12/8/07

Birthday knitting and dye question

This year I am giving myself a birthday gift. A Pie Are Square shawl from Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmermann. And since I am Always Cold, I am doing it in Moss Heather Alpaca Cloud from Knitpicks. And for that extra luxury and warmth, I am double stranding it. Even though my birthday is only weeks away, I will be knitting it for a long time and in my favorite color. Just the joy of that soft yarn running through my hands for some time to come is a great gift indeed. I feel so spoiled.


In addition, since there are always multiple projects going on here, we have some Steeler socks for a little extra support for the Black and Gold. I am woefully low in Steeler footwear, but alas, these are for fiberguy. Two mosaics with some strange bits between in a handspun sockweight superwash Merino from the Black Lamb. Very thick. My own Steeler socks come next and I am spinning the gold right now.



My current socks are green and just noodling around with a travelling rib. We dyed this last spring.



And last, for all you dyers out there, a conundrum. I have this color, which I don’t like.

It is DK weight, cabled wool yarn. I would love to hear from anyone, or everyone, about how to overdye this. I mean, what color to use. I know I can go navy, or black. But any other colors you suggest could really help me. I have a couple of pounds of it for a sweater and I just don’t think I can live through the experience in a color I hate, even with a yarn I love. I favor greens but this has a serious teal going on. Anyone ever overdye this color before? As it is winter and I dye outside, I really don’t want to be out there freezing doing dye sampling, so I am trying to save some steps and ask for help. For once.

6 comments:

Sara said...

Fuschia will make your yarn purple, (Wash Fast Acid Magenta #338), Scarlet will make it a plumybrownish purple, gold will make a squadgey green (think swamp), yellow will make it green green green (grass green), violet will make it cobalt blue.

Your choice! :)

Deborah Robson said...

. . . and Sara would know! Keep us posted on what you decide.

Happy shawling.

Anonymous said...

I like to over dye by tying the skien
in a loose over-hand knot, I like how the dye over dyes that way. Before the bath is done, I undo the loose knot and over dye the rest of the skien. It's all the same, but not. As for colour W.W.S.D. (what would Sara do?) love Dennyx0x0x

Paper Tiger said...

That's a lot of knittin! (You deserve a birthday present, and you can best predict what you'd like...)

Does all this knitting mean you might be feeling better? she asks hopefully.

Love from the frozen snowy north.

Anonymous said...

Frankly, I Like the teal, but that's just me. I had thought of adding yellow so the other suggestions are way past my idea.
'Way to go, Fiberguy -headband and socks and -oh my! Enjoy the new fascination. I never get tired of knitting. I get tired of one project and switch to another. That keeps me interested.
And Fibergal -what?! It took you just 3 evenings to knit a FB Shawl?!?? I did the Paisley Lace shawl and it took me 11 months. you must knit MUCH faster than you think. ;0)

Anonymous said...

Sorry -the above anon comment -that was me, Jeannie. I'm not used to the new versions of blogger stuff yet.