Friday 22 March 2013

Bargain Beauties

Last week Sausages and I tried to dye some cheap, pure wool aran yarn that we found in a cheapie-cheapie shop. You know, the kind of shop that sells short runs of bargain items, remaindered stock, last season's high street clothes etc. This particular shop had these lovely 100g balls of scratchy yarn for a couple of pounds each. I know it's controversial, but I just love scratchy yarn. If it smells a bit rough, even better. Somehow it makes me feel that it is less processed; more closely connected to the sheep. A few weeks ago I found pink and purple food dye on offer in the supermarket and had been itching to try it out as a yarn dye, so we decided to put the two together:


The results were a little disappointing. Our first attempt resulted in 300g of pink graduating into purple, but the purple did not stick well at all, so the colours are very subtle. The yarn in itself is beautiful, but not really what I was going for. To give the dye another chance we attempted 100g of graduated purple. This was more successful, possibly because I added more vinegar to the soak, and possibly because the purple was more concentrated this time. The colours are lovely, but we were hoping for something a bit more vibrant.


We decided to dye the last ball of yarn with the food dyes that we used for our first attempt at yarn dyeing. We were going for something that felt like spring, because it is still freezing and snowing here and we were feeling the need. We had quite a lot of fun; instead of painting the yarn as we did before, we just loaded up our brushes and flicked the dye at it! Thank goodness for our lovely wet room! We used yellow and green dye. Again the yarn did not hold the dye very well, and the end result is muddier and more muted than intended, but we have called it "Daffodil" in a very pretentious way, and are still quite pleased with ourselves.



Other highlights of the week include making a police car out of a plastic box and getting some help with the laundry. The usual! I haven't decided what to knit with the yarn yet. The 300g of graduated pink might be nice in a shawl...what do you think? I confess, I have never knit anything for myself, and the idea of a shawl of my own dyed yarn really appeals!

Have a lovely weekend

E

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