Dyeing to Knit

Dyeing to Knit
What do you do when you work amongst luxurious yarns and fibres, beautiful knitting accessories and stunning dyes??
Well if you are anything like me you have to create! It is not a choice, I don’t think any creative person really chooses to create. Like me you may have a compulsion that takes over, fuelled by gorgeous things, whether it is a fabric, fibre, art piece, design, colour or texture. It can be sparked by anything even sometimes the mundane can have its own appeal and spark a new direction in creativity.
For me starting a project is not a problem, I gather the requirements around me (and needless to say more is better), I sketch and play, colour and sample and just have fun with a thought process, and a germ of an idea until I am satisfied – sometimes a project will be started and sometimes the urge to create is satisfied.
I have an unbelievable stash of UFO’s, every now and then I feel guilty and have a clean out, the process of creating is sometimes more important than the outcome. When I don’t want to have to think too much about my knitting I will make a commercial pattern, and usually with commercial yarn with a recipient in mind or for a charity group. And yes, I do get these ones completed.
Many years ago I learnt to hand spin, I learnt to dye the hand spun yarn with natural dyes such as onion skins and mordents. To say this was enlightening would be an understatement, it was so liberating to not only create my own fibre for knitting but to also be able to achieve a colour of my own creation. Today dyeing has come a long way, the commercial dyes are truly wonderful, very easy to use and the results are gorgeous. Once again I have allowed the urge to create to take over and have been ‘playing’ with fibre and dye all weekend.
I have decided that I really want to use the beautiful yarns that I now enjoy working with. And as I love knitting for my daughter I have chosen a lovely tunic by www.geilsk.dk (thankyou Ingrid for putting me onto this website). Grafton from Yarn Workshop 50% Yak, 50% wool sport weight was the yarn of choice and is so economical, my tension square was perfect for the pattern so only thing to do was to dye the yarn.


Consultation with said daughter resulted in the decision that a light grey would be perfect for her to wear at work. I selected a lovely grey from dyes and added a little of their dogwood which is a light brown, earthy colours that work so well. The resulting yarn is soft and bouncy in a lovely pale grey, variegated slightly and exactly what I wished to achieve. All to do now is to knit the garment, this will be a labour of love and exactly the project I enjoy the best.
Next, Irish socks from the emerald Isle.