Circular Sock Machine Dye Project
This project is actually a test of my circular sock machine and one of the new yarns coming in next week.
First, I will confess that I have yet to make a sock with the CSM! I am like an amazed child every single time I sit and crank out a tube of knitted yarn. Mostly I have used up some of the yarns which have been sitting around for years, and then I finished off edges to make long skinny scarves. Some have fluted lacy edges, others are straight. Some 'kitchenered' together, others ribbed then bound off, and all provided some good clean fun!
While mindlessly cranking out the tubes, I did have a few cogent thoughts, one being that it would be neat to dye a tube and then unravel it and knit something out of the yarn. My thinking was that it might be a way to create larger stripes or repeating patterns, a la Fair Isle, but that no matter the dye pattern, dying a tube would give a measure of control. More control than the experiment with a 40 foot long skein. How I wish I hadn't given away those socks, because I will surely never dye a 40' skein again.
But, to today's experiment ... The tube was knit with a mock rib ... 4 needles and one blank, all around the cylinder. I marked out a pattern repeat of 6 in and 4 in along my dye table, then dyed the 6" sections with Seabreeze Blue (from ProChem). My plan was to come back and paint one edge, along one of the mock ribs, with yellow so I would have green where the blue met yellow, and yellow across the swath of white.
This project is actually a test of my circular sock machine and one of the new yarns coming in next week.
First, I will confess that I have yet to make a sock with the CSM! I am like an amazed child every single time I sit and crank out a tube of knitted yarn. Mostly I have used up some of the yarns which have been sitting around for years, and then I finished off edges to make long skinny scarves. Some have fluted lacy edges, others are straight. Some 'kitchenered' together, others ribbed then bound off, and all provided some good clean fun!
While mindlessly cranking out the tubes, I did have a few cogent thoughts, one being that it would be neat to dye a tube and then unravel it and knit something out of the yarn. My thinking was that it might be a way to create larger stripes or repeating patterns, a la Fair Isle, but that no matter the dye pattern, dying a tube would give a measure of control. More control than the experiment with a 40 foot long skein. How I wish I hadn't given away those socks, because I will surely never dye a 40' skein again.
But, to today's experiment ... The tube was knit with a mock rib ... 4 needles and one blank, all around the cylinder. I marked out a pattern repeat of 6 in and 4 in along my dye table, then dyed the 6" sections with Seabreeze Blue (from ProChem). My plan was to come back and paint one edge, along one of the mock ribs, with yellow so I would have green where the blue met yellow, and yellow across the swath of white.
That was the plan, but I picked up the wrong blue when I refilled my squirt bottle, so I wound up with two different blues. Actually, it all turned out to be fun because I had to change the plan. Instead of painting one 18 foot long yellow stripe, I decided to apply the yellow to the edges of blue. You can see where the blue had already bled slightly into the white space, and there is a yellow line along that area.
The steamed knitted tube is now out of the dyepot and coming back to room temperature. I will post a picture of the finished yarn, and a knitted sample.
The steamed knitted tube is now out of the dyepot and coming back to room temperature. I will post a picture of the finished yarn, and a knitted sample.
1 comment:
I love working with my CSM, and the hand dyed yarns are the perfect combination. It just takes a lot of practice to get to know the quirks of the machine.
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