The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Food & crafts => Crafts => Topic started by: Mel Rice on June 07, 2013, 09:41:57 pm
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Ive finished my jumper but now I can see that it looks like I had balls of different dye lots! It was all the same fleece, first wash in the kitchen sink (sink sized amount) Carded and spun. I washed it again in the machine once it was plyed. Each ball seemed the same colour to me loose but knitted up I have obvious bands across the aran pattern. What did I do wrong? What should I do next time? Any other suggestions...
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Have you tried washing the finished jumper? It's possible that, as you washed it in batches, there was more grease left in some than others. If not, you may have to dye the jumper.
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Yep did wash jumper....still has bands even wool from the same batch has different shades. Its not horrid just looks less professional. How would you dye it? I have never done dying before and access to dyes where I could understand the instructions would take a while to get here as most UK firms don't like sending to Europe. I have to get stuff sent to one of the kids then rely on them reposting it or wait till we go to the UK!
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It would only dye well if you used a dark colour, as the differing bands would still be there in a light colour. You should be able to use natural dyes from round about, although with a finished article which is large like a jumper it is very difficult to get an even dye finish anyway. Using a mix of colours, rainbow, would be too much for an aran and hide the pattern, wasting all your work.
Just be proud of it :thumbsup: . Anyone can buy a jumper, but not many can spin and knit it themselves :spin: :knit:
For next time, blend all your fleece together before you start carding. I suspect the fleece you used had varying colour from end to end, or had differing exposure to sunlight which makes white wool go yellow.
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Well done for spinning and knitting a whole jumper! :thumbsup: :spin: :knit:
Some of my friends say they don't want handspun to look too professional, they want it to look handspun! Much more impressive! ;)
Another friend knits with two balls of wool at a time - 2 rows from one ball, then two from the other and so on; it evens out any differences, gives a handspun finish but makes differences less obvious in terms of bands of colour, or uneven spinning or plying, or whatever.
We'd love to see pictures... :eyelashes: :eyelashes:
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I agree that there is no point in having handspun if it looks like commercially produced yarn. The whole idea IMO is to have something that is unique. When I was weaving and knitting for a living I never replicated any garment made in handspun and visitors to the workshop did like the fact that what they bought was something that no one else would have.