Convoluted Success

I spent a good part of a past Sunday working with the alpaca and Jacob handspun that I thought I would dye. I had mumbled and muttered through what colors I was going to try (dark orange for the Jacob, and orchid for the alpaca, and finally got off dead center.

At the end of the day, I had dyed the alpaca dark orange. Being more brownish, I felt it would do better, and the Jacob which was intending to be orchid (one part fuchsia, one part turquoise) turned out blue.

Not really a problem.  Orchid was a nice thought, but orchid schmorchid....I love blue.

What was a problem was that I dyed the six skeins of each fiber in 2 skein batches in the dedicated apparatus (otherwise known as the avocado green crockpot) and the batches? Well, I tried to do it precisely and scientifically and all, but…well, separate dye lots are not equal dye lots….as it were.

The next evening, thinking what I needed to do was overdye each fiber as a whole batch, I hauled my blue enamel canning pot up from the basement. And dusted it off.  The dye bath was prepared using the same colors as before, and this time the process resulted in a consistent color. The only variation is due to the original shading of the fiber.

The dark orange dye exhausted almost completely which means the dyed yarn was left setting in almost clear water. The blue did not. My research leads me to think this is typical of the fuchsia and turquoise dyes. They are powerful dyes! The rinsing after dyeing resulted in almost completely clear water, so I feel the dye is set in the yarn, and that I used too much dye.

Still learning. About this and so many other things...

Interestingly, my laundry room, where I had 12 skeins of dark orange and blue (not orchid) yarn hanging? Sort of looked like there was Denver Broncos fan club thingie going one. Which is a little weird, because I am not so much one. Just sort of turned out that way….

Results? I am very pleased, and excited to pick something out of my queue to knit this stuff into.