Hand-dyed Yarn

This is hand dyed yarn from my own children's sweatshop in the Frigid North. 

Dyed with all the fervor of a toddler's artistic expression, it has a lovely sheen of pale blue/green and aqua that can self-stripe, depending on the width of the project.

 

The alpaca fiber in the yarn is unbelievably soft, and the merino adds that bit of sturdiness needed to make a long-wearing set of socks.  Best yet, it can be machine washed in cold water (although I'd recommend letting them air-dry).

This would make an excellent gift for that knitter/crocheter in your life.

Or better yet, buy it for yourself and you could consider it $18 worth of personal therapy that can last for years.

Click here to visit my Etsy shop, and keep checking back, as I'll have more things listed within the next few days!

Tea-dyed Yarn

A few weeks ago I saw this pattern from Knitspot, and although I've got waaaaaaaay too many projects going right now, I just had to purchase it immediately. I blame it on pre-delivery depression, therefore the cost is accrued to therapy expenses. Completely understandable.

I love colors, but for a shawl I think I prefer something that will match with everything. Therefore, I opted to purchase some lovely 100% Merino Skacel laceweight yarn in a solid white color and tea-dye it for a semi-solid affect (MUCH cheaper than purchasing it that way already).

To do this, I first soaked the skein in cold water for 30 minutes until it was well saturated. Then, I gently wrung it out and put it in my kitchen sink. (My sink was semi-clean. Ahhhhh, just notice and admire. This will most likely not happen again.)

While the skein was soaking, I boiled a pot of very strong black tea. I drank some. Then I drank some more. When I felt happy with life, I took out the tea bags. By this time, the tea was cool enough to pour over the skein with no danger of felting the wool.

Since I'm going for a semi-solid affect, I only poured the tea in three spots on the skein, each spot about 4 inches wide. I poured enough tea over these spots until all the yarn in that area was well saturated.

When I was satisfied with the saturation, I gently wrung it out. I had to be careful not to let the tea sections bleed into the un-dyed sections. Then, I just hung the skein outside in the sun to dry.

"Ahhhh, what a nice warm day to get a tan . . ."

Here's the finished skein, all bundled up and pretty-looking.

"Why thank you! I'm a natural semi-solid, I can assure you!"

Wool is such a diva.