Orchids, a Rose and a Kiwi.

It has been VERY hot over here , especially Thursday and Friday. If you moved as much as a toe you would start sweating , yak ! That's the downside of living in a country like mine, the high humidity when it's hot. Friday evening we had a huge thunderstorm and that ended the heat.
When it's that hot and icky I don't like to knit. Sweaty hands and a warm shawl in your lap are not such a good combination.
However Saturday was a rainy day and I really wanted to make a start with the pattern that Anne from http://knitspot.com/ released last week, the Orchid lace scarf. I just HAVE to make this ! With a greenhouse full of Orchids this one is just made for me !
Don't worry, I haven't abandoned the Morning Glory. The first half is ready and I already made a start with the second.





I had just the right color yarn for it, a perfect match with this Orchid.
If I had to make one for every color we have in the greenhouse I would end up knitting an endless heap of scarfs I'm afraid. There are so many colorvariations !

Because of the heat I decided to do some dyeing instead.
Yeah, that's right, I wanted to copy Judy , hahaha !
Well no way I can achieve something like those lovely yarns !
Just take a look at what she made , georgeous aren't they ? http://smatterings.typepad.com/
No I did it my way, the messy way. I ordered some Kool-Aid a while ago to dye some yarns from which the colors were not like I had imagined them when I bought them. They were stuffed in the back of the closet and since the weather was great do dry them I thought I would give it a go. If I would mess up no harm would be done. I didn't like them as they were anyway.

First in line was this, it's a cashmere lace yarn which was originally was a very pale, dull pink. No color at all in fact. This is how it turned out.





The variegated look wasn't on purpose, I just didn't add enough dye to the water !
I had read a tutorial on Knitty how to dye with Kool Aid and it said you had to add a package per 1 oz. But if you wanted a lighter color you could use less of it, so I did. I used only 4 instead of the 5 needed because the water seemed so VERY PINK ! Instead of making a totally different color I just wanted a brighter one. Well, it is brighter but for a first time I was happy with it.







Then I had this brightly colored orange yarn, which was supposed to be a Cognac. I couldn't think of any other color than to turn it into a red. More packages were added ( I learned my lesson) and it became a bright red yarn ! The only thing that happened with it that afterwards the yarn was tangled in itself, so when I wound it up it broke several times. Now I have four little balls instead of 1 big ball. But hey, I can still use it !








A while ago I had ordered some cashmere yarn, I believed it to be a green. It was more a neon yellow than green when it arrived, and I just don't like anything in that color !
I added some blue dye to it, but it became a VERY bright green. I didn't like it at all, so what to do. I only had a few colors of the Kool Aid to play with and I had to tone it down somehow. I added some Grape to it very carefully untill it was about a color I could live with. Since this was a variegated yarn already some parts turned brown. It reminded me of a kiwi when I started winding it. The brown doesn't show in the picture but in real it does.
I liked the dyeing part, but I just messed around, not exactly knowing what I was doing. I guess I need a lot more lessons before I can make something that vaguely resembles Judy's yarns.