Tips for Nice Colorways

I was reading Gail Callahan's book Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece this morning, and I would like to share some tips on how to make nice colorways when dyeing:

PLAN FOR CONTRAST.  You can achieve color contrast through both color temperature and color saturation; include both warm/cool and light/dark areas in the yarn.

VARY THE COLOR VALUES. If all the colors in your skein are the same value, especially if they are too high in value, the eye can find no place to rest. Try to have some high values and some low values to add interest.

AVOID MUDDINESS. Allowing too many colors to blend together results in dark or possibly even black spots in your yarn. When two true primaries blend together, it creates a crisp color.

INTENSIFY COLOR GRADUALLY. Always start with a lighter dye color than you think you want. You can always add more color, but you can't subtract it.

BE BRAVE - MOVE TOWARD GREATER INTENSITY. A piece will look lifeless if it contains too little color. If the color looks too flat, give it a kick by adding some of the pure primary of the main color.

WARM UP A COMBINATION. To add warmth to a too-cool color scheme, include a warm color that's not too intense. For instance, pale salmon rather than a bright red.

INCLUDE AN ODDBALL. A small amount of the complementary color gives life to many color combinations.

And remember, the worst that can happen is that you have to overdye! Experiment, document, and above all, have fun!

Happy crafting! :D

Good evening! As you may or may not know, in addition to dyeing and spinning, one of my hobbies for quite a while now has been recycling sweaters. I forget where I found the article, but I saw that someone had posted a tutorial on how to unravel sweaters from thrift stores and such, and reuse the yarn. What a fabulous idea, I thought! I'm broke, I love to knit, and I need yarn! (Life pro tip: even if you don't need yarn, you never have enough yarn; therefore, crafters always need more yarn.) 

So, I tried it. I went to the thrift store and grabbed a couple sweaters. The ones I picked up on my first trip were.... a bit ambitious. I picked a lambswool/angora blend (that was slightly felted...ugh), a 100% cashmere blend, a cotton/acrylic/angora blend, and a 100% acrylic (hey, it was really soft, and it was purple. Leave me alone!).

I ended up practicing on the acrylic sweater. There were plenty of knots where I had to tie the pieces together because I had accidentally cut the yarn when I thought I was only cutting the seaming thread, but regardless, it was practice, and I was hooked. I ended up selling the yarn from that sweater for just over what I bought the sweater for.

The next one I tried was the lambswool/angora blend that was slightly felted. Of course I didn't think the slight felting was going to be a problem, but oh boy..... that sweater drove me nuts. It took me months to unravel just the front and back.. eventually I gave it up as a bad job and ended up chucking it in the trash in a moment of anger. I do not regret it in the slightest.

The cotton/acrylic/angora blend was, thankfully, in much better shape than the last sweater was.. and it was my easiest time so far. I had a blast ripping out the seaming thread and separating all the pieces, and then unraveling the sleeves.. everything was going great. And then, I started unraveling the front of the sweater. I encountered something I didn't even know existed.. The front and back pieces were made with alternating strands of two separate yarns. I had to wind one strand onto my ball winder until the end of the row, and wind the other strand into a ball by hand until the end of the row, untangle them, and start again. Every. Single. Row.

That was okay, though. It was great fun. That's one of the things I love about recycling sweaters... Each one is like a unique puzzle. You never know what interesting technique or construction or obstacle you will find with each new sweater!

The whole point of this dreadfully long post, ladies and gents, was to tell you that I just posted the yarn from that first 100% cashmere sweater on my Etsy shop the other day. It is beautiful, soft, wonderful yarn, and I am so pleased that I can pass it on to someone to use in their crafting endeavors. I had so much fun recycling it and learning about that particular sweater's secrets, and I hope someone else has just as much fun knitting or crocheting with it, and makes it into something beautiful.

Recycled 100% Cashmere laceweight yarn

Oh! I can't believe I almost forgot to mention! I was inspired to write this post because I made a trip to a thrift store today, and I majorly SCORED!! I found TWO 100% cashmere sweaters.. FOR TWO DOLLARS EACH!! Sorry, I am very excited. I can't wait to start taking them apart, but I do have several other sweaters in line before those! 

Happy crafting everyone! :D

Hello, all! I finally started up my Etsy shop, after much blundering about trying to figure it out. Then, after several hours of it not having anything in it, I figured out how to actually put ITEMS for people to PURCHASE in my STORE. Crazy, huh? Haha. So here it is, if you would like to check it out...

Why Knot Fiber Arts

Also, I failed for the first time (sort of.. I had some "brownish" spots on my summer watermelon roving, but I don't really count that since it sort of fits) while dyeing today. I decided I was going to try space dyeing again, but I was going to try to break purple, which I've been wanting to do for a while, since I LOVE LOVE LOVE purple. "Breaking" a dye means trying to separate out the different colors in it. For example, with purple: purple dyes have both reds and blues in them. Reds "strike" (the dye absorbing to the yarn) a lot faster and easier than blues do. So, when you "break" a purple, you're looking for some areas of purple, some areas that are more red, and some areas that are more blue.

So that's what I did. I tried to break purple, since I had quite a bit of purple left over from my previous dyebath. I also made up some green, because who doesn't love purple and green together?!?

I will tell you how I failed. First of all, I added a bit too much water. When you're space-dyeing, you want just BARELY enough water to cover the top of the wool you're dyeing. I wasn't dyeing that much wool, since it was the last of the roving I had ordered, and I heartily overestimated. I could have dumped some of the water out, but..... Nahh... it'll probably be fine.

My next mistake was going a little dye-crazy. I love the color purple (I do believe we have already established that) and I also love the color lime green. Uh-oh. When I was able to pour those colors side by side, WATCH OUT FIBER. I MUST ADD ALL THE COLORS!!! .......Uhm. So, this excess of too much dye meant browns on the bottom. On the top it looked all pretty and green and purple, and the purple was starting to break and make the white spots blue... it was great! Then, when I went to wash and rinse the roving, I saw BROWN!!! A LOT of brown! In dyeing, you learn that brown is just about the worst thing that can happen to your fiber (besides felting, of course), unless you actually PLAN FOR brown. And who does that? Psh. I just throw colors in the pot and hope for the best! And this time I got BROWN!!! :(

I was hoping that maybe it would look like I did it on purpose, but not a chance. This will be personal stock for me. I won't be able to sell it. But YAY!! More fiber for me to spin! Haha.

I'm still trying to spin up that wonderful, soft, amazing, yummy Polwarth roving I ordered on Etsy, called Candy Store... man this stuff is awesome and just an absolute treat for my hands. So when I'm done with that, I will  be posting the finished lot of handspun yarn in my shop, and I'll start spinning my green, purple and brown roving.

You know what's funny? It looks a little hideous in the roving itself, but I bet when I get it spun up it'll be gorgeous. Haha. Unexpected color combinations can look awesome after you spin and ply.

Well, anyway, that's all for now. Sorry about the BOOK, haha. Perhaps I'll post some pictures of the roving I dyed yesterday tomorrow. Wow, that's confusing. Hah! Night all :D

Good morning, fellow crafters! My name is Courtney, and I am going to be starting a blog! Whoa! Everyone seems to be doing that these days. This blog is going to be me blundering about, finding my way with color, and learning to be creative! I am not naturally a creative person, but I recently discovered that spinning and dyeing yarn and fiber may very well be the key to my inner "artiste". So, you all get to share in my fears, failures, "Eureka!" moments, and my beautiful successes (assuming I have some!). So, strap in, put on an apron, and come with me into my studio! :D