Meet Blue Shutter Beach

My cousin and I take a few trips each summer to the beach she used to live down the block from, Blue Shutter Beach.  This yarn reminds me of the New England shore, lots of shades of blue with a little bit of sand among the rocks and sun peeking through the clouds.  I’m going to have a hard time sending it to my pal on Monday, and I hope she likes it as much as I do.  Thank you to all the Dye-o-Rama Mamas, especially Noelle (and Dye-O-Rama Papa Cody, too!) and Scout.  Scout gave me my first dyeing lesson and answered my questions as I got busy on Thursday, and I owe a big thanks to Mona, who showed me how to dye variegated yarn. 

There are lots of tutorials online about dyeing, but I’m going to put up the pictures from my experience for my reference…I didn’t take notes, so I’ll have to come back here when I want to remember what I did!

First I soaked the two skeins (370 yards total) of Gems Pearl in Pure White in warm water and a dash of white vinegar.  Then I made a peanut butter sandwich and slowly ate it.  I don’t think this is a critical step (the sandwich, not the soak), but it helped me to be patient while the yarn "wetted."

Then I decided on the order of the colors of the Landscape dye.

I mixed the dye with boiling water after I did some research about how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon and cups in a pint.  I do not know these things off the top of my head.  Every time I look them up, I tell myself I’ll remember, but I don’t.  Hey, wasn’t it Albert Einstein who said "Never memorize what you can look up"?

I painted on the colors.  The yarn was pretty dry, so I felt comfortable bringing the colors close to each other.  In a few of the white spaces I dabbed the lightest blue, which seems to have worked well. 

Then I wrapped the yarn really well with Reynolds Wrap.  I adore the person who invented the EZ Slide Cutter.  Pre-EZSC, I had too many plastic wrap disasters to count.  Really.  Now I’m a plastic wrap guru.  Scout advised the extra good wrapping since I was going to use a small microwave and wouldn’t be able to spread the yarn out in a big dish. 

I nuked the yarn for about 12 minutes and painted the second skein.  There was some cooling off time, removal of the plastic wrap, a warm rinse, a rinse in my favorite Aveda conditioner.

Then began the looong drying process.  First I hung the skeins in the shower.  When they were fairly dry, I hung them off the light fixture in the dining room.  This morning I was able to re-skein them in order to see how the variegation looked.  I’ll make a label tomorrow, add a few goodies to the mix, then I’ll send the package off.  Really I will.  I promise.

KSKS sign ups start tomorrow at 8 a.m. EST.  I hope you’ll join us for the fun!