The Dye Class

I told someone I went to a class on dyeing last week and they became alarmed that I was sick. Non-knitters! Whatever are we to do with them? But I have to say the most fun class I took at Madrona was Judith MacKenzie McCuin's Just Dyeing for Socks.



Nothing like being given a room protected in industrial strength plastic and being let loose with a boggling range of color possibilities and told to "have fun." Here are the advantages of dyeing at Madrona:

1) Not in my kitchen.
2) I don't have to prep it all.
3) I don't have to clean it up.
4) And best of all, I don't have to clean it up.

So I repeated the last ones, but come on, those need to be repeated. Special hurrahs to Judith and her pair of helpers who did all the grunt work so the rest of us could play.

We started out with skeins of Worsted/Mohair mix. Mine turned into a clownish mess, but that is how it is supposed to be your first time out. I listened to other students worry over not getting it perfect, but for me, it was the lessons of doing it all wrong in the first skein that helped me with my next two: a sock blank and a skein of merino/silk blend.



Isn't this silk blend beautiful? I just love how the greens and blues and yellows blended. I'm thinking of making a lacy little scarf with this skein. The clown yarn will probably get knit into something to felt, but I have to decide whether or not I want to risk hives over knitting with mohair.

After all the painting, the skeins went into ziploc bags and then into the pot to cook. Oh, yum, Mom! What's for dinner?



Now the only downside of all this, is that we also dyed sock blanks, but mine somehow went missing. They were left on tables in the back of the classroom over the next few days for all of us to pick up, and mine got lost in the shuffle or someone just picked up the wrong one. But even if I hadn't come home with anything, I would rate this class an A+ for fun. Like being allowed to color on the walls and outside the lines all at once.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I love the greens and blues.. Watcha going to knit with it??
Allison

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