Handpainted Yarns

I dyed this yarn I bought as blank skeins from Dharmafey. It is a Superwash/Bamboo/Nylon blend.

I did two batches. Both were handpainted with Dharma fiber reactive dyes with vinegar as the agent mixed with the chemical water. I let it sit around 20 hours then steam set them.

Black Orchid

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I wanted something dark and rich. I love the Raven colorways from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. But after their Atomic 6 colorway fading so badly that it isn't even the same colors, I am unwilling to buy more of their yarn. So I figured why not dye a colorway similar but yet my own.

There are four dyes - black as well as deep purple, burgundy & fire red all mixed with varying amounts of black.

I really like the way this colorway came out. I think it will look wonderful in socks.

The name is inspired by the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean.

Chocolates

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This batch was dyed for my friend Meredith. She said she really just wanted brown & black. So that is what I did. Pretty simple. It is two different concentrations of chocolate brown & black (same black as the Black Orchid).

I think it came out well and hope she will like it.

Because of the Superwash/Bamboo/Nylon blend, there is a shimmer to the yarn. It looks wonderful. I need to buy more of this yarn. It also super soft.

I made my Baudelaire socks out of this base yarn dyed by Dharmafey. I really love them. They feel great and are super comfy. They are wearing pretty well.

Most Recent Batch of Dyed Yarn

I dyed another batch of the Sarah's Yarns 100% Bamboo yarn last weekend. It is so soft and has a great sheen to it. I really do like it.

Yarn:
Sarah's Yarns 100% Bamboo
http://www.sarahsyarns.com/SY100PctBamboo.html

Dye:
Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes
www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3796-AA.shtml?lnav=dyes.html

I am calling it Berry Tasty for lack of a better name. *chuckle* Not so inspired but hey, I am sleepy!

It is various purples with a bit of burgundy & a touch of black. I was good. The only black is some dashes for some self patterning areas. There are 3 or 4 different purples in there.

This batch was a long skein for self-striping with some self patterning areas. There were 12 areas of 3 feet each so about 36'.

I took the pieces from one of the swifts. I placed them on flat on the table with the additional pegs sticking up. I then used the pegs as a warping mill. It worked out pretty well other than they shifted with the tension. Paul picked up some more wood. He is going to modify one of the swifts so that the end holes go all the way through. This way I can have a warping mill and a swift from the pieces. This should help with creating long skeins for the self striping/patterning yarn.

I have to thank the folks on Ravelry boards for all their thoughts and suggestions. This wasn't half as tangled as the last batches. So that is a definitely plus!

I am soaking it for longer. I am allowing each soak to sit for half an hour. I did 4 soaks that way. The water was nearly clear after that. I washed it with the Synapol just once. I am also not agitating the yarn as much when I am washing it.

I am also trying to snap the yarn as Cynthia on Ravelry suggested. It seems to help as the yarn fibers separate out from each other.

I used two swifts with the correct distance between them to get the yarn off the skeins and into balls. Since it is for me, I don't need to reskein it. It went fairly well. Took a while, but not it wasn't tangled. It was about some modifications than need to be swifts & figuring out what to do with the loose end.

Though I am curious if anyone has experience with the long skeins. I am not sure what to do with the loose end. It was getting tangled into the yarn as I was unskeining it. I am thinking next time I would just a slip knot at the point where it comes back to the beginning of the loop. I have been tying it to the yarn I use to tie off the points.

The entire process was far less painful than the previous batches. So I am really thrilled. And I do like the colorway a lot. It is always hard to capture the color in photos.

I am going to have small pics. Please click on them to see larger pics. I know I am posting a lot of pics. So I don't want to kill anyone's connection. I know some folks still have dialup.

Ravishing Socks Completed

I have a good deal of catching up to do. But given I just got back to the office after my week off, it might take a few posts to get my knitting up to date.

I completed my fourth pair of socks over a week ago on Saturday, Oct. 6th. Woohoo!

They were made with hand dyed yarn that was created to be self-patterning. I like the way the dye job came out. I call them my ravishing socks. It is mostly about the ravishing red color. And that I like having silly names for the colorways I dye.

I like the finish project. I think the Elann Esprit is a bit thick, but the cotton/elastic blend really seems to fit well on the foot and is pretty forgiving. I definitely like them.

Yarn:

Elann Esprit

Dye:

Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes

Pattern:

Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns Basic Sock Pattern

Needles:

Size 5 Knitpick circular & Size 5 Boyd

Front Shot:

Side View:

Flat:

Ravishing Socks

I am still working on the ravishing socks. These are out of the hand dyed yarn I did. It is Elann Esprit Cotton w/Elastic yarn.

I am happy to say I have turned the heel and completed the gusset. So now it is just the foot to complete.



The yarn has some nice give. The elastic gives it some great spring. The only downside is that they are handwash. *pout* I wish I knew why they aren't machine washable. I am not sure.

The Milsoft made a huge difference in how soft the yarn is. I am definitely a fan of the Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes. They really seem to be vivid. And so far as I can tell, the color holds well. It has so far with my bruise socks.

