My latest socks
Crosposted from hp_knitting.
The result of my grand attempt to see if I could dye self-striping sock yarn in the style of the trapped-bar PoA Harry Potter scarves. There are some people who sell hand-dyed yarn like this on Etsy and I wanted to see if I could dye some myself.
The dying process was actually something of a nightmare: I'm never using that particular method of wrapping yarn on a warping board again. The ties holding the subsections in place slipped during soaking and I had to try to re-measure everything out again as best I could on the sopping-wet yarn at 1am. I managed to (once again) put too much acid in the dye bath so that it produced a more variegated yarn than I'd intended. (I know it looks fine now, but I overdyed the green section at least once before it looked reasonable.) Then I couldn't get the yarn back on a board in such a way that I could wind it back up without tangles, such that I spent several hours per ball for two balls winding it up again. I think if I ever try it again it will go a lot smoother, though, now that I have some kinks worked out.
But I was pretty worried: after all the problems, I wasn't sure it had all worked until I actually started knitting the socks.
It worked! This WIP photo is closer to the correct color than the color of the FO photos below.
I spit the yarn into three balls before dying. Most of the yarn went into the two large self-striping balls (I wound them in such a way that I could be sure both socks would start at the same point in the strip sequence -- I wasn't looking for fraternal socks if I could help it) and a small portion of the yarn became solid green to knit the heels without disrupting the stripe pattern. In retrospect I wish I'd knit in the sold green for a bit farther after I'd turned the heel: I didn't realize how stripes would end up over the heel. Live and learn. I also didn't realize how skinny the stripes would look stretched over my instep, but I don't know that there's much to be done about that. Maybe making the socks bigger so they didn't stretch as much in the instep and legs would work.
Yarn: Knit Picks Essentials Bare, dyed with Lanaset dyes
Pattern: The toes are made by simply increasing 4 stitches every other row as described here. The heels are short-row heels.
The instep and leg are done in 2x2 rib, knitting for a full round every time the yarn starts striping an a new color so I didn't get the funky little lines you get when you purl with a new color.
Overall I'm not displeased: I think the stripes might have looked better a little wider, but I pretty much got the effect I was trying for, which pleases me.
The result of my grand attempt to see if I could dye self-striping sock yarn in the style of the trapped-bar PoA Harry Potter scarves. There are some people who sell hand-dyed yarn like this on Etsy and I wanted to see if I could dye some myself.
The dying process was actually something of a nightmare: I'm never using that particular method of wrapping yarn on a warping board again. The ties holding the subsections in place slipped during soaking and I had to try to re-measure everything out again as best I could on the sopping-wet yarn at 1am. I managed to (once again) put too much acid in the dye bath so that it produced a more variegated yarn than I'd intended. (I know it looks fine now, but I overdyed the green section at least once before it looked reasonable.) Then I couldn't get the yarn back on a board in such a way that I could wind it back up without tangles, such that I spent several hours per ball for two balls winding it up again. I think if I ever try it again it will go a lot smoother, though, now that I have some kinks worked out.
But I was pretty worried: after all the problems, I wasn't sure it had all worked until I actually started knitting the socks.
It worked! This WIP photo is closer to the correct color than the color of the FO photos below.
I spit the yarn into three balls before dying. Most of the yarn went into the two large self-striping balls (I wound them in such a way that I could be sure both socks would start at the same point in the strip sequence -- I wasn't looking for fraternal socks if I could help it) and a small portion of the yarn became solid green to knit the heels without disrupting the stripe pattern. In retrospect I wish I'd knit in the sold green for a bit farther after I'd turned the heel: I didn't realize how stripes would end up over the heel. Live and learn. I also didn't realize how skinny the stripes would look stretched over my instep, but I don't know that there's much to be done about that. Maybe making the socks bigger so they didn't stretch as much in the instep and legs would work.
Yarn: Knit Picks Essentials Bare, dyed with Lanaset dyes
Pattern: The toes are made by simply increasing 4 stitches every other row as described here. The heels are short-row heels.
The instep and leg are done in 2x2 rib, knitting for a full round every time the yarn starts striping an a new color so I didn't get the funky little lines you get when you purl with a new color.
Overall I'm not displeased: I think the stripes might have looked better a little wider, but I pretty much got the effect I was trying for, which pleases me.