Since we now have a Martin Luther King day tradition of yarn-shop hopping, Kim decided we also needed to have a President’s Day dyeing tradition. This year we decided to bring Sarah (who has never dyed) in on it. Much plotting and scheming commenced, and we decided to use “real” dyes this year instead of kool-aid. We ordered several skeins of Knitpicks Bare – some in the superwash variety, and the rest in the silk blend (yummy!), and 13 colors of acid dyes. We did a little planning on color combinations we wanted to attempt, but mostly we were just flying by the seat of our pants. Fortunately it was a great day to dye – even outside, where it was nearly 70!

Here’s Sarah on her second skein – a gorgeous mixed berries-type blend. Sarah was quick to find great color combos that Kim and I hadn’t even dreamed of.

This is Kim on her second skein – purples, vermillion, blue. Kim was once again in her element with the mixing, weighing, cooking – all the chemistry fun!

This is (I think) my second skein. Unfortunately the pink was a seriously hot pink, and the chartreuse was anything but – it was a seriously neon hot lime green. Following the yarn pic is a picture of the colorway I was going for – ended up not even close, but could still be cute. I may call it “Preppy Camouflage”.

Here you can see the wonderful help we received from Bugga and Jammer. Bugga is looking (but not touching in this pic), and Jammer is being somehow held down by Hayley (in the chair). The girls were great, but could not stand having to keep away from the fun.

We wrapped up our yarn into cute little yarn sushi rolls. We steamed some and microwaved others, and in the end really didn’t determine which was better, though the steamed rolls didn’t have to sit in the yucky runoff.

Much of our colorway plan went out the window – the vermillion was so pretty that Kim decided to boil a pot of it, twist up her yarn, and throw it in. I liked the idea too, so I put mine in without quite as much twist. They are the nearly solids that you see at the far right – very yummy, and much easier and less messy than the painting we did the rest of the day.

One of my favorites was the autumn colors you see in the center here – pink, orange, yellow and brown. And then there’s the model – again, not even close.

I’m waiting for all of mine to dry so I can ball it up – or maybe reskein it first to see the gorgeous-ness, then ball it up. I just wish it would hurry up. I can’t wait to do this again – but next time we definitely want to find some lighter colors. Suggestions, anyone?I’ll leave you with a picture of us – I’m calling it “Dyeing Divas”.

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