acid dyeing

Dyepot Stories: Rabun Gap

Nicky12 Comments

She asked for purple with blue undertones.  Of course, I only had purple with red undertones.  Several color mixes later, still no end in sight.  I slept on the task, then went at it again.  The final color mix gave me this:

Rabun Gap

The blue purple she wanted.  Tonal with hues moving from very dark to medium shades of purple.

I was happy to do this for her.  For Sharon, one of my biggest cheerleaders.  The fact that I don’t have a shop didn’t stop her from making a request.  She wanted this, she thought I could do it and she asked in a way that only friends could ask and not have you tell them no.  LOLOL!   Because of her gentle insistence, in addition to a colorway I’m proud of, I got the chance to build on my dyeing portfolio.  Win, win for us both I’d say.

Meet Rabun Gap.

 

 

Dyepot Stories: Solid As A Rock

Nicky12 Comments

Okay … every time I say the word solid, I have to do the entire Ashford & Simpson “solid as a rock” thing … hence the title.  😀

Okay, okay … I know you’re not here for that!  LOLOL!  So let’s get to it …

Creating dyed solid yarn is apparently a little harder to do than it looks that’s why we have … dun, dun, dun … semi solids!  For the times I’ve tried to get solid yarn, I got 80%, 88%, never 100%.  But after some experimenting, I finally got it.  Fully saturated, no white areas in the yarn, and she’s a beaut!!!   There were a few things to take into consideration — yarn content, weight of fiber, ratio of dye and all that jazz.  While those things contribute to giving us a good solid (including over dyeing if the yarn isn’t already too saturated), they can also affect if we don’t get a totally solid dye.

Finally, Solid

She might become part of a shawl, but I’m not sure yet.  In the mean time, I’m just going to enjoy the fact that she’s 100% solid!  And she sparkles!  What more can I ask for?