Sunday, August 30, 2009

Contributions

I've learned not to cast on one project directly after finishing another. My brain is normally a little shot and I'm still on a cool high from finishing. hehe So yesterday, after completing the Kimono, I decided to get right on some dying that I promised my Mom. She's crocheting a baby blanket for my baby niece and I wanted to get some of my hand dyed yarn in there! :)

Since the rest of the blanket is in solid colour stripes (and I didn't think a multi-colour yarn would look right) I immediately thought of the crock pot, a method I hadn't tried yet.

Yarn Soup

I used a single packet of grape for one ball, and then a single packet of an off brand strawberry lemonade for the other. After soaking the yarn I just plopped it in to room temperature water along with the entire packet. The thing I liked about the crock pot method was that after turning it on, I could walk away for hours and not have to worry about accidentally felting or anything. I pulled it out after a bunch of time (when I remembered that it was still going in the kitchen... lol) and hung it to dry outside.

In the end, I got a pretty semi-solid colour:

There's some light and dark in these that aren't very apparent in the photo. I think they'll both look great in with the yellows and greens in the blanket. Now let's just hope that Mum's allergy to wool doesn't extend to crocheting with it. ;)

I have another ball of pink going now that will end up as a Brain Monster for Chris's niece, Lila.



6 comments:

  1. So neat! What type of dye do you use? "Lemonade" and "Grape" sounds yummy. ;) Do you have to buy yarn dye from a yarn store, or do you get it off the internet? The yarn looks beautiful!
    Faith

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  2. Very pretty yarn! I think I'll have to try dyeing (is it spelled that way?) some time too, it looks like so much fun! I don't think I can get cool-aid in the supermarkets here in Sweden, but I've seen that some of the yarnshops have them. Probably over-priced though, but it might be worth it just to try it out.

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  3. Oh! I'm sorry I didn't say! It's Kool Aid! hehe As long as you're using protein fiber (like wool, silk or nylon) then you can use food dyes. :)

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  4. Those colors came out fantastic! I have got to try the crock pot method- looks great!

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  5. just wanted to jion the others in praising you dye job. it's really pretty!

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  6. I love the colours! I can't wait to start this blanket all over again :) thanks darlin!

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