​By Erin Witschey

Almost two years ago I started my first real sweater--the Rainbows in the Gorge with Wonderlands Yarn rainbow gradient set. It took me about 9 months start to finish and it is probably one of my favorite projects ever. Since then, I've made several other sweaters and while I was content to "one and done" the Rainbows in the Gorge. I've been working on making multiples of all the sweaters I have made since then

I liked these patterns and found other yarn that I thought would be fantastic for it. Like the Luminos tee. After I made the first, I liked it so much, we had a class for it. And when we had the trunk show with Cornbread and Honey, they had a colorway--Alabama Foliage--that I thought would be fantastic in it. Similarly, the shop hosted a Spun Right Round trunk show and I loved their Neon Nectar sample pattern and how it turned out with the Beachball colorway I got from the show. I ordered Squish DK in Storm from that show and I'm about a third of the way through a second tee. This year, I also knit the Allure Camisole with Emma's Super Silky in Lucky Charms. It's a simple but great pattern to keep my hands busy when on virtual meetings. Given that, I started another with Laughing Cat Fibers in their Kamala colorway, but this time I adjusted the pattern to start from the top down with an icord and only two triangles instead of four to turn it into a halter top. So far it's turning out great and I'm hoping will be a single skein project. 

The pattern I've remade and plan to remake the most is the Boneyard Sweethearts pattern by Tellybeans. This was my second sweater and while I loved the colors I used in Woolstok, I wanted a better fit. So I re-worked the yoke with Pacific Knits doodle dinosaur patterns and knit it again with Malabrigo scraps for the dinosaur colors and loved these results. Then the store brought in this gorgeous dark blue Rios and all I could think about was a snowflake sweater so I reworked the yoke again and knit the sweater a third time. This is probably my favorite of the three. I have the yarn to knit a fourth (and maybe final) one of this sweater with Malabrigo and with the original skeletons. 

So this past year has not only been the year of the sweater for me. It's also really been the year of the re-knit. The yarns inspired it!

I am in the midst of experiment dyeing with an indigo vat. This is a bucket that has ground indigo (in my case) fructose and calcium chloride, heated, that then sat for a few days fermenting and which I can now use. As I look back at previous blogs, “its not hard its new” and “ a thing worth doing is worth doing so-so,” I appreciate the sentiments.

The vat was not difficult to put together, but I did have to gather supplies from various vendors. Bucket, bucket warmer, the ingredients, the yarn all wetted and warmed, and my giant stirring stick. And once heated and aged it wasn’t quite balanced so I added more fructose and so on. Then I got my 12 skeins of yarn and dipped, dipped again and again, until I got my blues. But they just wouldn’t set. So now I have blue skeins and blue hands.

I took a few skeins and put them in chafing dishes and added some more colors. The results, meh. I soaked them in vinegar to set the dyes, but of course that alters the plant dyes. So several are sort of blue with splotches of mud color. I am going to use the rest of the vat to try a shibori dye on a table cloth I have. Hopefully it will go better. So far, although I love the blues I am getting, I am underwhelmed by the potential for dyeing yarn that won’t bleed. Others have done it. I have lots of stuff to try with, but for now I will consider it an experiment failed. I guess I am singing the blues. Next time I will mordant the yarn and maybe it will help getting the additional colors to stick and I can get some more interesting skeins. 

Stay tuned!
Christine Weiss, The Darling Yarn Company & Shop Staff Member