Coquelicot test knit

It is time to finally dye my 6 skeins of Alpaca silk sport I need for the "Coquelicot" test knit.

I am knitting size XL.

it is a little less dark than I expected and the grey coat is gone from the 25g sample.

oh well, it is beautiful anyway and I can start the test knit.

Coastal blue

My mind is set for a blue, dark peacock with a bit of a grey.

I tried first on 2 g sample

After a few try-outs, I finally get a color that I fell in love with

I test it again on a 25 g sample

Coastal blue is born, 

let's try on my final try out, the 6 skeins of Alpaca Silk sport....

All yarn dyeing result

113 colors, 

which one am I going to choose???

Alpaca Silk Sport Sampling, part 3

3nd phase of my sample dyeing is with Country classics dyes.

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Country Classics Dyes

26 colors

26 sample of 150 cm each

1/2 smidgen of dye per 100 ml

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Total of 113 yarn samples

Alpaca Silk Sport Sampling, part 2

2nd phase of my sample dyeing is with Dharma dyes.

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Third try-out, Dharma Dyes

27 colors

27 sample of 150 cm each

1/2 smidgen of dye per 100 ml

even better colors 

but some of the samples are partially dyed which is worrying me 

since I have to dye 600 g of alpaca silk yarn

we can see on this picture that the peacock dye didn't go on some of the sample.

That is a recurrent problem when you dye your own yarn.

Alpaca Silk Sport Sampling

As I am preparing to test knit a new beautiful pattern "Coquelicot cardigan" from HelEtZel, I felt like using my own hand dye yarn. 

I selected this beautiful Alpaca Silk Sport similar to the yarn recommended 

now which color to dye  ?

I now have about 100 different dye colors in stock, and I have only sample dye on merino wool, BFL, superwash but never on alpaca. So I decided to run a sample dye on all my dyes and see which one would work best.

For this color sampling, I didn't need to heat it up in the microwave.

The vinegar was enough to fix the color to the yarn

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First try-out, Crushing Dyes

30 colors

30 sample of 150 cm each

1 smidgen of dye per 100 ml

colors are beautiful and yarn took the dye right away, 

but it is way to dark and some colors like dark grey came out blue not grey.

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Second try-out, Crushing Dyes

30 colors

30 sample of 150 cm each

1/2 smidgen of dye per 100 ml

same beautiful colors, but a little softer for some of them, 

I like better that combination so I will apply for rest of the sampling

Crushing dyes dissolves very well in water and color is well absorbed in yarn.