a little adventure

Posted on Posted in lace/shawls, projects, spinning and fiber, yarn and dyeing

like i said the other day, i’ve been a little busy with blocking as well as obsessed with finishing my last two pine and ivy shawls (and really, i think should stop after that—four of them is probably enough . . .).

the white shawl that arrived in the mail from karolyn got its final stretch and pin on thursday. i just love how delicate it is, translated in fibre isle porcelaine (colorway ivory)

a bamboo, merino, and seacell blend. this is a new yarn from fibre isle that i believe will be offered for sale starting in june at TNNA.

i’m really happy with the shoulder area—the opacity and texture of the garter stitch yoke makes the shoulder detail stand out and provides a nice contrast for the delicacy of the body stitch.

the issue with the yoke is that once the shoulder shaping is begun, the area remaining is not large enough to lay out the body stitch for a pretty effect in all the sizes. in the mini size, especially, a lot of patterning gets lost and there are large “blotches” of stockinette as those triangles get smaller. not only does it not look neat, but it becomes confusing to the eye and the pine cone panels lose their crispness. nor are the stitch counts compatible for sensible pattern writing—with a choice between offering three sizes OR having lace that runs all the way to the neck, i went in favor of sizing (i know you like that).

besides, i love how the garter stitch adds a “period” detail and some contrast at the top; it’s very much in keeping with my vision of how it should look.

here’s a peek at the red one in size tall, knit in woolen rabbit tranquilo, colorway black velvet—isn’t it rich? i believe kim will offer a kit for this piece—we’ll let you know.

while those were drying, i worked away at my green/brown/blue version.

since i now own two finished ones with shoulder shaping (the rose and the red), i decided i would try to make my handspun yarn stretch to make this one a regular triangle shawl, without the shoulder shaping (eliminating the shoulder shaping requires more yarn, since the body section is now extended to the neck).

i put a lifeline in where the shoulder shaping should have begun and repeated the body section two more times to the neck. unfortunately, on thursday night i was stopped dead in my tracks

when i ran out of yarn. naturally, at that point, i did not want to go back to the lifeline after all—i was so close!

i thought of all sorts of possibilities for a fix—i could put it aside, order more fiber, and spin some additional yarn. but that would take a lot of time and i only needed about 40 yards to finish.

i could look through my stash and see what else i had that might work—yeah right. like i actually have another handspun laceweight in a nearly-correct color, HA. but i took a stab at it anyway—denial has no bounds.

there wasn’t anything even close. however, i did come across this

remember this? it’s a sample skein i spun in my luxury fiber class at rhinebeck. i plied one strand of pure fawn cashmere with one strand of white cashmere/silk and the resulting yarn is very similar in construction to the handspun i’m using in the shawl (they were spun within a close timespan last fall).

i thought i might be able to dye this little skein to blend in with what i had going on the needles. my thinking was that the two-tone yarn would take dye in a varied way that might mimic (somewhat) the barber-poled sections of the handspun. and i knew i could live with it if it wasn’t perfect, since the finishing section is small and up near the neck, where it will likely get folded under often enough.

mind you, this was at approximately 1 am—the witching hour, indeed; the time when anything seems possible, or at least, not at all crazy. i grabbed the skein and put it in a bowl to soak, so that when i woke up in the morning, i’d be all set to start.

and i knit on my french quarter sock til it was time for bed (no sense wasting good knitting time).

in the morning, i got my dye supplies out from the mud room pantry, where they’ve been languishing for a while (i haven’t had time to spend on dyeing in the last year or two).

now, i want to preface this by saying that what i was about to do is in NO WAY related to the fine artistry of people like kim and deb and chris and tina and roxanne and all those other expert dyers we love who probably cringe whenever they hear about us dyeing our own yarn at home (sorry friends . . . if you are reading this, please just cover your eyes and scroll past)

i’m merely a hack with a painting background, but obsessed, and in the deep of the night, i thought i could make a passable effort at creating a color that came close to blending (since the shawl yarn is so varied).

i mixed up a few colors that i thought would work together to get a tonal variegated yarn. i didn’t want anything with too much color change; i thought this should resemble something that might exist as part of the series of long color runs throughout the “real” shawl yarn.

i laid the presoaked yarn in a bucket of hot water and poured the dye colors in at different spots around the perimeter, so they spread from the outside in toward the center, hoping this would create areas of blue, green, and brown that mingled at the edges, but had some distinctness, too.

