No, not committing suicide or going to Heaven through natural means (though i did have an interesting conversation last night with a guildee about the end times and how to become a Christian), but learning how to dye my yarn. This is actually something i have wanted to learn how to do for a long time, whether it be yarn or fabric that i would be dying. i love batik fabrics and it can be a bit of a challenge to find the colors i want for projects. This is especially true of the yarn i want to use for that wrap sweater.
From the beginning, i knew that i wanted the yarn to be fuzzy. That was clear from the photo in
Fit Pregnancy that inspired the sweater, that it was soft fuzzy yarn knit with needles a couple of sizes too big so that it is semi-lacy. The closest yarn i could find for a long time was
Rowan Kidsilk Haze, which is a challenge to use (i crocheted a hat with it once), and unfortunately expensive. So for the past few days i have been scouring the internet for a cheaper substitute (or any substitute, for that matter) in the color i want. See, in the photo the sweater was a dark orange, kind of on the red side, but in my head i have always seen this sweater as more of a yellow orange: not peach, not gold, not yellow, not orange red, not rust, not red orange, but a light orange that's on the yellow side.
Well i haven't been able to find that color
anywhere. So my mind started turning to dying the yarn myself, but i have no idea how to do that! It sounds complicated! What if i buy a bunch of expensive yarn and it
still doesn't turn out the color i want?!? But today i stumbled upon KoolAid dying: one apparently mixes the KoolAid to be the color he or she wants, microwaves or simmers the yarn in the said mix, and when all the color has gone out of the water rinses and dry and voila you're done. Sounds easy enough, and it isn't toxic!
Well i found a cheaper yarn substitute finally, after Googling and searching for way too long (i could be lvling an alt or doing homework for crying out loud!). i found
Crystal Palace Kid Merino and i eventually found a
website where it's on sale and found another color or the yarn that i'm going to be hard pressed passing up (look at the Cocoa Blues at the top of that first page). i was originally planning on buying the Natural, but now i think i'm going to go with Lemon Sherbet because i read on one website that the artifical fibers and cotton don't dye as well (if at all) and that you can also dye pastels and light colors to good effect (hey, maybe i could put some of Grandma's old yarn to use after all...). Crystal Palace is cheaper than Rowan because it uses Nylon instead of Silk; so i might have a bit of lemon in my sweater, too, but that's okay, i want my yarn to be more yellow than pink or red anyway, and it doesn't have to be solid all the way through, i kind of like the hand dyed look after all (lol), i just don't want the yarn to be obviously variegated like Red Heart brand is. ):
In conclusion, i got my mitten yarn today, which is nice and soft, but not quite as turquoise as i was expecting. It's a nice enough blue, but is more on the cornflower side of the spectrum. When i ordered this yarn i almost picked the charcoal grey, now i wonder if i made the right choice (at any rate, it's too late to change my mind now, they are sold out of just about all of the colors now, and don't plan to carry it any longer it seems). Anyways, here's hoping that i get some more knitting done next week, and some of my dream buys will come to fruition. (: i think if i buy the yarn for these sweaters that i will be set when it comes to yarn for quite a while to come. Plus, the leftovers from the Ginny Cardigan will make good Christmas presents.
ETA: i guess that the proper spelling is dyeing... oops.
