Rows Red

Do you smell that? *sniiiif* Ahh… that’s the smell of wet wool and dye people, and it is lovely. Something came over me last Friday night, and I blame my iPod. I cranked up my “Cleaning” playlist (good rhythms, good sing along music), grabbed some yarn from the basement and set up my pots to dye. Singing at the top of my lungs, I mixed colors and had a grand time!

Bramble in sock and lace, Blueberry Morning in sock and lace.

I had an idea, based on the knowledge that a skein of sock yarn and a skein of lace yarn will take up the same colors very differently. I decided to put a skein of each in the pot and see what happened. Let me tell you, the results were striking! The cold (blueish) winter light made photographing some of them difficult, but here are side by side photos of what I’m calling the Strange Siblings series. All went into the pot at exactly the same time, for the same exact length of time.

Dragonfly in sock and lace, Jammy in sock and lace.

Pretty cool, eh? The first few are listed in my shop already, with another round going in tomorrow night. I’m excited to share them with you, I feel like I’m really getting a handle on the two or three dye styles I want to focus on this year. My favorites right now are tonals (one color applied to varying intensities) and pours (two or more colors poured into the pot at different times).

Whirled Peas in sock, Daffodil in sock. They don't have siblings, but I wanted to show them off too.

I don’t have my studio yet, but we’re taking steps to get ready for production. I’ve ordered more citric acid and Synthrapol as I am now completely out, but I’ll have to make do with what dye and yarn I have for now, which is enough for a good while. Dyes are not cheap! 8oz of four or five colors can easily run upwards of $100. What is really got me doing the happy dance is one fantabulous internet find on my part… 16qt stainless steel stock pots, which usually run around $25-$30 each, I found on the Boscovs outlet website for $10 each! TEN DOLLARS. And free shipping. We ordered eight, for when I have two stoves running side by side in my dye studio.

As my dad would say, “kiss the hand”.

Tags: dyeing