Making Stuff, Week 11: In Search of Sage Green

The dye experiments continued this week as I search for that ever-elusive sage green. I think at this point I’ve tried every rational combination of Jacquard Acid Dyes that I think might produce it, including a couple of new ones this week: Emerald with Gun Metal, and Emerald with Silver Grey.

More dye experiments. On the left is Emerald/Silver Gray, on the right is Emerald/Gun Metal.

I did a 2:1 ratio on the Emerald and Gun Metal combo, which is on the left. It came out slightly bluer, but not that much different than if I’d just used straight Emerald. For the one on the left I decided to invert the ratio: I did a 2:1 ration of Silver Gray with Emerald. Surely this would do the trick, I thought. Nope — looks like a pale version of Emerald.

But all is not lost as I decided that if I can’t dye my way to sage green then I can blend my way to sage green. I already knew that ultimately, for the yarn I’m seeking to make, I wanted an alpaca/Merino/silk blend, with the majority being alpaca. I had undyed white Merino/silk, my green Merino from the above dye experiments, and some of Silverton’s fiber already carded into batts. Time to blend.

The resulting batts. I'm calling this batt and the resulting yarn Silverton Sage.

Success!

This is a really interesting project. Dyeing yarn and fiber for color versus blending for color produce radically different results — the first is akin to mixing a single paint, and the second is more like pointillism. Both can produce variations and depth of color, but each is unique in the process and the result. Because I already have a pattern picked out for the yarn that will come from this I need to consider how the color blending will affect, and be affected by, the resulting stitch pattern. “Duet” is a thick but open and lacy stitch pattern, and intricate enough that too much color variation and depth may end up competing optically with the pattern, resulting in something too complex overall and without any focus. Not enough color depth, in my opinion, and the resulting yarn can look flat and boring.

So I chose to do two passes through the drum carder, one pass to combine the different fibers and another pass to blend them more fully. I chose to stop at two even though I probably could have gone at least one pass more. The reason I chose to stop is that I already know that I’m making a worsted weight 3-ply yarn, and I figured the gauge of the singles would be thin enough that blending any further would probably just weaken a color depth and variation that was already going to be pretty blended just in the spinning of thin singles alone. I went with what Debbie Menz describes as a painterly approach: not weighing out the fibers rigidly to produce specific ratios, but eyeballing them as you go. Surprisingly, I got three consistently-colored batts out of that method.

And I’m super happy with the results so far — I spun two of the three batts I made last night and love the color of the singles. The silk adds a gorgeous sheen to the singles and even as singles the yarn so far is really soft. I need 200 yards to make “Duet” and just eyeballing it, I think I’m going to need to make at least three more batts, which works out to two roughly 1.3 ounce batts per bobbin. I may be overestimating, but I’d rather overestimate than under, although that’s not really a problem since I have more than enough of the raw materials. I hope I can be as good reproducing the next batch of batts as I was in creating the first set of three.

And finally, I mentioned last week that I spun and plied “Alpacas in the Mist”, resulting in 236 yards (wow!) of super soft woodland-y, jungl-y alpaca/Merino 2-ply yarn. It’s soft and squishy and really nice.

'Alpacas in the Mist' yarn. 236 yards, 2-ply.

I decided to put this one in the Etsy shop as I don’t have a project in mind for it right away and thought I’d see if it struck anyone else’s fancy. And if it doesn’t get snapped up I may have to come up with a project myself for it just to take advantage of that beautiful yardage and squishiness. Hell, maybe I’ll make a second “Duet”.

And that’s it for this week’s edition. Don’t forget to stop by WonderWhyGal’s Fiber Arts Friday blog to see what lots of other fiber artists are creating. You won’t be disappointed!