I started the Karate Kid’s socks last week and texted his mom a picture to see if he still liked the pattern.
The colors are beautiful but not quite for a nine-year old boy so I am going to redye the yarn in darker greens and blues.
Hopefully we will both like the bolder colors better…for a Karate Kid pair of socks.
I finished the Princess’s socks last week. She decided on the Double Moss stitch since I already had a finished pair using the stitch.
To stretch her hand-dyed yarn I added pink toes.
I used exactly 53 grams of the 106-gram skein of yarn so I could possibly get a second pair for her. The pink is Rouge in Knit Picks Stroll and I used 6 grams for the toes.
I love how the purple broke into blue and pale red. I like both the double moss stitch texture as well as the plain knit sole.
I hope she will be happy with them.
Our Colorado family visited us at the end of June. It had been 944 days since we saw them in person. That’s just too long.
Besides going on a hike to Blackwater Falls, visiting Geroge Washington’s headquarters, eating ice cream, having a picnic, painting rocks, celebrating our wedding anniversaries (Daughter and S-I-L 15 years, Mr. Atich and myself 48 years!), and rock painting, we also dyed yarn!
Surprise, surprise!
Using the Crockpot method, we dyed six skeins (100 grams each) of fingering weight yarn in total, the most I’ve ever done at one time. [I did purchase a small microwave (specifically for dyeing/setting the dyes) the morning we dyed but didn’t have time to get it unpacked and ready to use.] For the most part, we used food coloring and Easter egg dyes but I did use some Jacquard dyes in Brillant Blue and Jet Black to add colors. I’m getting low on the Easter egg dyes.
The Karate Kid chose greens and blues.
The Princess chose red and purple. I didn’t add enough white vinegar to the water so as soon as the purple dye hit the wet yarn, it broke into pink and blue. She loved it so we continued.
The Artist wanted reds, oranges, and yellows. The red wasn’t as intense as we thought as a lot of it washed out.
She also used some leftover red and black and a mixture of those for a black cherry hue for this skein.
My daughter used red, blue, and purple with a few spots of lime green.
Lastly, the Karate Kid and I dribbled all of the leftover dyes down the sides of the Crockpot and just let it sit in hot water until all the dye was absorbed.
The final group all in a row.
Each will get at least one pair of socks. That’s a lot of knitting time for me!
I do have a question for any dyers out there: How much dye do you use in what amount of water to make your dye stock? I think I use too much dye and/or too little water as I’m seeing too much color go down the drain while rinsing.
I’m going to show you two of the other skeins of yarn I dyed last year.
This one is called Blueberry Smoothie. I used food coloring and Paas Easter Egg dyes. Kid (and adult) friendly and as far as I know, colorfast.
I love the blues and touch of purple.
There are a lot of light blues and undyed yarn. Nothing planned for this skein…yet.
The second dyed yarn is a red tonal, also using food coloring and Paas Easter Egg dyes.
I already knit a pair of socks and didn’t get any pictures of the skein beforehand. This is what I have left over.
The sock pattern is from Helen Stewart’s Handmade Sock Society: Scribbly Gum Socks. Once knitted up, the yarn appears as a tonal stripe that is only noticeable on the plain stockinette stitch on the back.
I dipped a plastic fork into some black liquid food coloring and touched various areas of the yarn to give add that speckled look. It’s not as pronounced as I wanted.
I’m still experimenting with dyeing my own yarns and once the weather warms up (again), I’ll try some other dyeing techniques.
Knitting In Flashes 