Been trying out some more dyeing using the sock blanks. This time, I've painted some horizontal stripes rather than vertical ones to compare the difference. It's meant to give a more broken colour effect as each colour stripe is only about an inch/2.5cm wide. It would be cool if this knitted stripes going 'up' instead of around:-)
I tried to keep all the colours in the same family of warm tones with some plummy purple as a contrast. It dried a bit lighter than I expected but I still like the tones so its all good.
So what to make with this one? If this yarn is a bit more subtle than the other 'stripeys' then this should work well with a more complex sock pattern. Maybe some more cables or even a lace pattern? I still have my Cookie A book of lovely sock designs to work through so maybe I should take on a new technique and learn to knit socks from the top down:-) I know its not hard, I think I'm just used to short row heels and prefer the magic cast on to grafting the toes at the end. But that might have something to do with my bumpy intro to kitchener stitch:-) Even though I've got the hang of it now.
I do think the subtle colours would make a lovely lace shawl too. Maybe I'll knit a full 100gms sock blank with only one thread and dye shawl yarn with wider stripes and subtlties that way. I love variegated yarns but I really don't like how they can kill a delicate lace shawl pattern turning it into a fight between colour v's pattern with neither winning - or commonly known as a right dogs dinner:-) I can see more shawl yarn experiments on the horizon......
I thought I'd show you how the yarn rips back - crinkly! A good soak and dried under tension really does the trick but you do need quite a lot of weight for maximum de-crinkle. I used a hammer to weigh the ends of the two skeins down - hey, I was improvising ;-) and it worked a treat. I did check up about steaming and apparently you can steam the kinks out of the skein using a steam iron but don't let the iron touch the yarn. Haven't tried it yet as the other method works fine and I can go away and get some knitting done while its drying! 
So, two de-crinkled skeins all ready to knit into matching socks. Now, just need to find a pattern.....
Oh I love the subtlety of the colors. Really beautiful! Funny what you said about the variegated yarn and the pattern - I feel the same way. I'm often disappointed at the way variegated yarns knit up - they are so beautiful in the skein but sometimes duel with a pattern.
ReplyDeleteOooo!!! The colors are gorgeous! I think that this Cookie A pattern:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/kai-mei
would look so cute knit up with that yarn. Let us know what you decide :)
Oh wow elaine. Absolutely fabulous. You continue to amaze me!
ReplyDeleteOooo! I can't wait to see how this knits up! I find your experiments so inspiring!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like sunrise ... wonderful
ReplyDeleteI love the subtlety and warmth of the colors. Cleaver de-crinkling using a hammer. I'm surprised how crinkled it was after such a short period of being knit.
ReplyDeleteI love your colors, you do such wonderful work! I love looking over your blog.
ReplyDeleteI have a question though. How do you get your ravelry WIP's in your blog to the right? I just signed up for ravelry and would like to do the same but cannot find a gadget for it.
Hi Other Elaine,
ReplyDeleteI hope everything is fine and that you are just too busy enjoying your garden/dyeing/knitting. I have gotten addicted to looking at your photos for inspiration so I've missed you the last few days.
Of course I'm a fine one to talk since I never post anything on my blog :-)
Hi Rachel G -in answer to your ravelry query. I got help for this from a friend on ravelry who got help from hard days knit further up the comments:-) Small world!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, here's what to do:
1 Go to http://www.ravelry.com/wiki/pages/BlogWidgets
2 Scroll down and click on the link that says “API page”.
3 Copy the entire link that is in that 1st box
4 Paste it into a new HTML/JavaScript gadget
5 Copy the 2nd link in “step 2”
6 Paste it right underneath the 1st thing you pasted. Save!
I did this and got the percentages but no pics so to add pics:
In order to get the thumbnails you need to add {photos:true} at the very end of the script after RavelryThing.drawProgressBars.
Hope this makes sense! Give me a shout if you have any hassles:-)
I think Cookie's Kai-mei pattern looks perfect - thanks for the suggestion Hard days knit! I've been swithering over them all as they are all rather nice patterns in her new book.
ReplyDeleteHi Other Elaine!
ReplyDeletejust been busy with stuff like cooking and cleaning instead of knitting and dyeing for a few days. It gets to the point where it HAS to get done and I can't ignore it any more! - even if knitting seems a lot more appealing:-) Posted a small blog today and will be back monday for our next giveaway and more winners!
Jersey, I like the idea of sunrise. I was going to call this cedarwood or something similar but Autumn sunrise sounds much nicer! Thank you for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say thanks for the code help. I finally got around to putting it in and you laid it out easy as pie and I got it the 1st try. It's a nice little feature.
ReplyDeleteGlad it worked out ok:-) Will pop over and have a look!
ReplyDelete