how it came out. I am already knitting this up into a Lanesplitter skirt with some wool I dyed last summer:

I like how the colors work together, though I didn’t at first. Worsted weight yarn on size 10 needles works up super fast, so I am already past the increase section and about halfway through the straight section even though I just started yesterday.

The other yarn I dyed was originally a yellow lace-weight cashmere. I don’t especially care for yellow, so I threw it into the crock pot with some blue and green Easter egg dye:

It’s lighter than I wanted but still pretty. The purple spots are where I accidentally threw in some Tropical Punch Kool-Aid. The packet is blue but the powder is red and I wasn’t reading especially closely, so… Still, I like how it came out, better than if had just been green. I was shooting for teal but this is more like grass and wild strawberries. I think it’ll look cool when it’s knit up.

I recently finished a couple of stealth FO’s for a swap, so I’ll have those for you in the next couple of days as well as Lanesplitter progress. I’m still working on my shorts but striped diagonal multi colored hand-dye is a lot more interesting knitting than solid colored cotton stockinette, so I’ve set it aside for a bit. I don’t expect it will sit too long before I finish it though–I’m about halfway up past the legs, so I have about two inches in the front and two inches + short rows in the back, then ribbing. It’s not a particularly time-intensive pattern, but I was feeling the itch of startitus so I cast on Lanesplitter.

I also started a large-scale sewing project, but more on that later. : )