Ditzy Dyeing Mishap

I had a specific color scheme in mind for a project I'm working on - the Catching Butterflies mitts from Tiny Owl Knits in an old issue of Yarn Forward. If you're not familiar with the pattern, it's a pair of textured mitts with some knitted butterfly embellishments done in a fuzzy yarn. I had a few balls of Debbie Bliss Angel in my stash, but none in the color I wanted. So, I wound off a small loop of a light-colored shade to dye it to my liking.

I've dyed small amounts of yarn to match certain things on a few occasions - like my silk Aeolian shawl - so it wasn't a big deal. It helps, though, to actually remember how to dye. As in, acid dyes require acid to absorb.

The dye wasn't taking up like I was hoping, so I kept adding more little by little... until I remembered I had forgotten the lemon juice. I sprinkled a bit into my dye bowl, and it all took up at once... creating a bright magenta in contrast to the pastel pink I was going for.

Doh.


Luckily I wasn't working with much yarn and I had extra to re-do the dye experiment -- the too-dark yarn went into my hexipuff bowl, and the correctly-dyed yarn went into my project. Happy ending!

~Joyuna