And still to come . . .

Sorry, no photos to post. I've been so busy that I've had no time for myself. Yesterday I dyed the last of the yarn for String of Purls. Now I'm finishing up getting ready for the yarn dyeing class at the end of April.

The latest color of sock yarn is Appassionato, a lovely blend of violet, blue, and a touch of fuchsia. The colors are strong (i.e., passionate) and this is Holy Week (i.e., Passion Week) and yarn dyeing as well as socks are my passion, so it's appropriate. I dyed 7 skeins of it because I'm working on a new pattern (yes, Mandella, I'll start knitting as soon as the skein is dry) that will eventually be sent to knitty.

Lordy, this is a lot of work, but I do love it.

Mardi Gras Sock

This sock is actually finished now, but here's a photo of it in progress. It's the Mardi Gras colorway. I didn't know it would make stripes!

The stitch pattern is simple. I call it Raindrops because it looks like raindrops against a window. I'll publish it as soon as I have it worked out to where I like it.

Thunderstorm

I'm so proud of these! They came out exactly as I had hoped!

Lilies in Australia?

I was trying out Gaywool dyes, which are from Australia and have color names that I would never associate with the colors that come out. They call this one Lily. It's a dark blue-green, something I wouldn't associate with lilies. Oh, well.

This skein (Louet Gems, worsted weight) was dyed in a kettle on the stove and it was as easy as the instructions stated. However, nothing in the instructions quite prepares a person for how fetid is the scent of boiled wool. Sheesh! It stinks when it boils and it stinks despite a couple of washings in shampoo. The same thing happened with microwave dyeing. I mean, it's a great method (and the microwave dyeing gives a more mottled effect with the colors), but the smell is horrid, even when you have a stuffy nose!

Plum One-Offs

I was trying for a deep, rich violet. I ended up at first with purple, magenta, and blue. So, I overdyed with navy blue and came up with this, which I think is a nice save. Back to the drawing board on the deep, rich violet.

When Orange Goes Bad

On the far left is my best possible reproduction of how awful these skeins of yarn were on their first attempt. I don't know what it is about orange, but it always seems to engage me in a war of wills. If it isn't spilling everywhere (I have the spots on my jeans to prove it), it is staying at an intense level that is unjustifiable. What might have been a lovely set of skeins had a neon-orange glow about where that patch of orange is that I Photoshopped in (sorry, but I couldn't bring myself to photograph them when they were in that state). Today, despite a sinus infection, I tackled them again. I tried a rose color first (no good -- not strong enough), some ecru (still not strong enough), then dowsed the whole thing in purple which yielded a lovely dark reddish brown. Sorry, but I don't think the colors are coming through just right -- at least on my monitor the colors are far too intense on the righthand photo above to do it full justice -- but trust me when I say that (1) it's loads better, and (2) you have to see it, and (3) I'll never be able to repeat this colorway again because of how much it's overdyed!

I was trying to capture this effect:

Lovely, isn't it? It's a cotton scarf dyed with ecru, orange, rose, and plum -- all muted and mushed together. I think the orange didn't like being so sublimated on this piece so it took revenge on me when it came to the wool.

Still Hip Deep

The last few weeks have been so outrageously busy! I dyed yarn last weekend, both the six skeins of Mardi Gras and the six skeins of Robyn's Egg (photos coming, I swear!), plus a few odd things I was trying with color. I think the dye gods are messing with my head. For some reason I could not achieve the same subtleties of color as I did previously. The Mardi Gras is darker than I intended. It's still beautiful, but it's not what I'd hoped for (need to back off on the intensity of the green and the lavender). The Robyn's Egg had a green that was much too strong for the light blue (on my trial run the pale green merged into the pale blue rather magically), but it served to balance the darkness of the yellow so it worked out.

*sigh*

Yesterday I dyed six skeins of Thunderstorm and the results are magnificent! I got the balance of greys and blues just right. They are hanging to dry in the bathroom. (I've got to figure out a way to rig a drying rod outdoors for the future.) Also hanging to dry are

• a 3 oz skein of sock yarn that had been bright berry colors that, when I started knitting with it, I just couldn't stand the cloying colors, so I overdyed it with navy blue.
• an odd skein of DK weight showing a variety of new colors (charcoal grey, baby pink, ecru). The charcoal grey tends to go kind of greenish.
• a 4 oz skein of Louet Gems sport weight now in honeycomb/cranberry done with Gaywool dye in the microwave -- not bad.
• an 8 oz skein of Louet Gems worsted weight now in "lily" (the Aussies have an interesting sense of color names -- this one is actually a deep blue-green) done with Gaywool dye on the stove.

My DH was complaining about the state of the kitchen from all of my dyeing activities last night. This is the first time he has complained, and I put it down to his having a cold and feeling miserable. I did point out to him that I had needed to tidy up the kitchen from all of the dirty dishes, pots and pans (cleaning the kitchen is his job) before I could even begin my work. Besides, I tidy up after my work (meaning he does not tidy up after cooking).

In other news, the shower curtain rod in my bathroom is showing signs of rust. Yes, through the chrome coating. Yuck. I definitely need to find a different method of hanging the wool to dry.