One day last week I went up to the dentist to change my appointment as I couldn’t get them on the phone. When I got there they were closed, but instead of getting back in the car and coming straight home I thought I’d have a mooch in the old fashioned hardware shop two doors away. I came back out with three totally random and unrelated items – some houseplant compost, which I do need to repot some “spider babies” (baby spider plants but I can’t resist Dougal’s expression!), a small block of beeswax (???) and some purple dye. Before this moment I had no inclination to dye anything.
I just so happened to have one skein of undyed 100% BFL 4ply yarn that I bought at Yarndale 2013. I got it from Laxtons and it has sat in my stash ever since.
So on Friday morning I decided to have a go at dyeing it. I’d always shied away from dyeing as I’d heard words like mordant, alum, scouring etc and didn’t have a clue. However, it was remarkably easy – mix a few things in water, add salt, dunk it in, leave it for a bit and hey presto! Purple yarn……
I couldn’t believe how gorgeous it came out. I can’t wait to use it but I want to show it to my knit group still in the skein as I think it looks fab like that. I shall be having another go and seeing if I can play about with variegation and different colours. But for now I think this yarn will be a lovely infinity scarf for the winter.
As for Yarndale 2014, you can hear about my adventures on the Baarmygirls podcast, where I interviewed some of the vendors and customers.
Nice job!
Ah, so that’s how it turned out! I can see why you were so pleased with your ‘vanilla’ yarn. Purple? I’d never have guessed 😉