disaster yarn.

I’ve been eyeing off a few different Etsy stores lately, selling gorgeous variegated yarns. But technically, I’m on a ban, which precludes “just because it’s pretty” yarn purchases, especially with the end of winter approaching. But, I thought to myself, I could have a go at the DIY version. So I hit Car’s blog, recalling she’d had a go at dyeing yarn with jelly crystals. But since *someone* doesn’t have a search function, I gave up a few pages in, and asked her directly. When she linked me up, it turned out it was way back in 2008! Yikes! So with the link in hand, I headed to BigW, and grabbed two 50g balls of white 100% wool yarn. But then laziness and tightwaddedness kicked in, and I didn’t have any jelly crystals. What I DID have, was a rainbow of Wilton food colouring paste, and a quick google found me some easy to follow instructions. I skeined up the yarn on Friday while Boy2 played Reading Eggs on the computer, and then got to work on Saturday, letting it soak in the prep bath while I pottered about with some housework and rippling. Then came the fun part – mixing the colours! I used Rose Pink, with a teeny bit of Violet mixed in, for one dye bath. Another dye bath was a small amount of Sky Blue with a touch of Violet added, and the third was Leaf Green, that I ended up adding a fair bit of the Sky Blue solution to.

I then started to divvy up the yarn. 1/2 went in the pink. 2/3 of the remainder into the blue, and the last bit in the green. The yarn slurped up that dye like nobodies business, so I’m wondering if I left it in the prep bath too long? But anyway, I top up the baths so hopefully the yarn would wick, chucked it in the microwave and nuked it until it glowed. But it didn’t wick, and left me with white patches between colours, so I thought I’d get creative, and add some liquid food colouring direct into the bath. Yeeeaaahhh. First fail. When it was all done and laid out to dry, I ended up with hideous blotchy patches. But at least it was nice and bright (understatement of the year). I popped it on a clothes horse outside, and sat back to enjoy the lovely afternoon. Except some fool put it in open sun. The pink faded BIG TIME. See the pretty pastel pink? That started out the same neon as the other pink. Whoops. Second fail.

So I hanked it up late Sunday afternoon, and in the end, like that, it actually looks half decent. And I think I’ve worked out a rough pattern to make Miss Butterfly a doll’s blanket that hopefully will look half decent. AJ suggested I call this colourway “fairy floss vomit”, but I’m not crass like some people, and was thinking “spring bubblegum”. What do you think?

Today I’m feeling kind of lazy. Butterfly is napping, and I should be folding washing. Instead, I think I might chuck on a movie, park myself on the fit ball and stitch away for a bit. Yeah, that sounds much more appealing.