The Dye Pot

Thunder Storm

Materials

Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud, lace weight. 50 grams, Iris color
PAAS dye tablets: 1/2 blue, 1/2 purple
White vinegar
Water

Method

Crock pot

Colorfast?

Yes

Color name

Thunder Storm

Pretty much the standard procedure - soak the yarn in cool water, dissolve the dyes in vinegar, dye in crock pot, yarn into dye bath and crock pot set to high.





This was the result of a yarn I already had in a color that didn't do much for me. The original looked like this:





I had been looking at some other lace and fingering weight yarns in the blue to violet range and remembered that I had a fair amount of this Knitpicks yarn. The baby alpaca is just gorgeous, soft, silky yarn but the color didn't work with the others. So I decided to take one hank and gently over dye it - to see what happened. It already leaned in the right direction, it just needed a little more nudging :)





The swatch was done on size 5 US (3.75 mm ) needles.

I even indulged in some lace knitting for the swatch figuring that was probably how this yarn should be shown. While I think it came out reasonably well, I'd be embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to manage it.

Notes: I have dyed this yarn before. Second Hand Rose also started its life as part of the Alpaca Cloud line, color - Sunlight Heather. This yarn dyes beautifully and comes out of the process as silky and glossy as it was when it went in. This particular color, Thunder Cloud, is interesting and does go with the other yarns I had been looking at earlier - in fact it goes very well. But I wish it were a little brighter :)

Posted by Robbyn on 07/08 at 08:37 PM