i covered the bucket with plastic wrap and cut a small slit in the film, then microwaved it for two minutes. the water was still dark and murky with dye and the white strand with the silk content had not taken up much dye yet. so i gave it a rest, then cooked it for another two minutes.

as you can see above, that still wasn’t enough time for all the dye to strike. i let it cool for a bit, then cooked it once more for 2 minutes.

that seemed to work well—the water was much more clear to the naked eye. i decided a color check might be in order so i ran to get the shawl. i spooned some yarn out of the bucket and compared it o the dry, knitted piece, trying to compensate visually for the wetness

it seemed like a fairly good result—the color doesn’t match, but it definitely looks like it belongs in the same family as the yarn in the shawl.

i let it cool completely, then rinsed and was glad to see that no color ran from the yarn. phew—nothing is worse than neverending dye runoff, which can happen with silk fiber; it often needs more cooking or steeping time to absorb dye fully.

once i was able to squeeze the rinse water out in a towel, i had a much better idea of whether my yarn would work for my project. i traipsed all over the house at that point, trying to get accurate color photos of the shawl and the new yarn—the light was dim that morning and did not want its picture taken. here’s one from downatairs

and here’s one from upstairs just a few minutes later. the yarn is still wet in these photos, but not sopping.

the new yarn actually matches one of the color runs in the old yarn almost exactly—the green one that spreads across the hem. i like the idea that the colors at the hem and the neck are almost the same, but does it blend with the spot where i left off?

not too bad. the color of the new yarn is more clear and brilliant than the shawl yarn, probably because the shawl yarn had some natural undyed cashmere content. and i’m just not a good enough dyer to make a subtle handpaint that would transition perfectly.

the new yarn will make a line in the work where i join it on and start knitting, but hopefully not too much more noticeable than the other color changes throughout the shawl.

i would tink back and alternate the skeins, but i don’t want to “carry” yarn up the side of the edging, with its points that need to be blocked out. as i said earlier, i was prepared at the outset to embrace anything that came close.

last night i finished up the knitting and looked at it under artificial light, i wasn’t so sure about that embracing part—where i changed yarns, it appeared to have a very hard line and a harsh color, worse than i expected. after binding off and weaving in my ends, i balled it up and moved on to another project.

but then today, after linda left for the afternoon, i unfolded it to take some pictures for this post and you know what?

i’m not at all unhappy now. seeing it in daylight and then through the camera’s eye at some distance was a good change in point of view. i photographed it upstairs in the same spot i did on friday and then

i took it outside to photograph it in natural light. i could really see better how the new part works in context along with the other color runs throughout the shawl—some of which also have distinct lines of change.

and once it’s stretched during blocking, all the colors will disperse and blend even more as the stretched stitches move them about. i’m hoping to block it sometime tomorrow, if i can fit it in.

well, that was an adventure for sure. i was very glad to get back to my regular knitting, for which i have plenty of commercial yarn, haha.

one last P&I in fibre isle magique, then i’m quitting—i swear.

61 thoughts on “a little adventure

  1. What a suspense story! You are one brave lady! The new yarn really looks as if it belongs–a great save. The pattern is lovely–I just wish my queue weren’t so long.

  2. Loved reading about the challenge and how you met it. What a great eye for pattern and color you have. The dyed yarn turned out just beautifully.
    The ivory one that Karolyn finished is exquisite, too.
    This is such a pretty pattern in every shot you (and David) show us.

  3. What a fun dying challenge. Fun times. And every time I see that pine and ivy shawl I get more entranced. I love the little garter section at the shoulders. I’ll be watching for the pattern release.

  4. So now I’m even more obsessed with the handspun adventure pine shawl! You are my hero…what a brilliant solution to your yardage dilemma!

  5. Wow! I am impressed & it was fun to read about the process. Thanks for sharing – I am glad to know that other people try things with just trial and err.

  6. Oh yeah, you’re not addicted. You can quit anytime you want. Sure.

    I am mightily impressed with your dye job. That was amazingly good work at matching. I would never be that successful.

    I am really looking forward to seeing this handspun one blocked and worn. Gotta get myself to somwhere you are sometime so I can see it in person.

  7. sniff – will the pattern be available soon? I want to knit this for a contest and it would be due in May – sniff, want pattern….it’s gorgeous.

  8. – do not worry about the colours in your little shawl – you did a great job with your dyeing

    – I do this kind of thing all the time and in fact have become known for my shawls with different edges

    – while I like shawls of one colour I am drawn to what the colour contrast does and how it highlights the pattern

    – am looking forward to one in my handspun providing I have enough yarn !!!—lol

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