Thursday
Oct302008
A rare peek into my methods.
Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 5:40AM
Rare = never seen before. Just thought I'd get that out of the way.
I also need to get a few other things out of the way upfront.
1. I like yarn.
2. I like the color turquoise.
3. I like the color brown.
4.I like yarn
I said that already, wait. I've been very busy getting ready to go to Stitches East. I'm very excited. If you're planning to attend, please be sure to stop by and say hello -- I'll be in booth 239.
Well, that's a load off.
Now that we've got that out of the way...
From time to time, people will send me fabric swatches so I can create yarn to match. I think this is a fun challenge -- it's not something I normally do in the studio, so it creates an opportunity for me to flex my dyeing muscles. I can usually look at a color and figure out what dye components would go into making it. The trick is getting the proportion of those components right, and then also getting the saturation levels right on the yarn base you'll be using.
A minimally processed, Aran weight merino requires a different technique than a superwash sock yarn, for example.
Recently, a super nice customer sent me swatches from this fabric:
This is not the most accurate color rendering on my monitor. The color of the hippo in real life is actually more blue-gray, not periwinkle looking. And the elephants aren't black, they're inky blue. But you get the idea.
She wanted two colorways to match this fabric, so she could make something for her adorable son. One colorway was to match the blues, and one for the greens. She was very flexible, and let me have artistic license with shades.
I then worked up some digital swatches for her to choose from. These don't depict what the yarn will look like when knit up, just the colors and proportions of each color.
Here were the blue options:
#1:
#2:
And the green options:
#3:
#4:
You can see how each swatch coordinates with the fabric (again, don't directly compare my digital swatches to the picture -- the picture color is off, and I used close digital approximations of the colors in the fabric). In other words, there's a margin of error present.
Which swatches would you have chosen?
I know which I would have picked.
But I'm not telling, GEEZ.
My customer chose #1 and #3. Yay! So, I got right to work creating the dye colors and testing them on the yarn. I make small practice skeins, mix up a color, apply it to the skein, and then take the skeins through the whole setting and drying process. You really don't know how a yarn will turn out until it's had the dye set and it's been washed and dried. Some colors deepen as they get hot, others get lighter. Some colors tend to separate when mixed together, some don't. Some colors play nicely, others engage in fisticuffs.
So you can get an idea of the color matching process, here are some shots of the finished practice yarns:
You can see that these aren't representations of the finished colorway, they're just for color testing purposes.
Here you can see where I was practicing that sort of acidy-chartreuse green color. Would you believe that these two colors look almost identical when wet?
The lighter blues. Some are too light, others too sky blue, and not enough pale turquoise:
The medium shades. There was a bright blue and a steel blue in this fabric, so I had to work on both:
The dark blues were the hardest to match on this yarn. If I had been using a washable yarn, this would've been a piece of cake. It was hard to get an adequate color saturation that wasn't too blue and wasn't too purple and wasn't too black. Ultimately, I went with something not pictured here, which you'll see in a minute.
No, I am not blind. I know this picture is a little out of focus. At least, I don't think I am blind.
Am I blind? Maybe I need to check into this.
Here are the olive greens. Again, each of these look nearly identical when wet. Finding the right shade was a challenge.
And here's where the dyeing muscles get flexed. I nailed the brown on the first try. Because brown is my BFF. (Mom, that means "Best Friend Forever.")
After all this digital and virtual and mental and physical swatching, I was finally ready to dye the yarn.
Here are the two finished colorways. Ta-DA!
I had a really really hard time sending the green away to its new home. I wanted it for me. I hope these will get the coddling they deserve! If not, I'll be happy to give them a cozy place to stay.
Just sayin'.
I also need to get a few other things out of the way upfront.
1. I like yarn.
2. I like the color turquoise.
3. I like the color brown.
4.
I said that already, wait. I've been very busy getting ready to go to Stitches East. I'm very excited. If you're planning to attend, please be sure to stop by and say hello -- I'll be in booth 239.
Well, that's a load off.
Now that we've got that out of the way...
From time to time, people will send me fabric swatches so I can create yarn to match. I think this is a fun challenge -- it's not something I normally do in the studio, so it creates an opportunity for me to flex my dyeing muscles. I can usually look at a color and figure out what dye components would go into making it. The trick is getting the proportion of those components right, and then also getting the saturation levels right on the yarn base you'll be using.
A minimally processed, Aran weight merino requires a different technique than a superwash sock yarn, for example.
Recently, a super nice customer sent me swatches from this fabric:
This is not the most accurate color rendering on my monitor. The color of the hippo in real life is actually more blue-gray, not periwinkle looking. And the elephants aren't black, they're inky blue. But you get the idea.
She wanted two colorways to match this fabric, so she could make something for her adorable son. One colorway was to match the blues, and one for the greens. She was very flexible, and let me have artistic license with shades.
I then worked up some digital swatches for her to choose from. These don't depict what the yarn will look like when knit up, just the colors and proportions of each color.
Here were the blue options:
#1:
#2:
And the green options:
#3:
#4:
You can see how each swatch coordinates with the fabric (again, don't directly compare my digital swatches to the picture -- the picture color is off, and I used close digital approximations of the colors in the fabric). In other words, there's a margin of error present.
Which swatches would you have chosen?
I know which I would have picked.
But I'm not telling, GEEZ.
