December 07, 2008

Knitting and dyeing results, femme update

I have been both knitting and dyeing.
The sock you see below is a mixture .Colinette jitterbug given to me by Artis Anne and Great Adirondack Yarn Co soxie.
I am not able to knit with 4 ply at the moment as my hands can't feel the yarn so a mix of 2 = DK = usable.

I love the rich colour mix and it makes a very warm sock.
The beauty of DK is that it knits up quickly as well.
Then I did some dyeing and with this there was some success and a failure.
Here they all are on the washing line, mainly bright but with one dour exception.
This was supposed to be 100% wool aran. I dyed it with vivid lime, deep purple and a little charcoal. It stunk to high heaven while being soaked prior to dyeing and even worse when it was in the dye pot. Imagine perming solution mixed with sulphur and manure, that was a little like the smell chez moggies. The only reason there is some colour in it(the purple blotches) is that I added some procion powder to the pot. The dyes I used were concentrated as you can see from the other skeins. This yarn STILL stinks even though it is now dry. What a waste of 300gm:(

This is 100% wool DK from a charity shop.50gms I have a few balls of this. The Laal Bear brought her windmill skein for a visit and we skeined 2 balls to try it out. This is Cerulean blue and vivid lime with a tiny amount of charcoal. I love this colourway.
This is the other 50gm dyed bright orange, vivid emerald and charcoal. So zingy and not enough for a pair of socks unfortunately. This colourway will be done again:)
100% BFL DK, cerulean blue and scarlet. weaker solution as I wanted a more muted colourway. 100gms so enough for socks.
Also BFL DK, acid lemon, buttercup yellow and cerulean blue. Vibrant in a muted sort of way:)
The 5 together. The aran looks a little better here but still disappointing. Someone suggested it may have been bleached with hydrogen peroxide to whiten it. This would account for both the smell and the inability to take dye.
I've had a couple of emails about the yule femmes. If you check out my Nov 19th post you will see them all. The ones left waiting for new homes are:-
Serephina
Artemesia
Kualina
Mara
mayamei

6 comments:

Laal Bear said...

Fab colours . Pity about the Aran . U x

Anonymous said...

Lovely colours, as ever :)

I wonder what neutralises hydrogen peroxide? A hairdresser would know...

Artis-Anne said...

Great colours , pity about the aran though:( I would still be tempted to overdye it ?
I promise I will update my blog as soon as my yarns have dried

dominiqueknitting said...

gorgeous dyework. And actually, the aran is not so bad. Muted, but not bad. But dyeing with a yarn that stinks must be horrible.

Jean said...

I know there are products out there that are neutralize odors, but I do not know if they are safe for wool. The color itself doesn't look bad (at least on my monitor) but my favorite has to be the Cerulean blue, vivid lime and charcoal, the charcoal adds a nice balance to the brighter colors. You've done a nice job of dyeing.

FairiesNest said...

They look so lovely! My fav is the yellow and green. Very summery!

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