Chickenlips Knitting

I seem to be taking a breather of sorts from knitting. It would probably be more accurate to say that dyeing has become my all-consuming passion! Oh, I'd never abandon the stix though--I'm way too much of a yarn ho to do that. It's just that I sold two of my hand dyes in twelve hours, on Etsy. I was thrilled--then alarmed, as I realized I was down to my last three, and the undyed yarn I ordered was nowhere in sight! So yesterday, it being a glorious fall day, I drove out to Woodland Woolworks in Carlton to get some more.

Here are the fruits of my labor, the thing that keeps me up nights, reskeining completely dry hanks and then coiling them seductively for photos.

The first two were dyed with Wilton icing dyes, and the yarn I used was Kona Superwash. The hanks have extremely generous yardage--around 560. The yarn weight also seems thicker to me than what I consider to be fingering weight, or "sock yarn".

Colorway: "Fly By Night". Sold.

This one started out to be something quite different from what it turned out to be. While I haven't quite made up my mind if I like it or not, it only costs 20 cents to list an item on Etsy, so WTF. It's called "Between Sun and Moon".

With this one, I was back in my comfort zone, materials-wise. Jacquard acid dyes and British Naturals sock yarn. I was trying for the "Red Barchetta" colorway--it being my second attempt to create it--and when the hank was dry, my heart sank because all I could think of was Bozo the clown. But wait! It's got silver-grey in it. Oh crap, Bozo's a senior citizen! Yeah, it's way past my bedtime and I've begun to stop making sense, (which was a kickass Talking Heads show, BTW.) One more and that's it.

Again, something else that didn't turn out as I envisioned. But if I let that stress me, then what's the freakin' point? It's all experimentation, it actually has to be, because most of these dye shades are ones I'm using for the first time and I have no idea how they'll translate to the fiber. The blue is actually lilac, thus making this look like an Easter egg hunt gone awry. My mind is so fogged in that I don't even know what to call it. Suggestions welcome!

# posted by Sharon @ 1:13 AM