Making Ugly Knits Pretty

I'm not a huge fan of dyeing or over-dyeing entire garments. It presents too many challenges that apartment dwellers find hard to overcome. Usually, you need a pretty big dyepot in order to get the dye evenly distributed. Like a vat. I have a stockpot that is at least a 12 quart, and it's not really big enough to do a sweater. The second issue is the seams. Any place where the garment has a seam, it will be harder for the dye to get to. You'll end up with really funky strips of the original color any place you have stitching.

Saying that, I thought this garment was a good candidate for the dye pot:



Oh, the horror.



Someone (a non-knitter, specifically) had given me 4 different colored skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in rather Easterish colors. This was waaay back in 2004. I found a pattern that called for 2 skeins, with two strands of yarn held together. So I picked out the two skeins that were the most complimentary and used those together- a pale blue-green and a carnation pink. That is how this monster was born.

I never wore it because of the hideousness and awfulness. Plus, because the yarn was mostly cotton, I needed special Procion dyes.

Finally, over the summer, I took it out and decided to dye it. Procion dyes need no heat to set- just a day or two to cure. Running the stove for hours in summertime is never a valid option. After soaking the tee in washing soda, I mixed the dyes and got a pretty bright raspberry pink that was saturated enough to cover the existing color. I laid the wet garment out on layers of saran wrap and hand-painted the dye on using an application sponge. Once it was saturated with dye, I wrapped it up in the saran wrap and let it sit for a day.



The results were nothing but sweet.



The dye covered the former heinous color evenly and with no hint of the monster that lurks beneath. It's cheery and summery and wonderful.



Because there were no seems at all on this garment, I didn't have any trouble at all getting the dye where it needed to be. It was almost too easy, really.



The specs:

The pattern is the Ballet Tee from Teva Durham's book Loop-d-Loop. I used 2 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece held together. I don't remember the needle size, but it was probably whatever she recommended in the pattern. It was a super simple pattern worked completely in the round.

FO- Yarn Over Steek Vest

This one only took a couple days to make.




It's the Yarn-over Steek Vest by Teva Durham. I thought the overwhelmingly girly pink color of the sample garment wasn't right, but I liked the concept of the design.



I used 4 skeins of Rowan Soft Tweed that I had dyed first in a henna exhaust bath and then in an alkanet exhaust. The end result was very brown and earthy looking. I thought it was a good match for a raw, organic looking garment.



I made some changes to the armhole and shoulders. I wasn't getting row gauge (not even close) and it's one of those patterns where it factors in. I just fudged the decreases and added rows until it was big enough, while keeping the yarn-overs going in the middle.

It's a sexy, but wearable.



I was going to finish the armholes with some crochet, but decided that the raw look didn't detract from the rest of the piece.



The specs: I used 4 skeins of Rowan Soft Tweed- about 435 yards. I used size 11 needles, and then fudged the pattern to accommodate my row gauge- I did rows of plain st stitch in between armhole decreases and I didn't decrease as much for the shoulders. This is the large size, but I added some decreases to shape the waste and ended up with the stitch count of the medium.

The open front means it's very stretchy and form-fitting. It's one of those unusual pieces that you need a little attitude to wear.