It had to end sometime. It eventually became a question of what would exhaust first. The dye pot or me. But, after a long day of dyeing, I had this lovely assortment of reds. (Plus the two batches of fleece.) All from two ounces of cochineal, some alum, cream of tartar, and vinegar.
The Final Assortment
I’d say it was almost worth all the effort.
Here are some of the first skeins of the plied merino yarn. Is it not gorgeous? When it came off the swift I had one of those “oooooooohhhhhhh” moments. A moment only equaled to . . . um . . . well, I’ll figure something out.
Five Skeins
Shortly after I gave up on the sweater I got the crocheting itch really bad. There was nothing for it but to grab at the yarn and try again. I checked one of the balls for crocking, and it didn’t seem to be the culprit skein, so I plunged forward with a few modifications to the original design.
Sweater Beginning
That explains why my original free-style attempt got so big. This way you chain and put the first row of single-crochets on at the same time, making it the size it will wind up at! I think I had something like one hundred stitches to make it big enough.
Okay, so I dyed the Rebecca yarn teal, and that felt like enough of an adventure, what with too much dye powder and all. How could it get worse?
Well, for starters, I suddenly discovered that I’m not up to creating a garment of this importance without a pattern. And I found this out after crocheting a good-sized section of it. I did, oh, maybe four rounds of double-crochet stitches on the “hem” of the sweater and thenstopped to try it on. It was about four inches too big around. I’d have been swimming in it, if I didn’t run out of yarn before the end.
Note to self: Dyeing takes at least twice as long as you originally planned, so be prepared!
Yes, I’ve had another long day in the kitchen. All I wanted to dye was the Rebecca yarn.
The Finished Yarn!
I got to play with the teal and periwinkle dyes. They became some rather nice samples, and I learned to not try to microwave-set a yard of yarn in a small glass jar with a whole teaspoon of dye solution by sticking it in the microwave for a minute.
Periwinkle Samples
The one on the bottom is actually some of the Rebecca yarn, which I popped into the very hot, leftover dye water from the boiled superwash.
Can you see how the yarn almost looks like it’s glowing? It took me a bit to figure out why it was doing that. I think it’s because I just dunked the yarn in, gave it a couple seconds in the hot water, and pulled it out. The outer fuzzies dyed blue, but the core of the yarn is still cream. I may have to experiment with double-dyed yarns in the near future.
The Completed Rebecca Yarn
I have officially finished spinning all of the Rebecca wool into singles, and I’ve even started plying it! I have two nice skeins done already.
The First of the Bunch
I’m not sure how much they weigh, or how much yardage is in them. I’ll find out once they’re all done. And, once they’re all done I’ll just have the two drop-spindling projects left to finish up.
Ha ha. Just two drop-spindling projects. I spun a little on each of them today and managed to remind myself that they’re good for leisurely, enjoyable spinning. Not so good for speed work.
Look what is showing through my once-enormous pile of turquoise fiber.
I Can See The Bottom!
This is all I was able to make before running out of purple locks to stick into the thin single.
The Finished Lumpy
I’m ahead of schedule! Two and half hours on my feet running the Great Wheel has paid off in these five little beauties. They’re right around one ounce apiece!
Five Marvelous Spools
I spun two of them this morning, and the other three while we watched Miracle on 34th Street. I’m so happy that I got ahead! It means that I might not fall behind in the next couple days. I’ll just forget about the fact that my arms and back and everything else are complaining loudly.
And I added two more big fat skeins to the unnamed yarn.
More and More