Pick Your Poison No. 5

A few months back I ran across this yarn...Wollmeise Poison No. 5 and I thought it was the most beautiful yarn I'd ever seen! Here's a link to my favorite pic of the dark intensity.

But seeing as how the yarn sells out almost immediately and the second-hand selling price is $40-$45...I didn't think I'd ever be able to own it myself. Don't get me wrong...I did contemplate stalking the websites that sell it or buying it second hand but then I read something from someone who did that. She had stalked and got lucky enough to score a few colors but was now trying to resell them. She had come to the realization that although the colors are stunning, the yarn itself was not her favorite. And especially after reading her comment about the yarn not being super soft...I came to my senses about buying some. Because texture is VERY important to me...so began my quest to try to dye my own.

There are three color intensities of Poison No. 5 (light, medium, & dark). While they are all beautiful, I really wanted something close to the dark intensity. I think I ended up with something close to the medium intensity. And while my end colors my not have the "dark neon" quality of the Wollmeise, I am still extremely happy with what I got :D This is how I got there.

First I had to gather supplies & do some test runs. I've wanted to dye black with Kool-Aid from the very beginning and after acquiring a couple of discontinued flavors & a couple of experiments...I think I have it!

Here's a pic of my "Black" experiment from an earlier post.


Here are my "Poison" test dyes on Paton's Classic Merino.
Test #1


Test #2


Now, I was pretty confident that I had a good plan for getting the colors I wanted. So yesterday, I finally skeined off some BFL Ultra (superwash sock yarn) from Wool2Dye4. I was shooting for a 150g skein but when I got to 109g, I was a little dissappointed to find a knot in my cone of yarn :( But I figured it should be enough for what I needed. I usually don't use superwash yarn, but the great thing about it is that it is incredibly easy to hand paint because you can get all the color into the yarn while it's still cool.

Here are my ingredients, proportions & some pics.

1st Stop: Neon Pastels
Food coloring gel was melted & mixed in ~2 oz of water, then diluted to ~12 oz of cool water before dipping yarn in.

Pink (on 25g):
17 drops of Neon Pink Betty Crocker food color gel
4 drops of Neon Purple Betty Crocker food color gel
1 packet Invisible Kool-Aid

Purple (on 50g):
20 drops of Neon Pink Betty Crocker food color gel
20 drops of Neon Purple Betty Crocker food color gel
1 packet Invisible Kool-Aid
plus leftover blue from dyeing the Black portion

Black (on 25g):
2 packets Blackberry Ghoul Aid
1 packet Switchin' Secret
1 packet Berry Blue
4 drops of Neon Pink Betty Crocker food color gel
4 drops of Neon Purple Betty Crocker food color gel

After soaking in plain warm water for ~1hr, I rolled the skein in a towel & pressed as much water out as I could. The skein was divided in quarters (marked with acrylic yarn) with one section to be pink, 2 sections to be purple, and 1 section black.

I dyed the black section first using only the Kool Aid portions. The color took a lot longer to soak up with this yarn than with the superwash Knit Picks Bare that I've used before & I took it out of the water when it was still a bit blue...saving the blue.

The pink & purple dyebaths were not mixed with any acid. Instead I mixed a minimal amount of water (3 oz per 25g) & 2 packets of Invisible Kool Aid together & applied it only to the 75g of yarn that was designated as non-black. Next I dipped the pink section in the dyebath. Then did the same with the 2 purple sections (both at the same time). Next I dipped all except the pink into the leftover blue from the black dyebath. Finally, I overdyed the black section in the light neon mix I'd saved for just a hint of purple.

Here's the result...

Pretty...but just not what I was going for.

2nd Stop: Berry Tones
Ovedyed the above yarn with the following proportions. Packets were mixed in 8oz of water & added in 1 oz increments.

Pink (on 25g):
1/4 packet Black Cherry
3/8 packet Blackberry Ghoul Aid

Purple (on 50g):
5/8 packet Blackberry Ghoul Aid

Black: No change

Here's a pic...

Not there yet....

Final Stop: "Venom"
Next I overdyed with the following proportions.

Pink (on 25g): 1/4 packet Black Cherry

Purple (on 50g): 1 packet Blackberry Ghoul Aid

Black: No change

Here's a pic...


All these pictures were taken when the yarn was wet so I expect things to lighten up a bit when it is all dry. I will add a dry pic sometime tomorrow.

11/17/08:
Pics of the skein dry...