The Dye Pot

Maple Leaf Rag

Materials

Paton's Merino wool, worsted weight. 50 grams, natural color
PAAS dye tablets: 2 red, 1 orange. 1/2 purple
White vinegar
Water

Method

Crock pot

Colorfast?

Yes

Color name

Maple Leaf Rag

Standard Procedure - Soaked the yarn in cool water, dissolved the dye in white vinegar, added the dye solution to about 4 quarts of water, mixed and poured into the crock pot. Added the soaked yarn (soak time - about 30 minutes), stirred gently to acquaint all the yarn with the dye bath, put the lid on and turned the crock pot to the high setting.





I had hoped the presence of purple would help to tone down the brilliance of the red-orange. All I can say is that I keep trying to imagine what the yarn would look like if there hadn't been any purple at all :) Green might have been a better option for muting the color, but the chances of winding up with something muddy and unappealing would have gone up too, I think.





The swatch was done on size 9 US (5.5 mm) needles.

Notes: Like a couple of the previous yarns, this too used almost twice as much dye as I would normally use for 50 grams of yarn - and this is nothing if not saturated! Whee! However, despite its gregariousness, I like it. In fact taken together (though it wasn't intentional) this color along with the previous three (Evermoss, Terra Copper and Here Comes the Sun!) seem to present a classic autumn palette.

I love fall :)

Posted by Robbyn on 06/07 at 07:21 PM