Don't think the colors are as bright and vidid as they seem. Problem is that I took the pics with my phone so they aren't as good. I really need a new camera.

It is the basic sock pattern from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns.

I am using the basic pattern, but doing it 2 socks on 2 circs. The needles are Knitpicks Options Size 5 & Boyd's Kit Size 5. I figured since I had two size 5 Knitpicks, I was going to do them on two Knitpicks needles. But I am finding with the socks I am doing for Paul that it is way easier to mix up the needles when they are the same. So despite the join not being smooth on the Boyds, it is worth knowing which is which very easily.

I feel like these socks are taking longer. Not sure why I am feeling that way. I just checked! I started them on the 23rd. It hasn't even been two weeks yet. Doh.

I am loving Ravelry. If you have access, here is the project on there. And note the shiny Works in Progress in the side bar!! I am so thrilled I was given a spot to test the code. It is so cool.

More Batches of Yarn Dyeing

I did two bunches of yarn dyeing this weekend. This makes my second & third batch of hand dyed yarns.

Second Batch

I wanted to do a yarn that was self patterning & stripping in red & black with some variations on the red.

The good news is that I think it came out pretty well. The red is bright with a good deal of depth. The two other reds I mixed look good too. It worked out well.

I also loved the warping board. Paul made it for my birthday. The design is taken from Scout's site. It helped lay things out. I am not sure if it saved any time, but I think it might have. I didn't time it. But it was certainly a lot easier to lay out. And it took up so much less space than the long skein method. So I am happy with it.

I did it with the Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes again. The red is the fire red. I really like it a lot.

The down side is that there are a couple spots where I didn't get the dye deep enough into the yarn. Though overall, it actually looks pretty good. I think when it is knit up, it will look okay. And heaven knows, the variation might be nice.

I am curious to see how it looks when it is knit.

Third Batch

I think the color in the photos is a bit off. I have tried tweaking it, but it isn't working very well. The colors don't seem as light as it looks in the photos. It is deeper.

But I do admit, the blues were lighter than I anticipated. They were supposed to be deeper, more midnight. I really think the cyan dye looks darker when it is painted on the yarn than it does when it is washed. I should just get a blue I want and use that more.

That said, I still really like the way it came out. It is the 100% bamboo yarn by Sarah's Yarns. It is pretty interesting. I really can't wait to see how it knits up.

The bamboo definitely takes the dyes different than the cotton. It seems like less of the color holds onto it. But there is this shimmer to it that the cotton doesn't have which makes it so lovely.

I did this batch a lot more free form. I decided that for a couple reasons. One was that I didn't want to reskein the yarn. I figured it came in a skein and it would be easier to just use it as it was skeined.

The other was because I am really not sure how this will knit up. I tried a sample of it. It feels amazing. But I do have some doubts about how it will work for socks. The site says it is great for socks. I am just simply not sure it will have enough give. So if I need to frog any socks I try to make with it, I would rather have it in a color and design where there won't be an issue about the patterning to the yarn. The colors are just large enough to make little spots, not whole lines. So it could look very interesting.

Doing Two Batches

I think it will be a while before I decide to do two batches at once. The only way I might reconsider is if they are the same yarn & I can wash them together. It took eons to wash both sets of yarn the next day.

Part of this is about hand washing & rinsing. It is time consuming. I keep wondering if there is something I am not doing correctly. But I don't think so. I think it is just about how long it takes to wash out the dye that is on the yarn and not in it. It took about 5 hours between the two batches. Heaven knows, I think the dyeing only took about that long.

Reskeining the Yarns

I hope that I somehow goofed big time with the warping board. Because trying to get the red & black batch of yarn out of the tied skein into something I could make into balls what a nightmare. I seriously spent 6, yes 6 hours trying to untangle it and get it into something useable. *sigh* I suspect it was a couple factors.

I am really thinking about a different design for the warping board. I spoke with Paul about it before my birthday. Thing is he was already making me Scout's design. He did offer to make a different design for me. I have some ideas and I think the variations I want to do will make things a lot easier in the future. I should do a drawing and post it for suggestions.

The good thing is that both skeins are now in pretty little center pull balls! Woohoo. I got a ball winder. Knitting-warehouse.com as them for $24. I figured it would actually be more useful with the reskeining from the warping board. But because of the tangles in the yarn, that didn't actually happen. But it is actually great being able to make balls so quickly. I think it will help once I figure out what's up with the skeining issues.

More Pics to Come

The camera is literally coming apart. The battery flap is broken. So we have to hold it shut to take the pics. Most of the time Paul takes the pics as his fingers are strong enough to close it (he took the pics I have).

I took more photos with my phone. But there is some weirdness with my Palm. It won't actually transfer the photos.

I want to scoot home. I hope to have a resolution on the photo issue tomorrow. Maybe I will post more then. I took pics of some works in progress (WIPs) that I want to share too, including the socks from the first batch of self patterning yarn.