Yarn dying and blue shawl

Here it is! My second completed shawl. This one is done in a fingering weight merino wool- very light and drapey. And, I must say, very beautiful.



Also, here are some pics from my yarn dying experiment. Over dying, really. Dad's yarn had too much of a "pink" look to the lighter parts, so I packed up the kids and headed to Shop Rite for some Kool Aid. I wanted Black Cherry flavor, but they didn't have it so I bought a bunch of Cherry and Grape, hoping to get something close, colorwise. Unsweetened, in case you weren't sure.

So I bopped 3 packets into some water and added my wet yarn. Then I heated it to nearly boiling, put the lid on and turned off the heat. About 15 minutes later the water was clear and the yarn had absorbed all the dye. Sooo cool! And the finished product is color safe, too. Neat-o. Probably best not to think about what parts of you may have absorbed some of that lovely Kool Aid dye...



Here's the finished product, held up next to an un-over-dyed skein. No pink, right?



I'm pretty pleased, and hope it'll work for dad's vision when it's all knit up. I've started the sweater vest he wants and I gotta tell you, this yarn is amazing. It makes the most incredible fabric, so smooth and soft and squishy. Really quality (which is a damn good thing as the skeins took me forever to ball they were so twisted and knotted in on themselves. I thought I was going to go insane, but oh, its worth it!). Heh. Look at me go with the over use of italics!