My dye lessons - and a new pattern!

Good Monday to you! I know most people don't go by that, but looking at the calendar tells me we've pretty much just blasted through January and we're making some serious headway on winter. That's exciting for me - any opportunity not to have to haul firewood for a little while!

I thought I would share a little bit more about my dyeing. If you've been following along on my Instagram, you'll know that I sometimes don't quite reproduce the colours I have in my head. This isn't actually that surprising, but I've probably been too tough on myself about it. In reality, the last four weeks of dyeing have been a lot of fun because even if my colourways are sometimes a bit more a surprise than I expect, the actual technical aspects are coming off a lot better than they did when I started, and that's always exciting! And even if my colours are different than I might expect, they've actually all turned out very pretty, even my "brown" of the last dye day - that one is a beautiful pink with dark tones in some spots, and I might even keep it and knit it up for myself ;)

This "unicorn" colourway came out much darker than I expected and all I keep thinking of when I see it is the cover of this book, This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti. Makes me think I should dye more yarn to match my books!

I've only got a bit of bare yarn left from this last order, but I'm looking forward to putting some colour on it. Any suggestions? I'm thinking of giving black a try, or at least grey; after that grim week of hoarfrost and fog, I was feeling in the mood for some neutrals.

Really, I've just learned that it's more fun to start out with an idea than an expectation. Flexibility is key, and as long as I'm happy with the final product, it doesn't really matter what comes out of the pot :)

And last but not least, it's New Pattern Day! I wrote a simple cowl pattern of my own after buying a skein of Olive Park Yarns' chunky merino; they're a mother-daughter dye team out of Morris, Manitoba and they've got a great eye for colour! I loved knitting up this yarn, although I did frog it a few times and started to get worried (ti's only a single ply) that I was being a bit hard on it! But it held up and made a lovely cowl: the Dovetail cowl, which is live on Ravelry now for only CAD$2 this week! Get your toonies out and get knitting!