Ruby Spice

Ruby spice

I've been doing a little more playing with dyes - more monochromatics and tones of colours this time. Sometimes, I want to mix up brand new colours specifically for a project in mind and this strong red with a hint of burnt orange was where my head was at. Unfortunately my washed fleece didn't seem to take the dye the same as the sock yarn at all. What should have been more of a flame red like the yarn below, turned into more of a ruby/deep red umber. But a happy surprise, I like it a lot. It did felt a bit more during this process so it'll be 'interesting' trying to card that lot out;-) I'll have to be more careful next time!

Flame red

The sock yarn came out spot on for colour though. I wanted to try and get some intense solids for smaller projects like cabled gloves or detailed lace scarves that would be killed using a strong variegated yarn - like tootiefruitie:-) I'll have to knit it up to see if I've been totally successful but it looks a smooth, strong, vibrant colour which is just what I was looking for.

Cinnamon spice

Cinnamon spice is an experiment in subtle variegations, tonally very close but just enough variance to give a subtle sock. Well, that's the theory! Again it'll have to be knitted up to see the effect but I think it will be a subtle enough colour to use a detailed lace sock pattern. After the green and orange stripey yarns fighting the lace, I'm hoping this will have a better balance.

So, that's as far as I've got dyeing this week as I ran out of re-sealable freezer bags for the microwave! But I got some more last night as well as a couple of casserole dishes - £1 each in Asda! - that hold 2 litres and small enough to fit in my teeny microwave. The theory is they will be better to use than the freezer bags, washable and I won't have to throw away so much plastic every time I dye. I'll tell you how I get on.....:-)