Color Inspiration

There are so many places to find inspiration for colorways when hand dyeing yarn - a favorite painting, a flower bed, even an emotion.  It can be fun and challenging to try to recreate a color palette literally, or one can simply use the inspiration as a jumping off point.

Here's an example of trying to create a literal interpretation of something from the natural world.

The challenge was to try to replicate the colors in a parrot feather (at least I believe it's from a parrot - if you know otherwise, please let me know!)

I had some hand spun (not by me) wool and some wool roving to work with.  Each was hand painted with Lanaset dyes and steamed to set the color.

The result is pretty close to the real thing, I think.

Sometimes my inspiration comes from pop culture or, more accurately, geek culture.

Anyone who knows me knows that I may just be a bit obsessed with Doctor Who.  The next two yarns pictured were inspired by that wonderful madman with a blue box.  My photos don't really do justice to this one:

All of Time and Space

It's a tonal blue, which I kettle dyed in five successive dye baths.  The blues vary from a pale sky to deep midnight.

The base yarn is Knit Picks Bare superwash fingering.  It's a nice, bouncy blend of 75% merino wool and 25% nylon.

The swatch pictured on the right was knit on US size 2 (2.75 mm) needles.

Here's another Who-themed colorway, inspired by Amy and Rory and their time on the TARDIS.  I love how the browns echo the tweed jacket worn by the Doctor during series 5 and 6.  

Come Along Ponds

Joss Whedon's Firefly was the inspiration for the next three yarns.  The first takes its name from the ship's mechanic, Kaylee.  Although she is perfectly happy to crawl around in the belly of the ship, wrench in hand and smudged with grease, she's a girly girl who likes frills and lace.

Kaylee

This was low immersion dyed.  The yarn was soaked in water with a bit of white vinegar and then put in a pot with just enough water to barely cover it.  The dye solutions were then poured over the yarn and the whole thing was heated to set the color.

I did a variation on this colorway, using the same colors and method, but doubling the intensity of the dye solution to get more saturation.  Not sure which one I like better.

  

Shiny

Lastly, here is another Firefly colorway.  "Captain Tightpants" is named in honor of Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the Serenity.  This was kettle dyed using Bare superwash fingering.  I'll have to check my notes, but I believe this was run through seven dye baths.

Captain Tightpants

Captain Tightpants reskeined