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.

2nd bash

I took the same yarn I had "dust dye" last week and 

pour a smidgen of the dye in 100 ml of hot water.

Dye was applied on now a 20g mini skeins.

I like the result with Dharma dye

It is not exactly like the picture on the web site 

but overall it is colors I can enjoy

I can't wait to dye more on large skeins.

Dust of dye

Another day of fun - dyeing yarn

use the same rules as this post 

After multiple try-out, I chose a Superwash DK yarn (Bare from Knit picks).

it is a soft yarn and that takes the dye very well.

I first put the 100g skein in a ball

then I make the ball in 25g skeins (4 each)

I used the Dharma dye this time in the following colors

And some Gaywool dye

✏ Saltbush

✏Watercrest

this is I added only a dust of dye to the 100 ml hot water cup

Beautiful very soft pastel colors

I only kept a 5g sample skein, 

I am still playing with the dye and the rest of the mini skeins, 

now 20g each....

A day of natural dyeing . . . in France

It is not a secret I love dyeing yarn and I am always curious to know how other people are doing it. I have been reading a few blogs from dyers in French and found out a few weeks before my visit to France about the new dyeing class from Mademoiselle C.

Her designs are a delight and I have always admired her yarn on Etsy.

So when she opened her Atelier with dyeing classes I couldn't wait to schedule one.

It was 4 hours of great pleasures. 

I learnt new techniques very different than the ones from my other classes.

In the US, I have learnt that the yarn must be mordanted first and then the color is applied 

but here we did the opposite.

The mixing of the dye and the water was also done differently with very little water.

Also we only used all our samples in one bath, just one after another until the bath was almost clear (here 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th bath, from darker to lighter color).

We also got to experiment with other mordant such as copper and iron, which I had never done before.

This experience was a lot easier for me because we used metric system instead of the US measurement system. I understood also that mixing color before pouring into the water might not be the solution to get the color you want but multiple baths might be a better option. 

I can't wait to use again what I have learnt on all the yarn I have collected over the winter.

For this class we used the following natural dyes 

1. Madder
2. Dyer's broom yellow
3. Chlorophyl green

and the following mordant

1. Copper
2. Iron

Christmas gift, part 2

This christmas I had a lot of gifts to knit. My sister got addicted to the show "Once upon a time", so we went on a search of Emma, Ruby and Mary Margaret hat patterns.

First we went for Mary Margaret beret, easily finding a free pattern on Ravelry

I used Malabrigo worsted, US 8 needles.

Second she wanted Ruby's beret but in a cherry color.

Free pattern on Ravelry

I couldn't find the right color so I decided to dye it myself with Kool-aid.

(3 packages of Cherry and 1 Black cherry, for 200 yards of Cascade Cash vera, microwave process)

I simply love the color even if the picture is a bit bright due to the Instagram filter.