Wednesday, January 20, 2010

New Day, New colors

So after I got home last night, I started work on more yarn to get into my shop and out into the world. I ended up dying not 2, not 3, but 4 new yarns for purchase! All are on the BFL Aran yarn, which sadly kills my current supply of it. Needless to say, I will be ordering more of that in the near future. I don't have any pictures right now, partially because I'm babysitting again and partially because they are still a little too damp to re-skein. However, I felt the need to post about them here before putting them up on Etsy. So without further ado, here are my new BFL Aran color ways:

1) Giselle (x2) : I've received multiple complements on the forums over this yarn and it has 4 hearts, so I figured I'd take one last go at recreating the color. 2 attempts later, I finally came up with the right yellow:blue ratio again. Turns out I wrote it down wrong in my notebook... Anyway, I also figured it would not only be a good color way to recreate on the BFL line, but also a good one to try out the whole making multiples thing on. First off, I need to remember to mix more than my standard 1/2 cup of this color when I do it. I usually can get 2 batches out of each 1/2 cup when I'm doing multiple colors, but when using 1 color on a yarn...well, it runs out faster. The 2nd skein matches up pretty well, but it's not exact. Also, I wanted to steam both of them at once, so I let the first one sit while I painted the second one to save some time. The color spread out on the first one while it was sitting so the color ratio isn't the same anymore. Both are pretty and match and would work up well if alternated, but you wouldn't be able to work one skein and then the other. However, now I know the ratio so I can recreate the color and I've learned some other important lessons on that one. I'll put up some pics once I get home with comparisons of the 2.

2) The Emerald City : Remember the 2 batches it took to recreate the correct ratio? Well, I didn't want to be wasteful, so I put them to good use. From my experience with the 'How Do You Know' color way, I knew that these 2 dyes would be more emerald green than robin's egg blue. It also helped that I was listening to Wicked while I was dying the yarn. So I mixed up a 3rd shade of the green color to give it some nice range and voila!
It is inspired by one of my childhood favorites, The Wizard of Oz, and probably one of the most fantastic musicals I've ever seen, Wicked, "The Emerald City" is a wonderful variegated green yarn with some white. Why the white? Because it's all fake. Everything is shades of white and your emerald color glasses make it appear green. (Yes, I also pulled in from the original book).
I'm not sure where to categorize it. It's more inspired by the book/ Wicked, so I may just create a whole new section for Theatre Inspired or book inspired or there just may be a catch all/other section, which will make more sense when I explain the next color way.
This will also be a recreate-able color way. So if people seem to like it, I'll make more of it.

3) Unnamed steam pot pink dye/ooak purple skein : Okay, so here's the story behind this one. When I was steaming the Narissa yarn last weekend, a bunch of color leaked out into the steam pot's water (meaning I had WAY too much dye in the first place). I figured it would just be some nasty purply/brown color so I started to pour it out, but instead it was this really nice berry color. There was a lot of it and it seem that it was pretty well balanced in the dye:water ratio, so I put it in a large container and set it aside to experiment with later. Last night, I figured, what the hell, I have 1 more yarn, I can do 2 to a steaming session, why not make 2 different colors instead of 2 Emerald City skeins and see what comes of it. After all, if it didn't stick or came out really light I could always over dye it. Wanting to add a second color into the mix, I added some water to the VERY dark purple I had mixed for Narissa (I couldn't remember the ratio of red:blue that had made that color anyway) and decided I would do a couple of limited edition, truly one of a kind skeins from those 2 colors.
It turned out REALLY variegated for both colors and really pretty looking. I don't know if I'll be able to recreate the results on another skein because it is so variegated, but it looks really sweet. I'll probably use it to do a bulky tonight or tomorrow and if I have any dye left, I'll use it on my next shipment of yarn. I can't wait to put this one up, it'll definitely be the last one posted, because I'm still working on a name. I'm thinking Disney Princess... but that's not quite the right name. It reminds me of some movie or TV character, but I just can't place it. I was also thinking I'd just have a Wicked line and name it Glinda. Meh, it'll come to me.
I'll post some pictures later for anyone who actually reads this to give me ideas.

Now, to end this VERY long post, here's what I am planning for the remaining 4 Bulky yarns:
Under the Sea (with acid dye this time)
Whatever I name #3
International Superyarn
and 1 undecided color way.

I'm trying to decide if I want to shell out more money for more yarn before I even make my first sale. I have plenty of dye and supplies, so I might as well. More to come on what to expect as far as lines of yarn.

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