I used plain tea and berry tea, which produced a beautiful soft brown and a dark burgundy color. In the empty pot in the back is the mustard I used for yellow. The yellow was like a flourescent color (totally ruining the colorway) so I tried redying it with blue food coloring, which helped make it green. The green was still the color of a bright Easter egg, not compatible with the soft calm brown and purple. Following Annie's suggestion, I redyed the green again with berry tea. Now I have soft brown, deep burgundy, and a deep dark teal color which I think is lovely. I'll get started on the purse soon and post pictures of the finished product. You'll either see a wonderful hand-dyed, hand-knit, and hand-felted purse, or an artistic vision gone wrong.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Hand-dyed Yarn
Remember how I'm making a bunch of felted scrapbooking bags for a convention in May? Well, it usually costs money to rent to booths, but the woman running them (who is the mother of my new daycare boy) said if I donated something to their raffle she would waive the fee. I looked through my handy dandy "One Skein Wonders" book that Kelley gave me for Christmas and found a cute little felted purse, and I just happened to have one skein of a wool that would work. (Since I, unlike Annie, pay attention to gauge!). The wool was plain white, though, so I decided to try dyeing my own.
I used plain tea and berry tea, which produced a beautiful soft brown and a dark burgundy color. In the empty pot in the back is the mustard I used for yellow. The yellow was like a flourescent color (totally ruining the colorway) so I tried redying it with blue food coloring, which helped make it green. The green was still the color of a bright Easter egg, not compatible with the soft calm brown and purple. Following Annie's suggestion, I redyed the green again with berry tea. Now I have soft brown, deep burgundy, and a deep dark teal color which I think is lovely. I'll get started on the purse soon and post pictures of the finished product. You'll either see a wonderful hand-dyed, hand-knit, and hand-felted purse, or an artistic vision gone wrong.
I used plain tea and berry tea, which produced a beautiful soft brown and a dark burgundy color. In the empty pot in the back is the mustard I used for yellow. The yellow was like a flourescent color (totally ruining the colorway) so I tried redying it with blue food coloring, which helped make it green. The green was still the color of a bright Easter egg, not compatible with the soft calm brown and purple. Following Annie's suggestion, I redyed the green again with berry tea. Now I have soft brown, deep burgundy, and a deep dark teal color which I think is lovely. I'll get started on the purse soon and post pictures of the finished product. You'll either see a wonderful hand-dyed, hand-knit, and hand-felted purse, or an artistic vision gone wrong.
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1 comment:
Carrie --
You should start growing your own herbs and such to use as dyes for your yarn. Then, all you'll need is your own herd of organic, free-range, wool-bearing sheep. Once you get your hands on a spinning wheel, you can teach the kids how to make the yarn. Then, all you have to do is dye the yarn, knit your bags, felt them, and sell them. You'll have a veritable cottage industry!
It's all so easy!!
Love,
Kelley
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