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March 14, 2006
Take a sip of my special Kool-Aid
I have officially joined the sock-yarn-dyeing cult. I bought some Knitpick's Color-your-own merino sock yarn and Kool-Aid, and went to town. I am not much of one to follow directions, so I just picked some colors, looked at this site for some basic info, and plunked that yarn in the fruit-flavored water. I bought two skeins, one for myself to dye for Project Spectrum, and another for my Secret Pal, so she could dye some for herself too.*
I used the dip-dye method so I could have a variety of colors. I didn't measure out anything, so I hope it will turn out okay - if you want a more detailed description of how to get the stripes to match up with your pattern, see Eunny's description here. Apparently it turns out better if you stretch the yarn out into a REALLY long loop before dyeing. I guess that makes sense, so you get longer color repeats. I used a pretty small loop, so hopefully it will still look okay.
The yarn I used is not superwash, so I'm not sure if I really want to make socks out of it. It's not terribly thin, I'm guessing I would knit it on size 3's -- any other ideas of what I could make? Probably something with a Chevron pattern so there's not as much of a flashing/pooling problem.
I am already scheming what I am going to dye next. I don't want to go into business or anything, but I think it would make great gifts -- soooo much cheaper than buying sock yarn. I think that hank from KnitPicks from about $4, and 4 packets of Kool-Aid cost $1. But, first I have to find some superwash yarn - it's a necessity for me for socks.
* I hope she won't be disappointed, because once I started dyeing I couldn't stop! So I dyed her hank with the Kool-Aid I had purchased to send with her final package. I hope she likes it - it's one of her favorite colors!
Posted by zarah at March 14, 2006 7:06 AM
Comments
Wow, that is so cool! I'm impressed. Knitter, dyer, baker extraordinaire. What don't you do?
:)
Posted by: jeannine at March 14, 2006 8:17 AM
Very nice and thanks for the link. I think you can knit that yarn into mittens or a hat, but I'd knit socks w/ it on a size 2. I love the colors you ended up with and I can't wait to see the pink and red knit up.
Posted by: Stephanie at March 14, 2006 3:42 PM
Your kool aid yarn looks fabulous! I love how green the one skein turned out.
Posted by: Diane at March 14, 2006 10:40 PM
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