Dye-ing To Crochet – Part Three

While Rita typically begins with variegated yarns, requiring her to use only a single color of dye, splendid results can be achieved by using more than one color of dye on your yarn.  Over at Adorn Anew Blog, Stacey describes how she attained the long color gradients she used to create the  yarns used to make these lovely shawls.  check out her kool-aid dye story here.

Then, there’s this beauty.

Stacey gives you more information, with great instructions, to dye your own yarn to achieve the wonderful colors she used in this shawl.  Wouldn’t this look great with a pair of jeans and a turtleneck?  I’m jealous!  Get the details here.

Getting down to business, Stacey offers brief instructions – all you’ll need – to achieve the results she and Rita get.  It’s so quick and easy you’ll be amazed.  Stacey uses Ritz dyes rather than kool-aid in this article.  The pot looks pretty yucky – but you can see the wonderful skein that resulted from the over-dying.

Whether you choose to start with a skein of yarn that’s a single color or one that’s variegated, you can use the information in these three articles.  What I especially like about this is the opportunity to ‘rescue’ yarns that might not be just right for you.  There are often orphan skeins for cheap at my LYS.  One 50 gram skein of sock yarn will easily work up into a scarf or a pair of wristlets (fingerless mitts).

It’s also often the case that the plainest of yarns are those that stick around in the yarn shop long enough to be deeply discounted.  A skein of off white may not be particularly appealing, especially if you had a pink or green in mind, but the price is right.  Now you know how to take that really great discounted yarn and turn it into just the color you want.

The other plus here is that it’s just darn fun!  Imagine the unique color combinations you could come up with!  You can buy enough yarn to crochet a sweater from the discount bin and dye it into your perfect color for pennies.  Now, let’s all go raid the discount bin at our favorite LYS!

PS – Today is my mom’s 91st birthday!  She has been almost completely blind for about the past 10 years.  But – she can still match colors in a way I cannot!  Show her a sweater you want to match and take her to the mall, she can STILL pick out an exact match.  Some people are just better with color than others.  Rita and my mom are wizards with color.  Then, there’s me……