While I had a general color theme in mind, along the lines of the vibrancy of the emerging spring, an image search solidified my choice. This is the Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone, and it is stunning with the contrasts of blues and rust and green.
I decided to make this variegated pattern more dappled, so I formulated three shades of brown and rust, two shades of blue, and three shades of green from new sprouts to old pines. Then I applied these randomly within their color area on both the yarn and fiber.
The fiber is Falkland type, always a great wool to use for dyeing. I say ‘type’ for this one, as it isn’t wool from the Falkland Islands, but rather follows their selection process for the product. The wool is American, chosen to be a medium fineness and for whiteness. This is a great all-around wool, happy to be spun worsted or woolen, and turned into whatever you like.
The yarn is Zebra Sock, which is a lot like Tiger Twist in construction except there are random grey and black areas in one of the plies, giving a nice barber pole effect and toning the colors in areas. Here’s a close up of the dappled colors within each section.
I finally got a chance to make a swatch (which is why this post is late….sorry!). I wanted to see how the colors and the marling held up against each other…..is it too busy?
I have to say I’m delighted with how it turned out. I tried two different stitch counts, 72 (seen at the top) and 64, both at the same tension (8-9 stitches per inch). It’s interesting the change 8 stitches can make. I’ll be swatching this more when I’m ready to knit my socks to find the ultimate balance between stitch count, tension, and pattern to encourage the yarn to behave how I like, but still fit well. Which of these two stitch counts do you like better?
I’ve done the office work and picked out a color theme for May and will start dyeing tomorrow. If you are interested in joining the fun, check out the Club page in the shop, then jet me a message using the contact form. With the Summer Crazies coming up, I’m filling the club via wait list only until fall.
