Yarn Po*n*grap*y

I have done a lot of dyeing in the past week and want to share with you all some of the colorways! There are actually more that will get posted in a few days!
Now, next time you go EEEK when you see the price of handpainted yarn, let me remind you that it is a lot of work!! There are quite a few steps and it is time consuming. I lovingly handwash and condition the skeins several times after dyeing in an herbal soak and conditioner so they smell good and are soft! Actually do you know this is one of my most favorite parts for some reason! After they dry, they can be shown with the color in chunks (best description I can think of) or they can be reskeined. They look very pretty both ways and people seem to like them one way or another. The problem with seeing the yarn before it is reskeined is you don't get as clear of an idea of what the yarn will look like when knitted. That is why I am going to reskein all of mine even though it is a lot of extra work...

OK, here are a few colorways with different photographs.
"Spring" has various blues and greens in it (my favorite) including mints and lime greens and spring and sky blues. I just love this one and might keep it. Definitely is a keeper colorway for future skeins and rovings. Here is a photo of a ball of Spring and then a close up and then a photo of the skein. This one has been reskeined. It looked very different out of the dyepot! This is a 100% merino sockweight fingering yarn, very soft.



Next is a skein of handspun yarn that Kathy spun. It is so pretty!! I used periwinkle and pink dyes (of several strengths) to dye this. I am not sure of the name yet but I love it! For now I will call it Periwinkle-Pinks and there is a close up shot too. The yarn is a bulky weight wool.


Here is another one of Kathy's handspun skeins. I somehow thought it would turn out different than this even though I love it. I used fuschia, bright orange and yellow and I thought I would call it summer. This was interesting because this particular fiber did not absorb the dye bath the way the others did. I had to wash and rinse 10 times or more and still dye was washing out of it! It is very interesting how different fibers take the dye.

Here is one more colorway for today. Will show even more in a few days. This is called "Earth" and is made up of several neutral colors and black of several dilutions. I personally love all of the earthy colors and they are a nice change from the pinks and purples. I think this is very cool and I am going to do LOTS more neutral combos! This skein has NOT been reskeined yet so you can see what I mean about the color showing in "chunks" It will be interesting to see what it looks like reskeined and I will show all of you when its done.



After each yarn is soaked, washed, conditioned, dried, and reskeined, they get a tag put on them with a description of the fiber content, other pertinent info, etc and then they go in my special bin for our ETSY shop. Not sure when I'll list them all on ETSY. I haven't done so yet even though the shop is set up. Probably when I run out of dye and have to buy more, so very soon!! This is going to stay a small and fun thing. The color combos are endless!! Plus I have to practice my own spinning so I can offer some handspun too. Bye for now!! Enough YARN P*RN for the day! When I first heard that expression, I laughed out loud, but those of you in the knit blog world KNOW how TOTALLY TOTALLY INTO our yarn photos we are!!! To me, each skein is a work of art on its own, before it is even knit. I could just stare it, touch it, love it! Some told me they meditate with theirs and I could just about relate!!

Lisa