Addicted to Color

Today, since the heat wave appears to have moved on, I decided it was time to dye some of the Knit Picks merino dye-your-own I ordered as soon as it was in stock. I was so pleased with the results and had so much fun, I couldn't wait for it to dry to show you.

First, I wanted grown-up purple, not Barbie's car purple. (Better late than never for Project Spectrum!) I remembered what Chitta had told me about her experience with using plain grape -- it turned out maroonish. So, for this skein, I used 10 grape packets, 5 berry blue, and 3 black cherry. (Actually, some of this I used for a little test skein, but that's roughly the right proportions.) Before I added water to the dye bath, it looked almost black. But the result was exactly the deep, dark, semi-solid purple I was hoping to achieve. Huzzah!

What to name it? It reminds me a little of Lorna's Laces Black Purl and it does look like a black pearl. But it also reminds me of nighttime, and seduction, and for some reason, I've had Romantic poets on the brain lately. So maybe Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know?

Emboldened by this success, I thought, I can do two colors. What I really wanted -- and I think I saw on one of your blogs, maybe Jenn's -- was the colors of a pink grapefruit. Deep pink and brilliant yellow. But I didn't have enough lemonade flavor, so I wasn't totally satisfied with the result. Also, once I put the water in the bowl with the painted yarn, the pink sort of took over. How do you prevent the colors from running together? You have to add water, right?

So this is what I got, the colors appearing only very slightly darker in the picture. The yellow was made with two packets of lemonade and half a packet of orange. The pink is eight packets of pink lemonade. Having less dye bath for this, there are a few tiny white spots. I don't mind that at all -- it looks like the pith of the fruit! I must say that this smelled fabulous. In spite of the lack of cranberry, the colors and the smell made me think of a "Sex on the Beach." When I was (quite a lot) younger, I thought these and Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers were the height of sophistication in a cocktail. Silly girl. But I'm thinking I should call this yarn not Pink Grapefruit, but rather Umbrella Drink.