and now for something completely different...
hi everyone...i'm laurie, and i'm lace-addicted ;-)
olympic knitting is finally done, and it's definitely time for lace again...i've been going thru withdrawal! got my book, my yarn and my needles, so as soon as i finish posting (and updating my own blog lol) i think i'll get started (what? it's march first isn't it? ;-) and yes...i'm a night owl)
i do have a question though, before i begin...has anyone had any luck dyeing a lace piece AFTER knitting it? for the sampler i'll be using Lacey Lamb, a cobweb-weight lambswool yarn out of my stash. i'm not sure, though, that i really want to leave it gray (i believe it's the light gray heather shown on the linked site, but i don't have it to hand at the moment, so i'm not certain). i'd thought (briefly) about trying to dye it before i knit the sampler, but i've used this yarn before, and, while i love how it knits up, it snarls worse than baby hair, and is much harder to de-tangle...i really didn't want to think about the potential disaster that could occur in the dyeing process lol. so my only option (unless i leave it gray, which i might do, depending on my mood and how it looks when finished) seems to be dyeing after the fact...any input? oops...one other factor--the manufacturer claims this is machine washable (which i find hard to believe)...would that alter the dyeing possibilities? (is it obvious i'm a newbie when it comes to dyeing? lol)
thanks in advance...'scuse me, i'm off to make lace ;-)
Comments
Hello Laurie,
I haven't any experience with dyeing finished pieces, but one of the ladies that I know does and she's very nice and friendly :) I'm pretty sure she'd help you with any questions you have. You can see her blog here:
http://creativepopoffs.blogspot.com/
Sometimes she dyes the yarn before the knitting and sometimes she dunks the finished product in dye :) Just read through her posts to see what I'm talking about (I know there is a pine cone shawl lurking in there somewhere that she dyed after knitting).
Cheers Eva - who's not an night owl, but in a different time zone...
Posted by: Eva | March 1, 2006 09:19 AM
Laurie, I've also been toying with the idea of dying a finished piece. I've done it with great success on a sweater, but never on a shawl. Sheepy Yarn Shoppe has the best explanation on what makes a wool washable that I've read. I just successfully dyed superwash wool/nylon sock yarn with no inadvertent felting. I've only used Jacquard dyes, not KoolAid, though. Don't know if that would make a difference.
Posted by: Becky | March 1, 2006 06:39 PM
thank you both--i'm sure these will come in handy :-) i've bookmarked the yarn shoppe and added kat to my bloglines so i can remember to go back thru her archives for dyeing info (i thought the link was familiar--she's also in the EZasPi group i'm in)
i had to laugh once i saw the time stamp on the post, as i would guess most wouldn't consider 6am "night" (it often is for me, but that's another subject)...i'm fairly sure the post was made around 2:15am my time, which is much more 'nightish' ;-)
Posted by: laurie | March 1, 2006 08:37 PM