I just dyed and went to heaven!

First of all, I want to thank everyone here and on the Dye Happy list who offered their sympathy and advice for the dye job. I especially want to give a HUGE shout out and thanks to Heather for her detailed advice she left in the comments. Now, I don't know Heather, and I didn't search her blog before taking her advice, so I had no idea of her credentials (note the "had". I've since taken a tour of her blog, and I must insist that you go look, too. She not only knits, spins, sews, and dyes, she designs her own knitwear. Really cool!). But, I took her advice on blind faith and applied it to my dyeing situation.

"Why?" you ask? Why would I risk the hours and hours I spent on Crappy Cardi to possibly ruin it based on the advice of a stranger? Simple: Because Heather wrote her long, detailed comment to me while a child sat on her lap. Anything worth typing with a child on your lap is DEFINITELY worth listening to. Thanks Heather!

So, I did some preliminary, if unscientific, dyeing of the extra Lamb's Pride in Cornflower and in Blueberry to see which shade I liked. Surprisingly, the Blueberry came out lighter than the Cornflower. And because I also have an extra jar of Blueberry, it seems like it was fate. And who am I to mess with fate in a situation like this?

So, I boiled some water and dissolved 3/4 of the jar of dye into it before placing it in my water for the dyebath. I gave this a really good stirring to (hopefully)dissolve all dye powder. Now, the directions say to bring this to a boil, and then add the wool. However, I followed Heather's advice and added a glug of vinegar (I know you said a TBSP per gallon, but I don't follow directions very weel) and then added the wool while the water was cool. I heated it up, stirring every 5 minutes. Once it reached boiling, I let it boil about 10 minutes, then turned off the heat, put on the lid, and then walked away.

When the dye exhausted, I dumped out the water, rinsed it, and got this:

Now, I was not heartbroken about this, because I kind of almost expected it. Heather had cautioned to use "enough" dye. The instructions on the jar of dye said to use a whole jar for 2 pounds of fiber. My sweater weighs about 24 oz. so I figured that 3/4 of a jar was "enough". Apparently not.

So, knowing this was going to come out a lot darker than I had planned for, I dumped my other entire jar of Blueberry dye into the dyepot and tried again (just like Heather said I might have to do).

And since Blogger is giving me serious problems with posting pictures, you're going to have to see the next entry for the final Crappy Cardi pic....