Mom and I attended a fiber retreat on Sunday in Argyle. It was put together by Mary Berry of Fancy Fibers. There were lots of really neat women there, spinners, knitters and crocheters alike. Much of the day was just free time to work on whatever you wanted. I took along the baby blanket, and got quite a bit done.
In the afternoon we took a workshop on dyeing/painting yarn. We used superwash merino wool and jaquard acid dyes. Mom has tons of experience dying fabrics, but the yarn was new to both of us. I really enjoyed seeing the surprising colors that came from blending the dyes. I used Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Orange and Hot Pink. There are some really beautiful and subtle shades of green that came out of blending those colors. I kept telling myself that I wanted to keep some white, but it was really hard to stop adding colors! I did leave just a bit of white, and I love the way my yarn turned out.
Oops, my glove had a hole in it!
As a novice I don't have a swift or ball winder. I googled instructions and came up with this makeshift way of winding my skein into a ball. Put the skein around two chair backs and move them apart until you get tension to hold the yarn up. Then cut the ties and start winding your ball. It worked fabulously!
I am really excited by the outcome of my handdyed yarn, and can't wait to make more! I had wanted to reskein it to see all the pretty colors, but since I'm not selling it I didn't see the point in that. Check out my beautiful ball of yarn bellow. Now what to make? It is 220 yards, so maybe a scarf?
4 comments:
The yarn dying looks like such fun! What pretty colors.
The baby blanket is coming along beautifully.
p.s.knitpicks.com has really reasonable yarn to dye in different weights, too.
N, That's where the superwash came from! I was going to ask if you use them.
ash, i buy wholesale from henry's attic, i usually buy 15-20 lbs at a time, so i still have a few big skeins left. it is cheaper and the yarn is a bit nicer, but knitpicks isn't bad, especially for the price. you can totally dye on light colors too, if you find them on sale, so don't hesitate to be a cheapskate, like meeeeeee:)
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