Wednesday, November 26, 2008

My Wollmeise Antidote

So I tried it again...dyeing some sock yarn to closely resemble "Poison No. 5" from the Wollmeise.

I layered the colors in a different order and even used some different colors but as I was hand painting, I was disappointed that it seemed like I'd come up with nearly the same colors. So I decided to add a bit more here and there to make it closer to colors that I'd really enjoy...since I wasn't matching what I was attempting.

I thought that was the end of it. I'd be done trying this colorway...a bit disappointed, but done. The bright side = I'd have some nice colored yarn to make so socks with :)

Well, as I was squeezing out the water, the colors were perking up a bit. It's funny that in fluorescent l lighting, it has a neon glow too. It's drying right now and I'm hopeful that it will actually be closer to what I wanted than I thought...fingers crossed

Will post pics when done.
Dyeing details:
Magenta (on 35g)= 1/2 packet Strawberry KA, 1/4 packet Berry Blue KA, one dye bath of 21 drops neon pink gel color & 7 drops neon purple gel color, second dyebath of 10 drops neon pink & 10 drops neon purple.

Purple (on 35g)= 1/2 packet Strawberry KA, 1 packet Berry Blue KA, one dye bath of 15 drops neon pink gel
color & 15 drops neon purple gel color.

Purple/Black (on 35g)= 3 packets Blackberry KA, 1 packet Switchin' Secret KA, 1.75 packets Berry Blue KA.

I did the magenta & purple sections first (exhausting the dye baths at room temp since it's superwash yarn). However, the purple/black section had to be left to exhaust overnight. The next morning I cooked it all on "high" in the crockpot (with exhausted dye bath/acidic water) for 2 hours. Then rinsed & dried.

Update: 11/28/08
Well, it's all dry. The colors were very similar to the first attempt (here's a link to that blog post)...but I liked the second one better...not enough blue in the first one. So I overdyed the first one in a bath of 2 packets Invisible Kool-Aid, 15 drops blue gel color, & 5 drops neon purple gel color.

Here's the overdyed first attempt...


Here's a pic that best shows all three colors in the second attempt.


Here they are side by side.


I think this colorway is out of my system. I'm very pleased with my results. Now I just need to figure out which I like better for my socks & what to do with the other...decisions, decisions :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These are both georgeous!! Nice work!