So I have this cream aran wool...

Zyle · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:23 pm

...and I want it to become a purple cardi! It's in 400g balls - can I knit it up first and then dye it, or is that a really stupid idea?

phantomknitter · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:06 pm

You have to consider certain things: during dyeing, things can go wrong. Not just the colour coming out wrong, but shrinkage, felting, blothcing, etc, so you are taking a risk by investing the knitting time first. I'm not saying you must never dye finished garments (because I certainly do shopbought ones), but I'd say now while you still have the choice, go for dyeing the yarn first to protect against heartache later.

pinkshoes · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:36 pm

Ha!! This is soooo funny. When I saw the title, I thought - oh I have cream aran too and was wondering if I could dye it :lol:

I laughed when I saw it was you Zyle. The cream aran I have is the other six 400g balls bought to do "our" Aran Afghan!

Phantom, your advice (as always) seems sound to me. Zyle - I vote I donate one of the squares to this dyeing-in-the-knit experiment. I'll donate the other half square (yes this Afghan only reached square 1.5) to unravelling and pre-knitting dyeing. What do you think?

Zyle · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:27 pm

Hey I did 11 rows too! :lol:

They were the hardest 11 rows I ever knitted! Darned book, they made it far too hard to follow which chart went where on what row. Aaaanyway!

I thought that would be the answer, Phantom, though I kind of hoped it wouldn't be

I was going to do a swatch to see how the dye takes anyway - the half square is a good idea if you can stand it becoming purple! Making it into skeins is not the most delightful prospect after the recent grey sweater froggage but it's probably going to be the best plan.

Sooo next question, what's the easiest, newbie friendly way to dye something? All this talk of fixing with acid baths and microwaves scares me a bit. :oops:

pinkshoes · **Posted:** Thu Jan 07, 2010 3:55 pm

Hmmm - wasting our time on this one methinks. We have 2800gms of 80% acrylic/20% wool on our hands. We will have to think again I fear. There's no way I want a traditional looking Aran garment, nor does Dad (think Clancy Brothers :lol:

). We should cast around for ideas. What was I thinking :roll:

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So I have this cream aran wool...

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