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Dyeing Semi-Solid & a New Project

Inspired by a tutorial video mentioned in an earlier entry, I decided to dye some semi-solid yarn.

I started with cream/natural (I think they call it "aran") Fishermen's Wool.  Wound the whole skein onto the swift into a large hank and tied in a few places (as always).  Pre-soaked the yarn.  Heated a large stock pot.  Mixed up some food coloring...

Hand-Dyeing Yarn

I basically followed the method in the video.  I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, and for a while I was concerned that it was going to be plain ugly.

Hand-Dyeing Yarn

Fortunately, there's almost always the option of adding more dye, and until it dried, I was pretty sure that I'd need to over-dye (dye it again) to get some variation in color.  When it was completely dry, though, there seemed to be enough subtle shading to keep it interesting, so I wound it into a gigantic cake. 

Food-Coloring-Dyed Yarn

Food-Coloring-Dyed Yarn

Not sure if you can tell from the photo, but that's a lot of yarn for one cake!   The winder could just barely handle it, toward the last few yards.

It felted slightly in a few spots-- moved it around in the pot too much, I guess-- but that shouldn't be a problem.  (That yarn isn't the softest to begin with.  A conditioner soak after it's knitted up might help.)

- - - - - - -

I started the catherine wheel scarf with the hand-dyed, long-repeat yarn!  I'm deviating from the pattern just slightly.  (See the project notes for details.)

I haven't done much on it, yet, but here's a photo:

Catherine Wheel Scarf

It's not going to look much like the colors in the inspiration scarf, but I think it'll still be pretty.  

I'm trying to figure out the best way to carry the yarn up the side.  Since there'll be an edging of some kind going over both sides and providing camouflage, I guess it's not that important, but I'd like to keep it as tidy as possible.

The color changes should keep this one fun!