It’s been a while since I dyed something for myself. I try not to do it thinking I’m wasting my naked yarn when I could actually dye it for the shop. But that’s rubbish since I could always get more from the mill. Oh but then I see patterns I like and wish I could knit it in a colourway that I really like. Something not quite the same as the 290 other yarns in my stash.

This shop will just have to wait for new colours while I satisfy my own desires.

This skein is still in limbo between my stash and the shop as I have not quite decided if I liked it. This is an experiment actually for something extra special. The final colourway is not in this base though, but I wanted to see what the colours would look like. This is my Arabesque base.

I still have a few of the naked Bugga! I scored recently and decided I want to knit shawls with these. I grabbed 3 skeins and used three different colours to make up this hodge podge of colours. I usually like even dyeing but I’m slowly learning that it’s okay if some areas are not as saturated, even left bare! I like how these dyes worked together to produce this colourway.  I’m contemplating doing Wildflower Lace Scarf by Evelyn A Clark or Sweet Jazz by Samantha Roshak or Hatter’s Party Scarf by Liz Abinante.  Or maybe even Gaenor or Argante by Corrina Ferguson.  Too many pretty patterns to choose from!

My favourite base though is my Faith, Hope and Love.  It’s 50-50 silk and merino and works up to a nice fingering weight gauge.  It is drapey when you use larger needles plus has a generous yardage so perfect for shawls.  I have been eyeing Miriam Felton’s Seraphim Shawl and trying to figure out which yarn from my stash to use for this.  It asks for anything from 800 to 1000 yards of sock weight yarn but I do not have a single colourway in that many skeins so I would either have to use lace, which is half the weight called for and will end up with a smaller shawl or I could dye my own.  I chose door #2 and came up with the same formula I used for my Sea Turtles colourway.  You won’t find this colourway in the shop because one of the UAE Amiras snapped up the yarn when she saw them.  You can find them in Ravelry though.  I dyed 3 skeins of this which gives me more than enough to knit the full sized shawl.  It will be huge!

And now for something that I didn’t dye myself, but rather by a super talented dyer called Yarntini.  This is the 10th shipment I received of Jessica Thomas’s Knit, Drinnk and Be Merry Semi-Solid Yarn Club and I am still getting bowled over everytime I open the packages.  This month’s colourway is called Blue Sky – a soft blue which would probably look better in a shawl than socks.  Excuse the very corny photo set-up:  (mini)Martini, Yarntini…

Jessie does some of the most intense semi-solids in the business.  And this is just her 100% merino sock base.  The MCN base is just as divine.  I subscribed to her popular self-striping club and I think the first shipment is out soon – I can’t wait to get some of those!

That’s enough yarny stuff for  today.  Time to go back to the actual knitting of the yarn.  Hoping to finish my hoodie this week so that I can block it and take it out for a spin.