My first Spring Forward is going really well. I finished the first sock last night, with plenty of yarn left for the second sock. I can see why so many knitters love this pattern, it is so easy to follow inthe instant-gratification sort of way. The cuff on the second sock is done.
Next up, sock related but not actually a sock but a skein of sock yarn. This is the errant March shipment from The Magnolia Society which eventually reached me, thanks Amy! This colourway is so soft and delicate and girly. It’s called Shell. I am looking at patterns from the Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn book.
More on sock yarn, I have been itching to try Kool Aid dyeing again and as mentioned in the previous post, I grabbed 3 packets and my skein of Natural Malabrigo Sock. Look what’s cooking. 
When it cooled down, this is what it looked like. The colours are not very even, there were splotches of desaturated sections with I wasn’t happy with. I only had red Kool Aid packets left (cherry, watermelon, strawberry, etc) so overdyeing was out of the question. I let the skein dry overnight and thought about it again.
I have 28 bottles of Elbesoie silk paint from when I was into silk painting. Twenty eight different colours waiting to be used again. Elbesoie has to be steam-fixed otherwise the dye would just run in the wash. So that was one of my first problems. One bigger problem was how to actually use the paint: do I wet the yarn or not? I quickly read up on handpainting techniques and apparently you have to wet the yarn so off to the bath it went.
Having read recent blog posts from Carrie and following a link in her blog to another Sock Camper, I interpreted the techniques on the photos and used it for my process. I am sure I had omitted certain important steps but they look about right to me.
I used Marine Blue and Pinaster Green, diluted in one part water to 3 parts paint. I laid it out on a strip of cling wrap and poured on the paint where the colour was desaturated and then squished them together to spread the colours. I was so busy with the process that I forgot to take photos. When I was happy with the colours, I transferred the skein into a clean IKEA brown paper bag, rolled it up making sure the openings are secure, then wrapped it in aluminum foil to be steamed for at least 30 minutes.
When I took it out of the steam bath and let it cool, I rinsed it in cool water. This is how it looked like last night.
The skein had dried when I got home this evening. I don’t know how to re-skein so I just twisted it and made it to look like this. I love the colours. They are so saturated and the original Kool Aid colours mixed very well with the blue and the green silk paints.
Here is another shot with a bit more exposure.
And of course, cake! Jackie suggested Jhocy’s Delight as the colourway name and Lindsay said Starry Night. What do you think? I’m thinking about knitting up a pair of socks from the Handpainted Yarn book as well. Need to decide which one.
Ten Thousand Dancing Stars 