More Sock Blanks!

Here are the pictures and details on the sock blanks I dyed Sunday night! I love them all and I can't decide on a favorite!

You get a shot of all three, and then individuals, because of color differences in the photography! There was no more daylight by the time I was able to take the photos, so these pictures are by chandelier light :)

The sock blanks are from Knitpicks, and are knit from two strands (held together) of Superwash Merino. By having two strands knit together, it insures that your socks will match. You can either unravel the blank and wind into two separate balls of single strand yarn, or knit two socks at a time, unravelling as you go. This is the method I will try. The Ravelry Sock Blank Swap group has a KAL starting August 10th for our first round of swapping, and we also started a Ravelympics team for knitting our sock blanks.

I soaked all three blanks in a vinegar and water mixture for about 30 minutes before dying. The eggplant blank was first, and I followed one of KnitPicks examples of having a zig zag stripe of black through the whole blank, and then filled in the triangles with two shades of purple. (I made my purple by mixing 3 parts blue with 1 part red. If you need to know, I can look up the exact names of the dyes. I used Jacquard acid dyes from Dharma Trading.) After all the dye was applied, and worked in by latex-gloved hands, I wrapped and rolled them up in saran wrap and microwaved on high for 2 minutes, let them cool for a few minutes, and then nuked for 2 minutes more.

While the purple blank was steaming in the microwave, I painted the diagonally striped one. I used leftover purple, blue, and green (green was 3 parts blue and 1 part yellow). I did exactly what it looks like, squirting diagonal lines of the three colors. I left a little bit of undyed fabric in between each stripe, and then worked the colors towards each other. The blending really happened in this one when it was rolled up, and the extra dyes ran together, creating another shade of purple. The end on the right side of the photo showing the truer blue was at the outside end of the "cinnamon roll", so less dye was squished through this part. The other end is where all the unplanned blending happened.

The last blank was the blue and green one. I had something else planned, but I don't remember what. I started squirting on the black dye, window pane style, and then filled in alternating sections with blue and green from the previous blanks. They sort of blended together too, but not to the extent the dyes on the diagonally striped blank did.

I was sort of iffy on these when I was painting them. I have a pretty limited range of dyes, just red, blue, yellow, black, and brown, and didn't have a very scientific method of mixing the colors. The real magic happened when they were steamed in the microwave. I could see the transformation before I even got them unwrapped. Besides the color blending, the colors deepened and became more intense. Another good surprise, the dyed blanks all ran clear on the first rinse!