So I didn't make it back within the "next week" time frame that I said I would, but it wasn't because I had nothing to offer and nothing was happening, or that I was just slacking off this time- it was because I was gathering a WHOLE BUNCH of pictures and stuff! I did a major three day yarn dyeing extravaganza, and it was incredibly exhausting. I really need to get a table to work on. But I've definitely gotten better about remembering to take pictures during the process. Without further ado...
That's a whoooole bunch of yarn, pre dyeing. You'll notice there are two skeins that look as though they've already been dyed and plied- they were. However, they were dyed with RIT, and... yeah. They were really underwhelming. They were much more of a wishy washy mauve sort of color scheme. Bleh.
Action shots of the yarn soaking in the soda ash solution. Slimy, smelly, totally essential soda ash. It gets mixed in with hot water, and then the yarn gets dumped in and mushed about and left to soak for a little while.
Dye bottles, reporting for duty! That reminds me, I have to re-label a few of them. The labels have a tendency to get a bit, um, dirty. And illegible. And sometimes the labels can't take it and they disappear.
I honestly don't remember which skein this was. I think it might have sold already though.
I channeled my inner Pollock for this one. There were two sweater pieces I hadn't yet unraveled from last summer, and the reason I hadn't unraveled them was because the cotton was knit with a REALLY ANNOYING strand of some elastic-nylon-floofy garbage that unraveled at a different rate from the cotton, and made the process needlessly complicated. I decided to finally take the plunge though, and in the process do something I hadn't done before, which was dyeing the yarn before unraveling it. See how concentrated the colors look up there? I'm going to put up an addendum blog post tomorrow, showing how the colors wound up bleeding and fading into pastels as it soaked overnight. The finished yarn doesn't look anything like the colors above!
This is the yarn from the other sweater piece I dyed before unraveling. It's currently drying and will also be featured in tomorrow's part 2.
And, just for fun, here are some progress pictures of a skein I really enjoyed working with.
This is the yarn before adding twist to it. You can see it's just a bunch of tiny strands held together.
This is the yarn after I've added the twist. Radically different, eh?
And this is the yarn, after it's been chain plied. Wound up being 200 yards even. Some soaking and thwacking evened it all out, and it is currently on its way to its new home!
Tomorrow, in addition to an update on the two skeins still drying, I'll also share a bit about a personal project I've got going on, and I'll talk about the sweaters I bought yesterday. One is REALLY bizarre and I won't be able to sell much of the yarn from it as there are many obnoxious knots- but the yarn itself is highlighter yellow and- get this- actually encased in white fishnet (lacy icord, probably)! How could I NOT take home such a technological marvel of fiber?!
As always, you can find me on Etsy, on Pinterest (where I've made new boards and pinned quite a few useful and beautiful things!), on Facebook, and on Instagram.
That's all for now... Yarn Goddess, over and out!
That's a whoooole bunch of yarn, pre dyeing. You'll notice there are two skeins that look as though they've already been dyed and plied- they were. However, they were dyed with RIT, and... yeah. They were really underwhelming. They were much more of a wishy washy mauve sort of color scheme. Bleh.
Action shots of the yarn soaking in the soda ash solution. Slimy, smelly, totally essential soda ash. It gets mixed in with hot water, and then the yarn gets dumped in and mushed about and left to soak for a little while.
Dye bottles, reporting for duty! That reminds me, I have to re-label a few of them. The labels have a tendency to get a bit, um, dirty. And illegible. And sometimes the labels can't take it and they disappear.
I honestly don't remember which skein this was. I think it might have sold already though.
I channeled my inner Pollock for this one. There were two sweater pieces I hadn't yet unraveled from last summer, and the reason I hadn't unraveled them was because the cotton was knit with a REALLY ANNOYING strand of some elastic-nylon-floofy garbage that unraveled at a different rate from the cotton, and made the process needlessly complicated. I decided to finally take the plunge though, and in the process do something I hadn't done before, which was dyeing the yarn before unraveling it. See how concentrated the colors look up there? I'm going to put up an addendum blog post tomorrow, showing how the colors wound up bleeding and fading into pastels as it soaked overnight. The finished yarn doesn't look anything like the colors above!
This is the yarn from the other sweater piece I dyed before unraveling. It's currently drying and will also be featured in tomorrow's part 2.
And, just for fun, here are some progress pictures of a skein I really enjoyed working with.
This is the yarn before adding twist to it. You can see it's just a bunch of tiny strands held together.
This is the yarn after I've added the twist. Radically different, eh?
And this is the yarn, after it's been chain plied. Wound up being 200 yards even. Some soaking and thwacking evened it all out, and it is currently on its way to its new home!
Tomorrow, in addition to an update on the two skeins still drying, I'll also share a bit about a personal project I've got going on, and I'll talk about the sweaters I bought yesterday. One is REALLY bizarre and I won't be able to sell much of the yarn from it as there are many obnoxious knots- but the yarn itself is highlighter yellow and- get this- actually encased in white fishnet (lacy icord, probably)! How could I NOT take home such a technological marvel of fiber?!
As always, you can find me on Etsy, on Pinterest (where I've made new boards and pinned quite a few useful and beautiful things!), on Facebook, and on Instagram.
That's all for now... Yarn Goddess, over and out!
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