198 Yards of Heaven

Continuing my evolution as a knitter- more lace knitting!  I think this is all I have in me for now though, LOL.  I found a free pattern on ravelry called 198 Yards of Heaven.  Its a small project, a shawlette, so as to not lose interest and have yet another unfinished project.  Plus, the likelihood of me wearing a full shawl is not very good.  A shawlette makes a nice scarf.

 

 

Gradient dyed yarn

I was at a wool gathering and spied a booth with lots of cakes of gradient dyed yarn- one continuous ball of yarn that went from dark to light.  I didn't buy any but I had to figure that whole thing out.  I watched a bunch of youtube videos and plotted my course using my own hand spun yarn.  I had success with Zuzu's Petals shawlette using Optic Fibers version of gradient dyed yarn pack so I planned on using that pattern for my own yarn.
First I wound a ball of yarn, NOT a cake as I had seen at the wool gathering because I did not want variegated yarn.  I assume the cakes were just the final presentation for more eye appeal and not how they were actually dyed.
Here is my ball of yarn sitting in a crock pot of dye.  I soaked this ball overnight in water which was probably too long since the color nearly permeated the entire ball.  Less soak time in the future.

 

 

Un wound yarn for better drying.

 



 



Now in the form of a cake.

 

I am happy to say this first try at gradient dyed yarn was mostly a success.  I wanted more white but that really wasn't a problem in the end since I just started the shawlette with other white spun English Angora.

Now for the final project.  I hope you like it!