Dye Pot Day

Got back to dyeing some yarns.  The big supplier I used to get yarn bases from went out of business.   Their yarns are still available from another supplier, so I can at least continue to get (at least for now - don't know if that will change) my favorite yarn bases.  But I decided to try out some of the other yarns, ordered a small batch of two sock bases, both of them in 50 gram skeins rather than the bigger 100 gram.  Makes knitting TAAT easier.  Both of those yarns are 4 ply.  One is SW merino, the other SW merino with nylon.  I also ordered some mini-skeins in a base I hadn't tried that originally came from the old supplier. These are SW corriedale. These will be great for trying out dye combos, both for mixing my own colors and trying out variegated colors.  Most of what I dyed the other day are solids, with a couple tonals and one variegated.  Shades of green predominate, driven by a couple of planned knits for other people.  I'm more of the blue/purple or red/pink persuasion.

On dye day, I chose 2 skeins each of the bigger skeins, each enough for a pair of socks, as well as 6 mini-skeins, and dumped them in to pre-soak.  Then I spotted a yarn that had already pre-soaked a long time ago but for whatever reason, didn't actually dye then.  Into the water it went, although I didn't get around to dyeing it yet.  I ultimately added 2 more mini-skeins. I am pleased.  The solids and tonals will be for socks.  Darker green 50 gram yarns are for my younger son, lighter green 50 gram yarns are for me, no pattern yet for either.  I was quite pleased with just how soft the mini-skeins are after pre-soak and dye.  I'm looking forward to comparing all 3 bases once knit.

The variegated yarn is based on someone else's described color preferences.  It's for a baby hat, not the colors I would choose, but it's not my baby.  I'm still pretty pleased with how it came out.  The hat pattern has 3 bands of garter which I plan to do in coordinating color.  I'm undecided so far whether the variegated will be the main color or the coordinating.  I'm leaning toward main color.  I also have to decide which of the solids I prefer with the variegated.  I'm leaning towards the lighter blue green.  

Dye Pot Day was a very happy success.