It didn't work...

I am not so thrilled with this dying thing...at least as far as koolaid is concerned. This yarn will be knit up into some nice and warm (if a bit ugly) items to be sent to Dulaan.

Sigh.

Ah, well. I read about someone else using Wilton icing dyes...perhaps I'll try that next.

Can this yarn be saved?

I thought that I was all hip to Kool-Aid (tm) dying, because I had successfully dyed sock yarn with the stuff several years ago, and it turned out great. (pink, yellow, and cream base-color yarn) The socks were a different story, but the yarn looked good.

Last week I decided to dye 400-some odd yards of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool purple and red. I used the grape and cherry, with a splash of pink lemonade. After two goes, what you see on the left appeared before my eyes. It looks awful, doesn't it? Trust me, it's even worse in person; the purple is faded and blah, the red and pink are fighting for dominance, and my eyeballs are losing the fight.

I am extremely reluctant to give up, that's 400 plus yards of perfectly good wool that would make a great scarf or a hat and mittens, once the color issues are taken care of. And the wool feels like something that will wear well and keep me warm. I had turned my nose up at the Lion Brand yarns because I'm an inveterate fiber snob, but I may have hit onto a new way to get hand-dyed yarn without killing my bank account or causing my mate to give me "the look".

But first I have to get this skein to resemble colors I would wear (anywhere, not just in public)


Wish me luck!

Results posted Wednesday.

Once upon a time...

...there was a girl who loved to knit. She knit socks, sweaters, scarves, hats, mittens, and whatever else took her fancy. She knit for herself, for her family, her mate, and even for people she'd never met in person but talked to over the internet.

This girl's love of yarn led to her seeking out yarn on the internet: knitting blogs, online knitting magazines, yarn for sale, and even brief forays onto eBay (she's still a little afraid of what she is capable of spending on eBay). Being a person with a Real Life, she has also made serious investigations into the local yarn scene, seeking both the usable and affordable, along with the ridiculously expensive and precious. She also has a not-at-all secret passion for knitting magazines, even the really awful ones.

There is so much that this girl realized she wanted to say about yarn, knitting, and related activities such as late-night caffeine consumption and the proper care of one's hands that she decided she need to start a blog dedicated to her upstanding love for a really good wool. This will save her from driving her mate and non-knitting friends and family screaming into the street with her chatter about the difference between K1 P1 ribbing and K2 P2 ribbing.

She hopes that you'll find her interesting, entertaining, or at the very least, a cautionary tale about how a hobby can become an obsession.

And the picture? That's a pair of socks in Cherry Tree Hill Superglitz, in the colorway River Run. When I finished the second sock I had only TWO YARDS left. Way too close for comfort!