Let's Try Something New!

Here's the surgical procedure for the fringe. It was nerve-wracking! The mohair was less than cooperative, and I think next time I might try just regular wool. If there is a next time, that is!
But the shawl is quite lovely! I am not a shawl-y person, but I know someone this might look really cute on! We will see. In the meantime, it is languishing on the back of a chair, and I touch it regularly. I will say something about the yarn-remember, Trendsetter Yarns Dune- it smells good! Isn't that weird? Well, it does. I sniffed it regularly while knitting.

Another new thing.......................

This was dyed with a new dye called Culinary Colors. I was dyeing-ha!ha!-to try it! Well, Handheld Knitting got it from Knit One, Crochet Too and I am experimenting with it. After carefully carding my wool and then splitting it into roving, I proceeded. When I thought my wool had soaked enough, I began mixing the colors. It comes premixed in 1 oz bottles, and has ten different colors. I mixed the 1/8 tsp of their dye with 1/2 cup water, and dissolved the dye. I added 1 tblsp of vinegar. All this is their instruction, okay? I mixed some grape and blueberry-3 to 1. Then I mixed tangerine and lemon 2 to 1. And I wanted a neutral color, so I used nutmeg with a little bit of lemon. I thought the lemon would brighten it some. Well, after putting my roving onto the plastic wrap in a most cautious way, I began. Well, the grape and blueberry was turquoise! Whodathunkit! And the nutmeg/lemon was tannish something. The tangerine/orange was closest to the color. Then I carefully wrapped up my little roll of stuff in the plastic wrap. It looked okay at that point. Then I microwaved it per instructions. As an aside, I never, ever microwave dyes. I always steam them. But I am following their instructions. Okay. It turned to these weird colors after microwaving. Then when it cooled, I washed it in a teeny bit of Orvus, and the blue went away. Well, actually it had turned green somewhere in there. So there is this electric pink-where did it come from? There is a teeny bit of tannish beige color. There is some orangey color, and some faint, faint green that is minuscule. Actually when I applied the color on the wet wool, the blue was the most color I applied. And the green is the least color left.

So then I had this ropey mess above. I could tease it apart and draft it into fleece to spin, or I could recard it. The labor intensive-ness of this whole process! So this morning I tried both methods.
I couldn't tell the difference between the two methods. So I just got busy and fluffed out the roving I had made and dyed.

And now my little French Market Bag is overflowing with stuff to spin. It is very pastel, and still pretty. Just not what I was expecting.

Next time-maybe tomorrow-I am going to try some of my own ideas, and skip their directions. I hope I can get a more intense color out of this.