Cranky knitters and dye experiment

Yesterday I attended the Cranky Knitters Rodeo for circular sock machine knitters that was hosted at the Heritage Spinning and Weaving store in Lake Orion.  It was a lot of fun and I got to see my mentor, Christine Smith, who got me started with my CSM after I let it sit in the corner for a year.   I am still having trouble getting the ribber adjusted but I have been cranking out socks.  Visit my Ravelry projects page to see them.  

There was talk of other possible CSM gatherings.  Evidently there is an invitation-only one in Southwest Michigan that occurs annually.   Also we talked about the Michigan knitting machine that meets in Chelsea once a month on Mondays during the day, and the fiber meeting that is once a month in Allenton, MI (just a few miles from me) at the studio of Anne Tullet. I talked about organizing a KMer to KMer meeting locally to meet once a quarter.  July is probably not a good month because of vacations, and August is the Michigan Fiber Fest, so maybe September would be the first opportunity.

Today I finished up my experiment with dyeing. I purchased some excess acid dyes from River's Edge Fiber Arts and got several colors.  Last week I had thrown a full cone with the cardboard core and everything into the dyepot with 1/3 package of "bronze green". I used 1/3 of a package because I thought that most of the dye would be absorbed by the outside third of the 1 lb. cone.  I was entranced with the result.  The outside of the cone is a deep color, and the inner cone only has flecks of color at the top and bottom of the cone.  Afterward I decided to overdye the skein (1 lb. skein) to get more green into the core yarn,  and unfortunately, the color pooled and muddied, and I lost the beautiful effect.

Yesterday I tossed two cones in the dye pot, added some more vinegar, used the remaining 2/3 envelope of the dye, and now I have two cones that match.  My plan is to start with front of sweater with dark yarn, continue up to the neckline, then start knitting sleeves from top down, ending up with the lightest-color yarn at the wrists.

I am very happy with this result.  The yarn is dark, dark green, almost black on the beginning, fading to a bronze "camoflauge effect, and from there the base color appears to be mint green.  The mint eventually fades to ivory but the dark spots continue to appear, where  the yarn was wound on the top and bottom of the cone.  The yarn weight is fingering and is 90% wool, 10% nylon - it was originally intended for sock yarn.