Dye-along

I have to tell you, I’m really excited about Lynne Vogel’s book The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters: A Knit-to-Fit Workshop (more on the book here). It’s out this fall and I can hardly wait. Lynne recently did a three-way dye-along with Pam and Sandy (check out the sleeves Sandy’s knitting for a denim jacket right now — yum!), which was really interesting. Here was their plan:

We chose three stock colors (Sabraset Scarlet, ProChem Washfast Acid (PW for short) Bright Orange and PW Ivy) that we would all use plus one extra of our own choosing. My extra color was PW Brilliant Violet. Even though we started with the same colors we decided we could mix or dilute them to our liking. We’ll swap, spin and knit from these, blogging along as we go. We were interested in seeing how different our stuff could get using the same materials.

We did something similar to this in Lynne’s workshop, the one that I photographed for Spin To Knit. (What? You think I could just stand there and not play along? Are you mad?!) Using one dyed roving, we experimented with drafting and dividing it in different ways, plying it, not plying it, etc etc. This reminds me: I should take more time to experiment.

Usually, I don’t divide up the roving so much, I just predraft it a little and spin from the broad color bands. Last week at Natasha’s, she commented on my spinning style while I was checking out her Lendrum. Nice wheel, but it makes me nervous, the way it looms forward at you… anyway, she said she divides up her rovings into pencil-y strips before spinning. Interesting how we all have different methods, yes? I’m vowing to myself that I’ll spin differently the next few times I do. It’s good to get out of your rut… ahem “comfort zone.”

Tagged with: Knitting, Spin To Knit