My customer chose #1 and #3. Yay! So, I got right to work creating the dye colors and testing them on the yarn. I make small practice skeins, mix up a color, apply it to the skein, and then take the skeins through the whole setting and drying process. You really don't know how a yarn will turn out until it's had the dye set and it's been washed and dried. Some colors deepen as they get hot, others get lighter. Some colors tend to separate when mixed together, some don't. Some colors play nicely, others engage in fisticuffs.
So you can get an idea of the color matching process, here are some shots of the finished practice yarns:
You can see that these aren't representations of the finished colorway, they're just for color testing purposes.
Here you can see where I was practicing that sort of acidy-chartreuse green color. Would you believe that these two colors look almost identical when wet?
The lighter blues. Some are too light, others too sky blue, and not enough pale turquoise:
The medium shades. There was a bright blue and a steel blue in this fabric, so I had to work on both:
The dark blues were the hardest to match on this yarn. If I had been using a washable yarn, this would've been a piece of cake. It was hard to get an adequate color saturation that wasn't too blue and wasn't too purple and wasn't too black. Ultimately, I went with something not pictured here, which you'll see in a minute.
No, I am not blind. I know this picture is a little out of focus. At least, I don't think I am blind.
Am I blind? Maybe I need to check into this.
Here are the olive greens. Again, each of these look nearly identical when wet. Finding the right shade was a challenge.
And here's where the dyeing muscles get flexed. I nailed the brown on the first try. Because brown is my BFF. (Mom, that means "Best Friend Forever.")
After all this digital and virtual and mental and physical swatching, I was finally ready to dye the yarn.
Here are the two finished colorways. Ta-DA!
I had a really really hard time sending the green away to its new home. I wanted it for me. I hope these will get the coddling they deserve! If not, I'll be happy to give them a cozy place to stay.
Just sayin'.
Reader Comments (22)
What a neat post. It was fascinating to see how you go from a fabric swatch to practice dying, to finished skeins. I thought the two results were beautiful, Sharon. Be sure to share what your customer thought of these!
I love seeing your process. Both of the finished colorways are gorgeous, but the green one is my favorite, too. I hope to see you at Stitches!
Oh, wow! I was just dreaming yarn colors and that blue / brown is very similar to what I had in my head- only yours is, of course, far superior! :D iCovet
Love those greens!
Yarnista's Mom - it's so neat to see you posting and reading! You must be proud of the Yarnista.
I LOVE that blue one. It's gorgeous. The green one's okay but that blue one is spectacular.
Is blue a particularly difficult color to work with?
What do you do with your color swatches?
I have some pants for my son in that fabric. Love it! Thanks for taking us through your process, it was very interesting. I love the green! Any chance that either one will be available for the rest of us?
Abigail, blue is not one of the harder colors, in my opinion. But any dark color is harder on untreated yarn. It's much harder to get dark inky blue on untreated yarn than on a superwash.
I obsessively save all my swatches. All my practice yarn, all my ruined yarn... I have a giant yarn graveyard down at the shop.
Alicia,
What do you think? Should I add these as a winter offering? :)
I absolutely adore the green one! Adore it! It should definitely be a winter offering.
You should definitely add them as winter offerings, but if you only pick one make sure it is the green one. ;)
What a great blog post, I love getting a sneak peek at other's creative process. Both of the final products are lovely!
I *love* the green one.
"Hi,may I help you?? Umm yes I'll take two greens on Lindon please".... LOL Thank you Yarnista,I really enjoyed reading that! I found it educational,entertaining and artistically impressive :) I love both colorways,the green is my favorite! Yes it would be ubber cool to add them to the winter collection!
So pretty! Love the yarns. You've got some wonderful talent there, my friend. WTG!
That was so interesting. It amazes me how you can match colors of things people send you considering all of the variables. That is just too cool.
Personally, I LOVE the green version of the finished product. It is absolutely gorgeous!
I love them both! Although I think I'm partial to the blue... I can't wait to see what beautiful yarn you have in Baltimore, I was already planning to go there to get some more yarn from my friend Jenny from Bare Sheep Yarn Company. Now that I know you'll be there & saw the list of other vendors, I know how much room I will need to make in my car for the trip home. My husband does not thank you, lol. :D
I know you somewhat answered this but. . . do you ever knit anything out of your practice swatches? If you have are there pictures? Also what exactly constitutes "ruined" yarn?
They are both gorgeous, but I love that green one! You should definitely offer something like that! That it some drool-worthy yarn!
Wow! What a great look into your creative and scientific process! Maybe you can save that green for the yarn clubs, because I ADORE it!!
AJ, I don't really knit things out of the swatches. I like to keep them for reference. I write down all the recipes, and then I can refer to them if I need to. I know, it's a sickness.
But, on the upside, both of these colorways are now up on our website! Woo hoo!
I LOVE the blue yarn. Would have really liked the other blue color as well. LOVE IT!! Would be cool to have that color saturation on a yarn and make something.
I find that blues tend to bleed the most with hand dyed yarns. I like to set the yarn to my water, as was a process suggested on the old forum- the simmering of yarn on the stove with vinegar and letting it cool completely on it's own. I do for all my finished projects and pass the info along all the time. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received for fibers.
BTB, did I say how much I love that blue yarn?
Ooooooo, aaahhhhhhh! Lovely!