Preparing, preparing....

Last week in preparation for the Ravelympics, I decided to dye some yarn. (Therefore it's from my stash but still new-to-me.)

I started out with this skein that was bought a couple of years ago at MDSW. I wasn't crazy about the colors, plus it's too light for socks, so I thought that a green overdye might do the trick.




After leaving the yarn in the crockpot for just a few minutes, I panicked.

It's going to be too dark and the variations will no longer show, so I took it out. There was plenty of dye left, so I put in a white skein that was supposed to become purple.

Check out the dyed yarn, and the original skeins above them. (edited to note: not the exact original skein, but one just like it. Where's my brain, anyway?)



See how the greens are different? It looks like the reddish tones took first, while the bluish ones took longer. Now I might have too much green yarn to use, so I decided to balance that with some purple (and one can never have too much purple.)

The right skein: I've dyed purple before (using Wilton's icing colors), so I knew that it would come out blotchy. I decided to help it along and only stuck half of the skein in the crockpot for the first several minutes (the more reddish tones). The second half got stuck in later and assumed the lighter blueish tones. It made a nice variegated yarn without doing any of the work.



The left skein: This yarn is handspun (but not by me) and has some natural lanolin left in it. I had originally made a soaker out of it, but it didn't sell and just hung around the house for awhile. I ripped out the yarn and washed it to get out the kinkiness. It might be a pair of socks, or I might save it for mittens...