Laura
H
The pattern is my own, which will eventually
be written up and published - hopefully with several
choices for sizing, which is my main problem with
the original ;-)
This shawl took approx. 1000 yards of Alpaca
With A Twist's laceweight yarn, "Fino" (it's certainly
more than one skein but unfortunately I don't know
exactly how much of the 2nd skein was used).
It's knit outwards from the nape of the neck
to the outside edge; no border or separate edging.
Dyeing
is accomplished in the simplest way possible: Jaquard
acid dye purchased from KnitPicks.com, and a crock
pot. What I do is soak the shawl first in a
basin (or spare 2-gallon pitcher... ;-)), and while
it's getting nice and wet, I fill the crock pot about
halfway with hot water from the tap, and turn it on
to High. I boil a tea kettle full of water and
add it to the crock pot - that's faster than waiting
for it to get to 170*F on its own! I added
a pretty decent amount of dye since I wanted to be
sure to get rid of the original colorway completely,
a splash of white vinegar and a tsp of non-iodized
salt (to help color intake and distribution, respectively).
Stir, add shawl, stir again gently to eliminate any
potential air pockets, cover with lid. Came
back an hour or so later, and voila - all the dye
was exhausted and the shawl was now blue :-)
I rinse it gently with cool water as many times
as it takes for the color to stop bleeding, then block
as usual.
(It goes without saying that once you've put
acid dye in a crock pot, it can't be used for food
again.)
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