Sunny Day Playing with yarn

Today I knit. Well I knit for a while, then I dyed. I was feeling ambitious, maybe it was all the sunshine streaming in, who knows. I had a few skeins of sock yarn to dye and some color skeims in mind so I started the yarn soaking. Then that ambition lead me to 10 skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash in color 850 that I got in 2006. I had initially fell in love with this color and wanted a sweater out of it. At the time a lime green sweater was just what I needed…or so I thought. I don’t recall what the cost per skein was, but it seemed excessive, so I decided to piece meal it. I bought a skein every time I went into a yarn store that carried it, and my parents got me a few skeins for my birthday and Christmas. Before I knew it, I had 10 skeins! That’s 2,200 yards of superwash lime green. Again, it seemed like a good idea at the time.


The yarn has been waiting for me. Smiling and waving every time I go into the “bulky yarn bin”. Perhaps that yarn multiplied when my back was turned and that’s how I got 10 skeins, it’s not that I actually bought 10 skeins. Yes, I’m a big girl but I’m not that big. The Hey Teach, knit on size 7s used just under 700 yards. There’s no way I needed 2,200 for one sweater. And I would like to knit another Hey Teach.

So I thought about it and decided over-dying 5 skeins was the most likely way to get me to actually knit this yarn. Did you notice the funny little yarn cakes that Cascade 220 comes in? Yeah, it can’t be dyed like that. Looking around I determined that the legs of my chairs were about 2 yards. Flipping the chair got Linus’ attention. He had to come inspect my work as I wound 1,100 yards around the four legs. Isitt felt that the yarn needed her personal touch and we spent a good ten minutes wrapping the yarn together. All I could think was it’s a good thing The Boyfriend and I cut all their nails last night.


Once the Cascade was wound, it too went into the dye pot. The result is a perfect Samurai teal color. Some skeins are more variegated, others are darker. It’s the first time I do this kettle dying thing so I wasn't sure how much agitation was needed to keep it semi-solid as opposed to solid or blotchy.


I also dyed the sock yarn in a variety of purple and red shades. So teal, purple and red and a yellow. Where did the yellow come from? I also bought yellow yesterday. It must be a backlash to the grey weather because yellow isn’t one of my colors. Red, Purple, and Teal; those are my colors. And if you don’t believe me, take a look at my finger nails. Right now the tips are a lovely shade of purple. It was worth it to spend a sunny day playing with yarn. Ahhh summer!